the flying squirrel

I went to the first Ignite Waterloo event last night. Ignite events have been around for a while, but this was the first time we had one in Waterloo. And it was amazing. The premise is you get smart, talented speakers and give them 5 minutes each. They have to prepare 20 slides and they automatically change after 15 seconds.

For the speaker, it’s both a great challenge and a lot of fun (or possibly terrifying, but they seemed to be having fun). For the audience, it’s illuminating and never dull. Speakers covered a whole range of diverse topics, from solving Rubic’s Cubes to dealing with economic development in Africa.

Oh, and there was a cupcake decorating contest, too.

What I found amazing is how many people I recognized there from all sorts of different things. Kwartzlab, of course, Communitech P2Ps, Devhouse Waterloo, BarCamp, DemoCamp, etc., the Royal Medieval Faire, work, online… Normally those lines don’t cross very much. It’s really gratifying to see some of these groups come together.

A whole bunch of other bloggers have already posted their rave reviews of the event. Here’s just a few:

• Fellow Kwartzlabber, DW (You might recognize one of the photos).
• The Ignite Waterloo blog
• rQ (with a follow-up about cupcakes)
• b.p.'s awesome sketchy notes
• wendyhoo
• cutegecko
• a bunch of photos
• And, of course, the twitter stream.

I hear a rumour there will be another one in the spring. In the meantime, the amazingness of Ignite gives me great hope for TEDxWaterloo in February.

So me and some folks at kwartzlab (as well as the KW Linux Users Group) are getting together on Thursday to celebrate the release of Ubuntu 9.10, the Karmic Koala.

Details at the Kwartzlab site if you’re interested in attending.

I run Ubuntu at home on all my computers now. Well… nearly all. It’s come along way in the last few years, to the point where it’s making me feel at home and content in an operating system again. I’m also feeling like I want to contribute to the community. So the party seems like a nice way to do that a bit. Plus, I kinda want to see who’s around here, maybe build a local community where we can participate.

I’m a member of Kwartzlab, and I think they’re an awesome group of people. This is one of the things I’m hoping to do to get more involved in the lab. Another is showing up on Tuesday Open Nights and just working on projects. That’s what Tuesday Open Nights are for, after all.

And maybe I can bring it all together and hack on some Ubuntu-related projects in the 'Lab…

Kwartzlab is a club, a collective, a shared idea, and a place. The idea sprang up when Mike Hiemstra put out the call on his blog back in March. Since then, folks got together, had lots and lots of meetings, incorporated, leased some space and have been spending the last few weeks turning a little bit of the old Boehmer Box Factory into a place where people can go, commune with like-minded folks and make stuff.

Tonight’s the Grand Opening.

I’ve been sort-of involved since the beginning. I’m a member, 'cuz I really want this thing to take off. Just being around these folks is really inspiring, and I’m hoping I can contribute something to the group.

Come check out the space tonight. They’ve put a lot of work into it and it’s night and day from the way they found it. See some cool projects, and chat with some great people. It’ll be a lot of fun.