fiveclouds » charlotte

Charlotte 2.0.2 Podcast

Philip — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:04:53 +0000

The podcasts continued last month, thanks for everyone for being involved and looking forward to the next one.

You can get all the details from CLTBlog.

If you want to come down to meet the people also we’ll be getting an invite out. Hopefully see you there.

Charlotte 2.0.1 Podcast

Philip — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:13:02 +0000

The past few months have been incredibly busy, a large part of that was finishing off work for 2009 and starting to prepare things for 2010. After spending a year floating around doing a few side projects here and there I really wanted to start 2010 in the right way.

Since coming to Charlotte several years ago I have tried several paths to connecting with the tech scene in the city, restarting the Charlotte Java User Group and then helping organize two Barcamps. I’m met up with some great people in the city – but I still have felt like I haven’t really met the start-up elements, those individuals who are driven to creating new technology companies and working in environments which foster innovation.

After the last Barcamp I was chatting with some of the guys from CLTBlog and Area15 and we started talking about doing a set of podcasts to explore that side of Charlotte and hopefully bring more of these activities to the surface. After that there was the usual lull of getting back to daily work and filtering out enough time – then I decided to get together with Justin from CLTBlog and the Netphase guys and very quickly (within a few days) we had our first podcast at Area15. One of the big hits was meeting up with Josh from Charlotte 2.0 – he is a man on a mission to help bring more start-ups to Charlotte and I’m sure I’m going to be listening and helping him with it all I can.

Charlotte 2.0.1 from Justin Ruckman on Vimeo.

We are working to produce another podcast in mid January. Hopefully it will establish the conversation – something that needs to start if we are going to build some new tech start-ups here in Charlotte. It all makes me feel much more excited about 2010 – and I’m looking forward to sharing more about what I’m going to be doing too!

Charlotte JUG – Social Night

Philip — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:40:48 +0000

This month we are running late on getting the notice out! However, this months meeting will be a social event, basically a chance to meet up and talk among the group at our favorite watering hole (Dilworth Neighborhood Grill).

Check out the Charlotte JUG site for information and the link to the invitation.

A Remote Organizer

Philip — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:38:03 +0000

After spending Friday at Area15 setting up and dropping things off for Charlotte’s first Barcamp I ended up standing with a beer in hand outside the building watching the sun going down over the city skyline – wondering how the big day would go, and knowing that due to Chicken Pox I would need to sit it out.

Well even though I can’t say I was there – everything I have seen and heard has told me that it was a great success. All the basics were covered, breakfast, tents, wifi connections and projectors – but in the end the event was only ever about one thing, the people that came and made it what it was – and they really did come out and create a great atmosphere.

We’ll be publishing out the final costs and I’m sure you’ll see more pictures, video streams etc over the following days. I personally want to thank Justin Ruckman for his constant support, the endless hours of design work from the website to the t-shirts, then setting up to lead the event and also Carlos Espin for his enthusiasm and connections which meant that we had both an extremely cool facility and great food! Also there is Brian Flaherty and Tyler Williams who both jumped feet first in to keep things running – and all the people that worked so hard on the day to keep the event humming.

Hopefully the end of Chicken Pox is just a day or two away now and I’ll be back at work – in the meantime I am able to reflect on the fact that Charlotte has a community that really wants to come together, now we just need to take the energy that has been started and work out where we want to take it.

Here are a few of my favorite pics from the day.

by Andy Ciordia

by James Willamor

by Mtyndall

by James Willamor

Barcamp coming to Charlotte, NC

Philip — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:25:58 +0000

Over the past couple of months I’ve been working with a few people down in Charlotte, NC to get the first Barcamp started. Everyone’s hard work is paying off and we are in the process of getting everything fixed up ready for the Jan 24th.

If you are in the area, or near enough to get here, it should be a great event and we are expecting a high turnout. We already have a confirmed sponsor and we are working locking in a couple more. Check out the new site, and register there to keep up to date with the event.

See in you Charlotte in January!

Charlotte JUG Drinks in December

Philip — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:15:55 +0000

I have been wrapped up in lots of stuff lately, including moving down to Ballantyne and starting work on a few new things.

Anyone in Charlotte should get down and meet up the Charlotte JUG for the December Drinks. Also I have been messed around far too much with themes – though hopefully that will settle down soon. And also we will have a big update on the BarCamp Charlotte.

Returning Home (kind of)

Philip — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:33:21 +0000

Well its been a busy month – and an emotional one. I decided that it was time for me to find a new vocation and with great sadness I left Exist to look for opportunities in the US. Having worked with Exist for over a year and a half it was a hard decision – and I know I’m going to miss a lot of the great people in the company – but with the constant travel and a desire to return home to my son more often, as well as an interest in getting back to my technical roots, I felt it was time.

It was a bit of a shock to the system to suddenly have my nights freed up back in Charlotte and I have been using them to catch up with old friends and also spending some time with my family. I am also taking the time to work out when I’m going to jump a plane back to the Philippines and actually take a proper vacation there!

In the past week I have been lucky enough to do a bit of traveling around NC (up to the mountains and around the local lakes) as well as back up to NY to get a few beers with people who are wondering if my weight loss is permanent (going to have to work on that one). I am currently just pulling together my plans for next month – and more about that on another blog post.

One thing I’m really looking forward to it a return to technology, architecture, culture and collaboration – these have been the areas that I have enjoyed most in my career and my time with DevZuz and ultimately Exist allowed me to be part of a lot of diverse and exciting projects. I look forward to bringing that energy home with me and seeing what we can do back in New York.

Back in the South for Christmas

Philip — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 20:48:40 +0000

Made it back to the South (Charlotte) for Christmas, and I have to admit I can’t wait for Christmas morning to come around. Been a really busy November and December with a lot of new stuff going on, more of which I can talk about in January I’m sure. In the meantime I have started working more with Web 2.0 and Social Networking technologies and I’ll be blogging more about those in the new year.

I was recently talking about open source and how some of the forces are changing in the space, 2007 was a year of change for that market and while the collaboration aspects continue to grow and technologies for development collaboration continue to mature – is it also a time to start looking at 2008 and some of the trends that we will see emerging. Having come from the Enterprise Software market I think that we’ll see some of the SOA hype start to fade and the disconnects between a Web 2.0 approach and the SOA architecture will probably become more pronounced (hopefully the vendor dependencies which have pushed people into a SOA frenzy will start to change). With all my time in Asia over the past year it is interesting to see that Open Source is now starting to grow there – some would say in a similar way to the US a few years ago, though I think that it will be a different adoption structure there – with many of the experiences and lessons already starting to be examined more closely.

As I settle in for Christmas in South – on a sunny Christmas Eve – I am going to start working on blog entries for the year so that it isn’t such a quiet year :)

Upcoming Charlotte JUG meeting

Philip — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 02:04:36 +0000

Tyler has been working away while I have been out traveling and has got the next speaker lined up for the Charlotte JUG! Good going ….If you are interesting sign-up at the evite :)