POSSCON 2010 Workshops
We wanted to make sure everyone that has attended a Refresh Columbia meeting is aware of POSSCON 2010. This is a local conference with a great speaker lineup this year. One of the more interesting parts of POSSCON this year are the workshops. This will be on Saturday, April 17 and feature some subject matter that should prove to be pretty useful to us Refreshers like; WordPress, Drupal, GoogleDocs, Git/GitHub, Linux, Rails 3.0, Moodle, etc. I believe the lineup appeals to both the “more” and “less” technical among us :)
There is a flyer for this and here are some special details if you think you’d like to take them up on this:
- Must register by 11:59 p.m. this Friday, April 9 to qualify for the Apple iPad to be given away.
- After April 9 the cost to register increases.
- If anyone simply can’t pay the $39, Contact Todd Lewis at 803-240-1213 to register. They’ve set aside a fund pool to pay for anyone that can’t get the cost approved or can’t pay it out-of-pocket. They just don’t want anyone not attending because of money.
- They’ll feed you! All attendees will receive a morning break, lunch, and an afternoon break.
You can register here.
Web Development Quickstart With Rails – Wednesday, April 14th
Along with POSSCON comes POSSDEV which is a day of development talks from some of the open source community’s biggest names. There is an opportunity for a more technical and comprehensive training session on Rails as part of all this. POSSDEV has added a Rails Jumpstart class on Wednesday, April 14th. This course is offered as a complete kickstart into the Rails ecosystem. Within the first few minutes you will have a database driven web application, and shortly after, your site will be running in a live production environment.
Then, they’ll step back and look at the foundation for Rails, the pragmatic language, Ruby.
Advanced topics include Rails 3, testing, and alternative markup languages, haml and sass.
Find a course outline here and register here.
March 2010 Meetup
This month we’re going to try something a little bit different. We’ll be teaming up for a combined meeting with the Columbia Adobe User Group to celebrate Photoshop’s 20th birthday. What does that mean for you? A slightly longer meeting format, party favors and of course, cake!
Be sure to bring your favorite Photoshop memory, and dig up the oldest and wackiest PSD you can find. We’ll share your creations with the group, and popular vote will decide the winner of some cool Adobe swag!
The Lineup:
The History of Photoshop
Greg Lunn (@greglunn)
For 20 years, the world has used Adobe Photoshop software to transform creative inspiration into nearly everything we see in print, online, and across media. Greg will share a look at where the program has been & provide a special peek at where it’s going in the future
Photoshop Tips & Tricks
Chris Harrison (@cdharrison)
Chris will be coming all the way up from Augusta to share his expertise with a talk about “Ten Things You Didn’t Know Photoshop Could Do”
Tinkering with Physical Computing
Or…Screwing Around with Random Pieces of Tech
Bryce Bigger (@thebiggerdesign)
Bryce will be busting out some ridiculous equipment and rigging up a DIY demonstration to bring you a basic overview of physical computing using Arduino boards & 3D fabrication. If you’ve ever read Make Magazine, it’ll be kinda like that…on steroids. You won’t want to miss it.
Featured Book:
Thanks to the user group partnerships advertised in the sidebar, we’ll be giving away a free book each month. This month we’ll be giving away a copy of Fluid Web Typography by Jason Cranford Teague. Not just any copy though, this one was signed by the author last week at the SXSW Interactive conference. We’ll choose a random attendee from the sign-in sheet, so be sure to show up and sign-in for a chance to win.
When: March 31st, 2010 at 6pm
Where: USC Swearingen Faculty Lounge – 301 Main Street (map)
Topic: Photoshop & Physical Computing
RSVP: On Facebook
February 2010 Meetup
The end of February is fast approaching which means it’s almost time for the next Refresh Columbia meetup. This month we’re bringing back lighting talks with 5 speakers presenting for 15 minutes each on a wide variety of web-centric topics:
The Lineup:
Every Designer’s Nightmare: Fear of the Blank Page
Jennifer McSwain (@jenmac24)
Jennifer will talk about finding inspiration to keep your work fresh, innovative and satisfying.
Sign Up Form Design
Gene Crawford (@genecrawford)
Gene will cover some basics behind the sign up form: psychology, patterns & design review.
What the @font-face
Jay Barry (@petridisc)
Jay gives us practical steps for using @font-face today.
YQL: Query the Web
Justin Shearer (@justinsane98)
Justin will give us a quick walk through of how to grab RSS feeds and other types of data for display on your site without using any server-side code.
The Care and Feeding of a Developer
Jason Johnson (@jason_johnson)
Jason will show us how to keep your developers challenged, focused and happy.
Featured Book:
Thanks to the user group partnerships advertised in the sidebar, we’ll be giving away a free book each month. This month we’ll be giving away a copy of Microformats Made Simple by Emily Lewis. We’ll choose a random attendee from the sign-in sheet, so be sure to show up and sign-in for a chance to win.
When: February 24th, 2010 at 6pm
Where: USC Swearingen Faculty Lounge – 301 Main Street (map)
Topic: Lightning Talks!
RSVP: On Facebook
January 2010 Meetup
Well here we are in 2010. No teleportation devices or flying cars yet, but there’s a lot of new stuff going on in the world of web design. Advances in HTML5, CSS3 and @font-face are quickly making their way into browsers and therefore into our work flow. We look forward to covering some of these developments in the coming months, but none of those changes mean anything without design.
The Beautiful Web
Jason Beaird (@jasongraphix)
The key to designing beautiful, effective websites is learning to think like a designer. In this talk, Jason will explain how principles and theory can only take our designs so far. We’ll look at landmark designs from both on and off the web, digging up inspiration and discovering the secrets to being better designers.
New Location:
We’ll be trying out a new venue for this month’s meeting: The Faculty Lounge at USC’s Swearingen Engineering Center which is located at 301 Main Street in Columbia. Unlike the directions to most rooms in Swearingen, these are quite simple. If you come in through the glass doors on the Main Street side of the building, the Faculty Lounge will be the first door on your right.
Featured Book:
Thanks to the user group partnerships advertised in the sidebar, we’ll be giving away a free book each month. This month we’ll be giving away a copy of Designing Web Interfaces by Bill Scott & Theresa Neil. We’ll choose a random attendee from the sign-in sheet between the first and second talk (Only 1 talk this month, thanks for catching this Levi) Be sure to show up for a chance to win.
When: January 27th, 2009 at 6pm
Where: USC Swearingen Faculty Lounge – 301 Main Street (map)
Topic: The Beautiful Web
RSVP: On Facebook
Columbia Code Camp
The Columbia Enterprise Developers Group is hosting Columbia’s first MSDN Code Camp on January 30th, 2010. MSDN Code Camps are community events where developers and enthusiasts come to learn from and network with their peers. The Columbia Code Camp will feature many speakers including Microsoft MVPs, book authors, and local talent. Visit http://columbiacodecamp.com for more information.
When: January 30th, 2010
Where: USC Swearingen Bldg – 301 Main Street, Columbia, SC (map)
Cost: Free!
