Tom Hoffman spoke about SchoolTool to an enthusiastic crowd at last night’s geek dinner. In a twist, he gave the audience a choice of topics, and spoke about everything from Zope 3 to the Providence Grays. Check out the video clip above for a three-minute interview with Tom.

Big thanks to Tom and to all the geeks who turned out to make this a successful event!

Last night’s geek dinner had one of our biggest turnouts; at one point, I counted 60 people in the room! This standing-room only crowd got to hear from pay-per-click experts Working Planet. I learned a few things about online ad campaigns that I had no idea about. Check out the video clip above for a three-minute interview with Soren Ryherd of Working Planet.

Big thanks to Soren and Vida from Working Planet, and to all the geeks who turned out to make this a successful event!

At the last Geek Dinner, we bid farewell to Providence Geek and e-government advocate/expert extraordinaire Jim Willis.

The Providence Business News’ David Ortiz has written an excellent article highlighting Jim’s tenor at the helm of RI Secretary of State’s e-goverment services initiative. Here’s an excerpt:

[Willis], who was recruited by Brown in 2003 as director of e-government services, transformed the inner workings of the office’s Web site – www.state.ri.us – from the standard proprietary software to open-source code. The results have won national recognition while also making official information more accessible to the state’s citizens – exactly what Willis had in mind when he made the switch. “If you want a transparent government,� he said, “well, let’s run it on transparent software.�

The print-version of the article includes a photo of Jim along with fellow Secretary of State IT staffer and Providence Geek Christopher Fowler.