The next Geek Dinner on Wednesday, March 21st, will feature a presentation by Tom Hoffman, who’s been at the center of Providence Geeks since its inception. Tom also gets points for having the best title of any presentation yet:

SchoolTool: Managing an International, Philanthropically Funded Open Source Project from a  Victorian in Elmwood

How did a former Providence school teacher end up working for a South African entrepreneur/philanthropist/cosmonaut, managing programmers in Lithuania and users in Nepal?  SchoolTool is a project to create free
administrative software for schools around the world, written in
Python and Zope 3, funded by Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth.  We’ll
take a look at the software itself as well as the unique advantages and
challenges of free software philanthropy.

Details and RSVP here.

Wow. Major congratulations to Providence native Angus Davis for successfully selling Tellme to Microsoft! Alright, Angus, you did it – no more excuses now for missing Geek Dinners.  ;-)

Mass High Tech has the details.

What is it with robots in Rhode Island this spring? Check it:

• BIF, STAC, Tech Collective, and NEIT have partnered with uber-inventor Dean Kamen’s FIRST to make Rhode Island the first state with a statewide robotics challenge-The Vex Challenge Tournament. On Saturday, March 31^st, over thirty high school robotics teams from across the state will bring small robots they have designed and built to the New England Institute of Technology in Warwick to compete head-to-head and see who will represent the state next month at the national FIRST VEX tournament in Atlanta. Adult volunteers are needed to serve as judges and referees to make this day a success—that’s us, Geeks! More details here.
• Having won the state’s first LEGO League robotics competition in January, the Engineers of Tomorrow, a team of 10-13 year-old Rhode Islanders who design, build and program LEGO robots, will proceed to the FIRST World Festival in Atlanta, April 11-15, 2007.
• The Old Fashion Robotic Store, a “shop focused on computer controlled robotics for hobbyists,” has recently opened on Cedar Street in Providence. Some of you no doubt met shop owner and new Providence Geek James Tabele at the last Geek Dinner.

Wow, have to post these more often. The latest from the Providence Geeks ad-hoc job board:

• Embolden Design seeks a Web Developer
• Location Inc. seeks a Senior Web Developer
• Bay Computer seeks an Engineer EE and/or CS
• Plexus Corporation seeks a Web Application Developer
• InsureMyTrip.com seeks a Graphics/Web UI Designer
• Providence Plan seeks a Network Admin/Analyst
• A Providence advertising agency seeks a Web Developer
• CODAC Behavioral Care seeks a Computer Technician/Generalist
• Noosphere Networks seeks a Senior Web Developer

And remember you can always post jobs for free as long as they are are 1.) local and 2.) geeky. Just register here.

Pay-per-click advertising as enabled by services like Google’s AdWords has been credited with much of the recent resurgence in the Internet industry. Providence Geeks Soren Ryherd and Vida Jakabhazy lead Working Planet Marketing Group, a Providence-based industry front-runner in providing a truly quantitative approach to optimize pay-per-click advertising.

At the February 28th Geek Dinner, Soren will be talking about how Working Planet uses custom statistical modeling to remove risk and insure profitability for industry-leading clients like Iron Mountain and Webmail.us. Working Planet will also be giving details on “Project Kirkland�, their 2007 development initiative.

Bonus Link: The Providence Business News recently did a profile on Working Planet(note that contrary to the caption, the article’s photo is not of Soren and Vida. It’s been updated.)

Photo Credit: Bret A. Ancowitz, M.D. of Garris Photography

Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 5:30pm – 9pm+
AS220
115 Empire Street, Providence, RI

The February Geek Dinner will feature a presentation by local pay-per-click marketing experts Working Planet. They’ve got their fingers on the pulse of the advertising engines that are fueling much of the Internet’s industry’s recent resurgence. Stay tuned for details in a follow-on post.

Please RSVP in the comments section of this post so that we can give the good folks at AS220 an estimated headcount. And while you’re at it, subscribe to Providence Geeks’ RSS feed (see sidebar) and/or join our very-low-volume email announcement list (for the announcement list, send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin over at Gmail with your name and affiliation).

As always, for first-timers here are the details on the Geek Dinners:

• It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and vamoose whenever… And don’t worry about eating or not – come famished or full – eating is optional, and frankly, the least of the festivities (that’s not say the food isn’t good—it’s actually great).


• Topics of conversation will vary as they will at any gathering of geeks, but many of us will be talking about AJAX, mash-ups, start-ups, new devices, innovative business models, interaction design, social computing, digital art, web services, etc. etc. etc.


• Food and beverages are for sale at the adjoining Taqueria Pacifica and bar.


• There is WiFi so bring your connected device of choice.

]]> http://www.providencegeeks.com/2007/02/19/february-providence-geek-dinner-coming-wed-the-28th-at-as220-and-featuring-working-planet/feed/ 40 http://www.providencegeeks.com/2007/02/14/n-gen-and-aiga-ri-to-co-host-not-your-day-job-event-221-at-athenaeum/ http://www.providencegeeks.com/2007/02/14/n-gen-and-aiga-ri-to-co-host-not-your-day-job-event-221-at-athenaeum/#comments Wed, 14 Feb 2007 18:22:28 +0000 Jack Templin http://www.providencegeeks.org/2007/02/14/n-gen-and-aiga-ri-to-co-host-not-your-day-job-event-221-at-athenaeum/ On Wednesday, February 21 at 6pm, the Business Innovation Factory’s N-Gen and AIGA Rhode Island will be co-hosting “Not Your Day Job” at the awesome Providence Athenaeum. This sounds like a seriously fun event. Find out more and RSVP here.

Note: There are still a couple of storyteller slots open, so if any of you Geeks are interested in sharing a tale, drop Melissa Whithers a line.

]]> http://www.providencegeeks.com/2007/02/14/n-gen-and-aiga-ri-to-co-host-not-your-day-job-event-221-at-athenaeum/feed/ 0 http://www.providencegeeks.com/2007/02/10/pbn-steps-up-local-geek-coverage/ http://www.providencegeeks.com/2007/02/10/pbn-steps-up-local-geek-coverage/#comments Sat, 10 Feb 2007 18:37:19 +0000 Jack Templin http://www.providencegeeks.org/2007/02/10/pbn-steps-up-local-geek-coverage/ With the recent full-time addition of writer David Ortiz, The Providence Business News has significantly stepped up its coverage of the local geek scene. Articles include:



• A profile of Providence Geeks regulars Tizra: Startup sees big market for PDF Tools


• An update (including a photo of BIF UX Lab Director and Providence Geek Allan Tear) on Rhode Islands’ pioneering border-to-border wireless project: Financing is the next step for RI-WINs


• An excellent interview with my Providence Geeks co-founder Brian Jepson: Drawing on geek power to transform the Ocean State


]]> http://www.providencegeeks.com/2007/02/10/pbn-steps-up-local-geek-coverage/feed/ 1 http://www.providencegeeks.com/2007/01/21/fresh-batch-of-local-geek-jobs/ http://www.providencegeeks.com/2007/01/21/fresh-batch-of-local-geek-jobs/#comments Mon, 22 Jan 2007 04:44:16 +0000 Jack Templin http://www.providencegeeks.org/2007/01/21/fresh-batch-of-local-geek-jobs/

They keep coming:

• Upswing seeks a .Net Web Developer with Java/C# experience
• Location Inc. seeks a Lead Front End Web Developer
• Creative Circle Advertising Solutions seeks a PHP Programmer

And remember you can always post jobs for free as long as they are are 1.) local and 2.) geeky. Just register here.

]]> http://www.providencegeeks.com/2007/01/21/fresh-batch-of-local-geek-jobs/feed/ 0 http://www.providencegeeks.com/2007/01/18/first-geek-dinner-of-2007%e2%80%93wed-jan-24th-at-as220%e2%80%93featuring-investment-instruments/ http://www.providencegeeks.com/2007/01/18/first-geek-dinner-of-2007%e2%80%93wed-jan-24th-at-as220%e2%80%93featuring-investment-instruments/#comments Thu, 18 Jan 2007 12:44:22 +0000 Jack Templin http://www.providencegeeks.org/2007/01/18/first-geek-dinner-of-2007%e2%80%93wed-jan-24th-at-as220%e2%80%93featuring-investment-instruments/
Photo Credit: Bret A. Ancowitz, M.D. of Garris Photography

Wednesday, January 24, 2007, 5:30pm – 9pm+
AS220
115 Empire Street, Providence, RI

Next week we’ll be kicking off the new year with our first geek dinner of 2007.Providence Geek and Investment Instruments president Owen Johnson will be presenting his company’s web-based property management tools, iiProperty and Rentometer. I, for one, have been really looking forward to this one. Stay tuned for details in a follow-on post.

Please RSVP in the comments section of this post so that we can give the good folks at AS220 an estimated headcount. And while you’re at it, subscribe to Providence Geeks’ feed (see sidebar) and/or join our very-low-volume email announcement list (for the announcement list, send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin over at Gmail with your name and affiliation).

As always, for first-timers here are the details on the Geek Dinners:




• It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and vamoose whenever… And don’t worry about eating or not – come famished or full – eating is optional, and frankly, the least of the festivities.


• Topics of conversation will vary as they will at any gathering of geeks, but many of us will be talking about AJAX, mash-ups, start-ups, new devices, innovative business models, interaction design, social computing, digital art, web services, etc. etc. etc.


• Food and beverages are for sale at the adjoining Taqueria Pacifica and bar.


• There is WiFi so bring your connected device of choice.


]]> http://www.providencegeeks.com/2007/01/18/first-geek-dinner-of-2007%e2%80%93wed-jan-24th-at-as220%e2%80%93featuring-investment-instruments/feed/ 38