Photo Credit: Jim Rizzo

Join us for the last Geek Dinner till September – yes, we take August off. It’s going to be a good one!

Established in 2008, Little Compton-based ThinkBalm is an independent analyst firm dedicated to work-related use of the Immersive Internet — virtual worlds and campuses, immersive learning environments, and 3D business applications. ThinkBalm is breaking the mold in how they perform the work of an industry analyst. Rather than study a technology market from afar, they use the emerging technology themselves every day. And rather than gather information from occasional conversations with practitioners, they founded and operate the ThinkBalm Innovation Community, which has a mission of advancing adoption of immersive technology in the workplace. This community, which currently has about 280 members, has evolved into a mix between a social network, a collaborative laboratory, and a guild.

At the July Providence Geeks dinner, former Forrester Research Analyst and ThinkBalm co-founder and principal Erica Driver will give a live demo of the ThinkBalm Data Garden — a data visualization experience in Second Life, built around a recent ThinkBalm study about the business value of using immersive technology in the workplace.

Update: Erica just posted to the RI Nexus blog – ThinkBalm: Immersed in the Immersive Internet.

Update: Erica was recently interviewed by PBN – Five Questions With: Erica Driver.

Please RSVP at Facebook (In the interest of making it more “viral”, we’re experimenting with doing our RSVPs on Facebook – and while you’re there please join our Facebook group. And if you want to join our very-low-volume email announcement send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin at Gmail with your name and affiliation.)

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

• The event itself is FREE! Beverages and food are for sale at the adjoining bar and Taqueria Pacifica (delicious and cheap)


• It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and take off 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.


• There is Wi-Fi so bring your connected device of choice.

Shawn Wallace, Director of AS220 Labs, presented at the June geek dinner, and talked about AS220 Labs’ programs, open source hardware, and more. I caught up with him after the geek dinner to ask him a few questions. [Video link]

Rendering of Providence’s first shipping container-constructed building; The Box Office

We’ve got a special Geek Dinner in store for June. AS220 Labs – the new “tech arm” of our gracious host AS220 – will be showing off what they’ve wrought in their first year.

AS220 Labs is a teaching space, shared workspace and community junk pile for supporting open hardware and software projects. The Lab helps to build technically literate audiences and communities of artists by hosting workshops and providing access to tools and techniques such as those of the Providence Fab Lab (in partnership with MIT).

Fresh back from Maker Faire, where he garnered the Editor’s Choice Blue Ribbon for Drawbot, AS220 Labs Director Shawn Wallace will give an overview of the Lab’s unique programs (including the Make and Break series and June 12-14’s 3D Printing Summit) and fascinating projects (over a dozen including Fluxamabob). Shawn will also explain how community members (that’s you!) can get plugged in.

Please RSVP at Facebook (In the interest of making it more “viral”, this month we’re experimenting with doing our RSVPs on Facebook – and while you’re there please join our Facebook group. And if you want to join our very-low-volume email announcement send an email to Jack Templin, jtemplin over at Gmail with your name and affiliation.)

Update: Shawn has written a blog post on “folk technology” at RINexus.com.

Update: Shawn was recently interviewed by PBN – Five Questions With: Shawn Wallace

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

• The event itself is FREE! Beverages and food are for sale at the adjoining bar and Taqueria Pacifica (delicious and cheap)


• It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and take off 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.


• There is Wi-Fi so bring your connected device of choice.

At the May 2009 Geek Dinner, we learned all about Studio AMD and saw some great demos of their technology. After the geek dinner, I caught up with Principal Jon Kletzien and Creative Director Richard Gonci , for a quick chat. [Video link]

Photo Credit: Second Empire via GCPVD.org

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009, 5:30 – 8:30pm
The Black Repertory Theater (and no, that’s not the Black Rep in the photo :-)
276 Westminster Street, Providence, RI Map
FREE

We’re switching things up slightly for the May Dinner. We’re going to be at the excellent Black Repertory Theater in Downtown Providence (only a couple of blocks from AS220, to where we’ll be returning in June). Also, as the Black Rep doesn’t serve food, this month it’s going to be more a Geek Drinks than a Geek Dinner (there are a lot of great places with eats nearby though). As usual, we’ve got a fantastic presenter on tap:

Started over 16 years ago, by-then-RISD-students Jon Kletzien and Richard Dubrow, Downtown Providence-based Studio AMD has become the world’s most decorated architectural illustration firm (in 2008 alone, they garnered major awards from SIGGRAPH, ASAI and CINE). The studio works with many of today’s most influential architects including Daniel Libeskind, Michael Graves and Robert Stern. Using advanced digital tools, Studio AMD has extended its traditional 3D rendering services into film and communications as well.

At the next Geek Dinner, Principal Jon Kletzien and Creative Director Richard Gonci will give an overview of the studio and its work (including Libeskind’s Vilnius Guggenheim project which was just selected for inclusion in the 2009 SIGGRAPH Video Review). In addition, this presentation will also mark the first time, Studio AMD has publicly demoed its next-generation “e-book” presentation tool.

Please RSVP in the comments section of this post so that we can give the good folks at the Black Rep 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:

• The event itself is FREE! Beverages will be for sale at the bar.


• It’s totally casual. Wear whatever, bring whoever, arrive and take off whenever!


• 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.