Hmmm, much too long ago since I’ve written an entry. Which is my fault. Completely. And which makes me realise there’s quite a lot I haven’t been talking about on this blog.

So, back to the past.

1. Yesterday. Girl Geek Dinner number 5 already. I’m a geek not a freak. Out of the 5 Brussels Girl Geek Dinners, I have attended 4 till now. Luckily I missed out one, otherwise I couldn’t defend myself anymore when people call me a freak . Anyway, it was great to see some ’usuals’ back like Clo and Smetty ànd to meet new people like Pimpajoentje. Moreover, we got ‘speculoospasta‘ in the goodie bag. I’m staring at it right now with hungry eyes but I am patiently waiting for the right moment to try it out.

2. The 6th and 7th of May. A friend of mine organised quite an interesting event for people who are involved in arts and culture. During this so called ‘hybrid spaces’ event, the participants were challenged to think, talk and work around four thematic issues:

• local/global,
• private/public,
• narrative/creative
• visible/invisible.

Those ‘borders’ can be looked at in many ways since the coming of ‘new media’. More information on the Spacecowboys website.

3. Way back in time, at the 29th of March. Barcamp Ghent and Girl Geek Dinner number 4. Apart from meeting lots of interesting people in Ghent, I was very proud that I had been able to pursuade some colleagues at City Live to join me there. And very relieved that they enjoyed the event and came back with new contacts and great ideas as well . Furthermore, I discovered the wii. Which wasn’t only very funny, but which brought me into contact with two great people: Ywein and Filip. Ywein was my opponent, Filip the one taking pictures while we made a fool of ourselves .

After the Barcamp in Ghent, the fourth Girl Geek Dinner took place at the offices of Netlash. Not only again a nice place to meet interesting people (at or in between the cocktails and French fries I met Britt and also Bart), but also the place at which I won…YES, I won…a microsoft webcam. Thank you!

To be honest, I had a great time. And I think most attendees had. The weather was great, the ice cream was good, but the best of all: the mobile webcamp was inspiring, relaxed and fun. And that was exacty what I had hoped for. Thank you everybody!!

Presentations, blog posts, tweets and other pictures can be found via the mobile webcamp wiki.

(First picture by kodel, other pictures by lone black rider)

…Everything is possible While visiting the F1 Francorchamps circuit a few weekends ago, my boy friend was using his ‘old school’ digital camera . I, on the other hand, was taking pictures with my mobile phone and immediately had them sent to my flickr-account (via shozu). My sister could thus immediately see the picture on the internet and I didn’t have to worry about not forgetting to put it online when back home. Great, no?

With the mobile webcamp not far away (at the 26th of April, so 3 more days to go), it’s kind of busy putting everything together.

Practical information on the webcamp, changes in the programme,…can still be found on the webcamp wiki.

For my company CityLive, I am blogging about the webcamp. As a matter of fact, I decided to dedicate the CityLive blog the whole week to the event. Yesterday, I discussed the location, today I wrote an entry about the Dutch participants, and tomorrow I will tell you more about the developer’s camp that is organised within the mobile webcamp event. On Friday, I’ll send pictures to the blog of the preparations (which are of course already going on right now) and on Saturday it will be about ‘old meets new’.

In the meantime, already quite some articles appeared about the event, among others on Belgablog en netties. Still a happy girl

The American news channel CBS has launched the citizen journalism site CBSeyemobile.com. On the Dutch blog Marketingfacts we read that the service enables people to immediately upload their pictures and videos via their mobile phone. It doesn’t work with all providers yet. Maybe that’s why there hasn’t been given too much rumour about the launch yet.

According to CBS, the service is primarily soliciting breaking news, weather, sports and political content. You can either upload your content or watch the lastest reports with your mobile phone:

Even though the way you can upload and watch photos and videos will change in the future (when most people have internet access via their phones), I think it’s a great start. It’s huge that a big news channel like CBS starts involving citizens ànd that they do it mobile. Also CNN is experimenting with the concept on iReport. Who will be first in Belgium?

That’s the entry I also posted on the CityLive blog. What I’d like to add here on this blog: I am especially guessing about the ‘why are those news channels doing this?’. And as a matter of fact, it is more than obvious (at least in my opinion ).

• First of all mobile advertising is the future . So if those news channels do things right and attract more and more visitors, they have a new advertising platform right there in the corner.
• Second of all, journalists always have their sources when needed. They don’t have to search on blogs, YouTube or Flickr for people who captured the news before anyone else -and thus also CNN and CBS- did. The breaking news is right there on their platform and thus ready to be broadcast.
  Which means CNN and CBS are ’using’ the citizen journalists in a way BUT that also works the other way around:citizen journalists use CBS and CNN as well in their quest for ‘importance’: eveybody wants to be the first to ‘break the news’.
• And that’s why there is also a ‘third of all’: when people feel CNN and CBS are really doing something with their photos and videos, there wil be a growing numer of ‘brand fans’. Those fans feel important and they feel appreciated. Moreover, they’ll tell the world

Am I forgetting something, or I am going way too far? Let me know

I’m proud For our mobile webcamp on the 26th of April, more than 120 attendees have subscribed. And really not the least when you check out the names. Even the organiser of the French mobile barcamp Phil Jeudy is joining us.

12 sponsors have accepted or even offered to help us out. Food, ice cream, a nice location,…Everything is taken care of. The city of Hasselt even allots a balloon flight. That’s what they told me on the telephone today. I’ve decided already now that organisers can participate, I’d love to fly the balloon ;-) You can find all the lastest news via the mobile webcamp site.

And even though we have a full house, you can still add your name on the webcamp site (password is ‘mobiel’, login is ‘devcamp’, then press ‘edit’ in the left corner above). When people unsubscribe, you’re in. That’s how things work Moreover, there seems to be a nice combination of people involved in content, technical and marketing matters.

I only hope for a little bit more presentation proposals. Two things seem to scare people off a bit: fist of all, it’s the first Belgian MOBILE webcamp. Lots of attendees I contacted are interested in the topic but cannot easily give a presentation about it. That’s why we’re telling them since a few days that ‘plain’ internet matters are fine as well. Secondly, the majority of the attendees join a barcamp for the first time. They don’t know the concept and the rules. So they decide to watch and learn and then give a presentation the next time. But we need them now

When working on a project, it’s always handy to sometimes arrange your thoughts, or the other way around, to brainstorm about possibilities, view points,…A mindmap is a very nice tool to do this.

A lot of online mindmaps are not for free, but the basic version of mindmeister is. I’m using it for several projects and the ’sheets’ are very easy to use, with the possibility of adding symbols and notes ànd with the possibility to share your mindmap with others in order to work together.

I would say: try it out.

Never really thought of myself like that, but being @ the Barcamp in Ghent, live twittering and blogging on this blog and the CityLive blog, I guess skolgen is right when he’s naming the picture below (with me on the right)…

 ”geeks doing their stuff”

 ouch

 By the way: all the barcamp pictures via this link. Enjoy!

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Yes, high time for a mobile webcamp in Belgium, since 2008 simply breathes ‘mobile’.

All the information you need to know can be found on the wiki of the mobile webcamp. With the login ‘mobiel’ and the password ‘devcamp’ you can add your name, a presentation you want to give,…

And yes, I’m very proud to announce that I’m co-organizing the event. That’s why I’m now visiting the three high schools and the university in Hasselt, to make sure students join us there. Because, yes, they are the future ànd they have the opportunity of a lifetime to exchange ideas and plans with professionals (and vice versa) 

And I never dared to hope that right now, after opening the site like two days ago, already 46 attendees have subscribed on the wiki. And quite some waw attendees, like Tom De Bruyne, Tijs Vrolix, Pascal Van Hecke and Bart Vanmaele. I’m a happy girl

By the way: also our location is waw, check it out!