My darling wife, sensing that the internet doesn’t have enough pictures and videos of cats, has rushed to stop the global Cute Cat Crash of 2009. Armed with her shiny new Flip video camera, she is rushing to digitally capture any cat in sight. Her hope is that this Cute Kittie Quantitative Easing will be enough of a stimulus to counter the downward psychological pressure of the Global Great Recession. Flooding the internet with cute kittie videos, she believes this lift in consumer sentiment will not only return the world to positive growth but also end racism, Global Warming and rampant prejudice against southpaws.

Suw Charman, London Copyfighters’ Drunken Brunch and Talking Shop speeches at Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park, London by Cory Doctorow

For Ada Lovelace Day, it will probably come as no surprise that I’m choosing to blog about Suw, my wife and mad ninja geek soulmate. Suw came up with the idea for Ada Lovelace Day because she often went to conferences where no women were on the panels, even though she knew plenty of incredibly talented, intelligent women who would contribute to the discussion about technology and social media.

As she said when she launched Ada Lovelace Day:

Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised.

It’s not necessarily a lack of women in technology that Suw was mourning, but a lack of visibility.

Suw also wanted to highlight the contributions of women in technology and science so they can serve as role models for girls. I’m from the US, and it’s long been known that girls start school with strong math skills but lose interest in their tweens, mostly due to social pressure. Suw said that the situation is similar here in the UK.

One of the reasons I chose Suw is because I think she’s a great role model for girls who want to study technology and science. When Suw and I first started dating, I remarked to a friend that she was probably the first woman I dated who out-geeked me, and while that might sound like typical male insecurities, I love her for it. Being a geek is not just about skills and knowledge but also about passion, and she has a passion for knowledge, not just in terms of computers and the internet but for all kinds of knowledge, whether it was the geology she studied at university, physics or psychology. Her curiosity is limitless, and if we share a common failing it is that we’re so curious about nearly everything that we sometimes find it difficult to focus on just one thing. She is a keen observer, and she quickly turns from noting a trend or a pattern to asking deeper questions about the underlying causes and motivations driving that trend. She wants to understand the world around her.

She also is a pioneer. I felt like a blogging charlatan when I met her. I started blogging in 2004 at the request of my editor at the BBC. I quickly fell in love with it, but Suw had been exploring blogs and other forms of social media long before. She set herself up as a ‘blogging consultant’, and many people told her that she couldn’t make a living with it. But she has, largely because she was years ahead of the curve of blogging and social media consultants that have sprung up in the past few years, and she remains ahead.

One of the things that keeps her ahead of the curve is not just her knowledge of the technology but also a deep understanding of people’s relationship to the technology and how social motivations influence our use of technolgy. I think the psychology of social media is fascinating, and I think Suw’s understanding that the fundamental human need to not only express ourselves but to communicate drives so much of the current trends online and on mobile.

She’s also a doer, and I think that Ada Lovelace Day proves it. She realised that highlighting women’s contributions in technology is important, and instead of getting frustrated, she did something, something that she hopes to build on. For all these reasons and more, that’s why I have chosen to blog about Suw Charman-Anderson, my wife and someone who I think is not only inspirational to girls looking to become tomorrow’s technology leaders but someone who inspires me.

With three days to go. this post looks at one of the streams at be2camp. collaborating with web2.

More information and details of registration (its free to register) can be found at www.be2camp.com

From mid morning through to the close of the main session, the following topics will, may, be covered:

• Collaboration: document management and sustainability (Paul Wilkinson)
• iBIM (Mervyn Richards)
• BIM: 3D and beyond (Cadventure?)
• BIMstorm: BuildLondonLive (Nathan Doughty)
• The Strategic Forum for Construction Integration Toolkit (Kevin Thomas, Visionality)
• Pachube and EEML (Chris Leung)
• Carbon footprints and the built environment (Jamie Andrews, AMEE)
• sharing environment data through a REST interface and/or SENSEI: wireless sensor networks (Duncan Wilson, Arup)
• Second Life: StudioWikitecture (Jon Brouchoud/Ryan Shultz)*
• Second Life: 3D visualisation of the international building code (Pam Broviak)*
• Second Life: the educational role (Mal Burns?)*
• MellaniuM (Joe Rigby/Ken Rigby)
• plus time for open space sessions and discussions
  

As with all unconference barcamps this will evolve and develop and allows for new topics and presentations to be set up on the day – what would you like to see or share to inspire others?

Keep in touch via twitter on @be2camp or the be2camp website

be2camp founders and un-organisers are: martin brown, paul wilkinson, jodie miners, pam broviak

Contact be2camp via be2camp@gmail.com

An email exchange with Euan Semple (a man to whom I owe a great deal) and a post on Suw Charman-Anderson’s blog, with Euan in top form, made me think.

And what I thought of was a new catch phrase.

“Talking is working”.

Because if you talk about your work using social media you are working.

And if you talk it makes your work better.

Talk is work.

And talk works.

With only four days until be2camp meets in London, this blog over the next few days will feature updates of what you can expect, and profile some of the events, speakers, and our sponsors.

More information and details of registration (its free to register) can be found at www.be2camp.com

OK, the initial ‘keynotes’ are shaping up like this, so far…

09:30 Registration and networking

10:00 Welcome, introductions, housekeeping, sponsors, be2camp story,

People, planet, productivity

Death to Email! (Suw Charman-Anderson)

Free our data (Charles Arthur, The Guardian)

Free our mapping response – data  (Live from Angus Scown, Australia)

11.00  Coffee then 3 streams of concurrent sessions

13:45 – AEC Design in Second Life, Aloft Hotels (Live from Second Life Jon Brouchoud)

14.00 then 3 streams of concurrent sessions, including live link ups from Second Life

17:30 Pecha Kucha

Remember be2camp is based upon the barcamp, unconference form of event, so things will evolve and change on the day – what would you like to see or share to inprire others?

Keep in touch via twitter on @be2camp or the be2camp website

be2camp founders and un-organisers are: martin brown, paul wilkinson, jodie miners, pam broviak

Contact be2camp via be2camp@gmail.com

Next blog will cover …. Stream One ….Collaborating through Web2.0

It happened with cigarettes. It happened with red meat. And carbs. And SUVs. And now it’s happening with e-mail … according to the LA Times ….  there’s a real backlash against our growing in-boxes.

Are emails really evil?  Is there an alternative approach to emails or indeed an alternative web technology?  Is twitter really the new email?  How do we unplug from emails?

These are the questions we hope to address at be2camp in October.

It is great news that Suw Charman has joined the us as an unorganiser and will talk, present or debate at the be2camp event, (hopefully all three!)

(Look out too for Suw’s forthcoming Guardian article on this topic)

Going Solo est une conférence organisée par Stephanie Booth que l’on ne présente plus, puisqu’elle représente à elle seule le web 2.0 ainsi que les blogs en Suisse. Très influente, Stephanie a décidé depuis un peu plus d’un an de démarrer une carrière en free-lance dans le consulting web. Forte de ses multiples expérience en tant que blogueuse, visionnaire et référence sollicitée de toutes parts par les médias helvètes et internationaux, assoiffée de nouveautés et toujours à la pointe de ce qui se fait en ligne, sa conférence promet d’être d’une grande qualité.

Touchant à un sujet basique qu’est la situation de l’indépendant sur le marché, Going Solo s’adresse ainsi à une vaste palette de spectateurs. Les indépendants de tous les horizons de nos jours ont, à mon sens, besoin d’être présents sur le web, ne serait-ce que pour se faire connaître, créer des réseaux, trouver des associés ou des clients. Le programme définitif n’est pas encore disponible, mais des grands noms sont d’ores et déjà confirmés : Stowe Boyd, Suw Charman, Martin Roell et Laura Fitton. Pour des informations plus complètes, se référer au site officiel de Going Solo, ou suivre going solo sur twitter.

Et si vous êtes intéressés, n’hésitez pas à promouvoir Going Solo sur vos blogs, et à vous inscrire le plus vite possible pour bénéficier du tarif “early bird” qui prend fin le 17 février!

Je conclus ce message promotionnel pour un événement d’envergure qui se tiendra dans ma ville natale pour inviter tous les seesmiceurs à venir nous retrouver, puisqu’une seesmeetup pendant Going Solo est en train de se tramer et de se répandre sur la timeline francophone.

Comme Stephanie Booth l’a noté sur le blog de Going Solo,

Un avant-goût du programme de Going Solo. Il ne suffit pas de “savoir faire des trucs” pour avoir du succès en tant qu’indépendant. Il y a plein d’aspects “business” au boulot d’indépendant que l’on sous-estime souvent au départ, et qu’on doit apprendre sur le tas. Going Solo, ce sera l’occasion d’apprendre des choses comme par exemple comment fixer ses tarifs, se faire connaître, effectivement décrocher des mandats (et se faire payer!), trouver des clients ou les laisser nous trouver, expliquer au monde ce que l’on fait, trouver un équilibre entre travail et “vie” (pas évident quand on a fait de sa passion son métier), ou encore gérer l’administratif qui accompagne la vie réseautée que nous vivons aujourd’hui.

Je donne dans ce billet un plan des sujets que je désire couvrir durant la journée de conférences que sera Going Solo. Trois orateurs sont d’ores et déjà annoncés: Stowe Boyd, Suw Charman, et Martin Roell — vous les connaissez probablement de nom. Je suis à la recherche d’autres bons orateurs, particulièrement un peu à l’extérieur de mon réseau, donc n’hésitez pas à me faire part de vos propositions!

Thèmes au programme

• les compétences que doit avoir un freelance (faire son travail, le marketing et le réseautage, les contrats et le cash flow)
• Fixer les prix, conclure un contrat, négocier les contrats (Le plus dur des jobs)
• Quelles sortes de travail font les freelances dans le monde 2.0 (certains travaux sont plus appropriés au travail en soliste)
• Le marketing et s’occuper de son capital social (blogguer et être un bon citoyen en ligne)
• Outils d’assistance (Quel software/outils,méthodes peuvent être utiles à un freelance?)
• Le travail collaboratif (coworking) et rester en contact avec ses “collègues” (compenser le fait de “travailler seul”, nous restons des animaux sociaux)
• Implication de faire de sa passion, un job. Comment faire la distinction entre vie privée et travail
• Les clients internationnaux, le voyage, les différentes lois et règles d’impôts, la comptabilité
• Freelance ou petit entreprise ?
• S’adapter à différente sorte de client. (en particulier, comment travailler avec les grandes entreprises que vous approchez ou avec celles qui vous approchent)

Orateurs

Suw Charman

Suw Charman a commencé à apprendre le Gallois depuis avril 98. Elle a dirigé un site Internet qui traite de l’apprentissage du Gallois. Elle créa par la suite son propre business (Get Fluent) qui propose par inscription via email, du matériel d’apprentissage pour le Gallois. Elle a aujourd’hui acquis une grande expérience dans la création et la gestion en freelance.

Stowe Boyd

Connu pour ses écrits sur /Message. Il est obsédé par les outils sociaux et leur impact sur les affaires, les médias et la société. La plus part de son temps est passé à écrire et travailler avec ses clients, il donne aussi des conférences dans différents événement comme Reboot, Lift, Shift, Mesh, Enterprise 2.0, Office 2.0, Under The Radar, et Web 2.0 Expo, pour n’en citer que quelques un.

Martin Röll

Martin Röll vit à Dresden en Allemagne.
Il est coach et aide les organisations et les entreprises dans un processus de productivité, de résolution de problème difficile.
Comme par exemple, trouver un équilibre en vie privée et travail, se concentrer sur son travail, savoir définir ses priorités. Il utilise la méthode de David Allen “Getting Things Done” (que nous utilisons aussi à Liquid Concept)

Good post from Kevin Anderson and Suw Charman. Plus a comment from me.

Ah well, see, this is how it goes. You wait months for episode 8 of FLS, we publish it with a broken link to the audio file and correct it weeks later, and then, right behind it (ish), episode 9!

• FoWA recap
• surprise guest!
• back to FoWA recap: what we liked (Leisa Reichelt, Erika Hall, Thomas Vander Wal, Robin Christopherson, Tom Coates, Dick Costolo
• mislabelled talks? Suw’s, for example
• FoWA badges and the mysterious Doug Clinton (Steph’s forgotten match was Heather Champ)
• Etsy talk and lace thongs
• arts and crafts: who made my stuff? — and economics
• pottery and lace
• finding the right price for lace and consulting
• making Suw’s love of lace economically viable and Steph’s photo book project
• Lulu.com, Blurb, and wedding photographers