Tag Archives: Sparkcon

SPARKconX – art, music, comedy, geek, and more

More SPARKcon happening on Saturday, September 19. Check out our SPARKcon adventures from Friday night. As Merri Beth and I were getting into Downtown Raleigh, we totally forgot about the Nog Run Octoberfest 8k. When we turned onto Wilmington Street it was gridlock. Total chaos due to multiple street closures. We eventually navigated to the City Center parking deck via side streets and got on our way—but it took us much longer than expected. Continue reading →

SPARKconX – 10 years of awesome creativeness

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One of my favorite weekends of the year, SPARKcon weekend! It’s four days of amazing creativity and performances coming to life in downtown Raleigh. After a long week at work, I was really looking forward to relaxing on Friday night with my SPARKcon friends. Continue reading →

Writing a book about Raleigh being an open source city

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It’s about time to come out of hibernation mode and come out swinging for 2013. I’ve been quiet the last two weeks. Red Hat had their annual holiday shut down from December 24 to January 1 and I decided to extend that until January 3. I head back to the office this Friday.

Over the last two weeks, I spent some time with the family, did a lot of running (I made my goal of running 1,000 miles in 2012), and I played a little too much Skylanders Giants.

Before the break, I was contemplating writing a book about the open government movement in Raleigh with a focus on the characteristics of an open source city. I jotted down a few title ideas and drafted an outline in early December one Saturday morning. And I sat on that for a week or two. Letting the idea marinate. Continue reading →

How SPARKcon uses open source

Originally posted on opensource.com and licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA.

Image credits: h0tgrits, opensource.com - Licensed CC-BY-SA

Process over content. Aly Khalifa from Gamil Design and Designbox used this mantra to instill open source roots at SPARKcon—an annual event that showcases, celebrates, and influences the creative momentum naturally found in North Carolina’s Triangle region.

“I think at first it was hard for people to understand—it was hard for us to describe. Sometimes it was embarrassing—this commitment to process over content,” Continue reading →

Raleigh, NC—the world’s first open source city

This article and interview with Raleigh’s Mayor, Charles Meekor, was published on opensource.com, where we are exploring how the principles of open source are applied beyond technology–to our government, education, and much more. It’s relevant to South West Raleigh because the culture of our creative class embodies the principles of open source–even if some of us don’t call it that. Think Sparkcon, Barcamp, Ignite, etc.

I started pondering what qualities would define an open source city a few months ago when my friend Tom Rabon mentioned it to me one day. I was curious how the city I live in, Raleigh, NC, could attract other open source companies and be the world’s hub for open source and a leader in open government. How could Raleigh be the open source capital of the world, similar to what Silicon Valley is to technology and Paris is to romance?

I think the answer can be found in both the government and the people. Continue reading →