Almost certainly old news to most. But I would be sad if even one person missed it… White & Nerdy

Go Al!

The next Geek Dinner will mark a first as we’ll be convening up on College Hill at Brown’s Center for Information Technology (CIT). It’s shaping up to be an awesome event—details to come. And no, we’re not abandoning AS220 as our unofficial clubhouse (more…)

Whether you’re looking for a new gig or new geek talent, be sure to check out Providence Geeks’ “Help Wanted” board. There are a bunch of interesting positions posted. And you can easily keep track of new postings by subscribing to the “Help Wanted” RSS feed.

If you’re an employer, post your info-tech related positions there for free—all you need to do is register.

Pandora is a music discovery engine that builds its suggestions on data from the Music Genome Project. Tim Westergren, Chief Strategy Officer and Founder of Pandora will be at the Columbus Theater in Providence on Wednesday, October 4th at 7 pm for an informal town-hall meeting.

Among the questions we hope to tackle:
-How is technology changing the nature of radio?
-How important are community and peers when it comes to discovering music online? What’s the best way to foster community?
-Can services like Pandora help create a larger middle class of artists who aren’t superstars, but have enough of an audience to support themselves through their music? Do music lovers want more music discovery?

Here’s some general advice on submitting proposals to tech conferences (this isn’t specific to O’Reilly conferences, it’s just some things I’ve picked up after speaking at a few conferences myself):

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• Check out the previous year’s conference to get some ideas of the talks that got accepted. But you also need to look through the CFP and understand what they conference organizers are looking for because it might be different than last year (for example, this year’s ETech is looking for magic that “makes complex things simple or makes the impossible possible”).
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• In general, avoid product pitches because in most cases you’ll be talking to geeks like yourself. Even the people who are there to learn about new companies will be basing their judgments on your tech chops.
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• And if you do get a paper accepted, you can usually expect to get free admission to the conference. Airfare and lodging is up to you. The only exception is with conferences that have tutorial tracks. If you’re doing a half-day tutorial, you might get a small honorarium and/or some travel allowance. But this varies among conferences and conference organizers.
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