This upcoming weekend is the 2011 incarnation of Northern Voice. I went to my first Northern Voice back in 2007 and met so many great and inspirational people. In actuality, that event was the catalyst that started me playing with WordPress and meeting some of the people that I now call my close friends. Since I lived out in Chilliwack during last year's Northern Voice I didn't get a chance to catch it all, but I swung by for an hour or so and said hello to some friends. This year I should I live a lot closer and will be there on both Friday and Saturday checking out the various sessions, and ...

So, I gotta ask, and I'm probably going to get raked over the coals for doing so. I'm curious as to why there are so many technology events that focus exclusively on women? Some of them actually look pretty good, and I'm actually a bit disappointed that I can't attend. In fact, some of the people I really look up to in the community are female, which makes it all the more disappointing that I'm excluded by nature from some conferences. And that's really my question I guess -- why can't I attend some of these events? Obviously there are a lot of women in technology these days. I'd be the first ...

For two years in a row now, I've missed out on going to SxSW. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's pretty much the largest technology / music conference in North America, and it happens once a year down in Austin, Texas. Last year, while watching everyone talk about it online, I decided that I would go this year and check it out. That being said, I still haven't done anything about it, nor am I entirely sure I could afford to go to it (although I *do* have a pre-paid flight ticket in the US, so my flight is pretty much covered). Pretty much all my friends from Vancouver end up going, ...

I'm sitting here with John and Rebecca waiting for the Northern Voice keynote to begin. This year it's Wordpress' own Matt Mullenweg, who will be talking about blogging and Wordpress 2.5. Boris Mann and Matt Mullenweg Keynote is over. It was really entertaining and enlightening, and I thought some of the points about advertising overload with sites like Facebook were interesting. ...

Northern Voice is officially rolling out at UBC. Since today is an unconference, people are putting their ideas up on the wall for sessions that will happen during the day. I'm still waiting to here when the Internet Bootcamp and Photocamp sessions are. Megan Cole I have to finish my plan for the little talk I'm giving, so I'm chilling out on the side right now. Will drop a few more blog entries as the day goes on. Check my Flickr stream for photos as they happen. ...

Wow, what's with this weather? It's been absolutely gorgeous this winter. I'm lucky enough to have a bedroom with basically a full-wall window view of the downtown core, and every morning the sun reflecting off buildings wakes me up. It's been rather nice having sunshine instead of the dreary rain Vancouver is known for in the winter. I went out to Joey's last night on Burrard Street to have some dinner with friends. It's your typical Earl's type restaurant with token hot girls and funky music. The food was pretty tasty though, with Cajun wings actually being served with a real hibachi type stove ...

I just did a quick check of my Google calendar for the week, and it's look pretty jam packed for the next few weeks. Things start off with a bang tomorrow -- I have to go to St. Paul's Hospital for some intestinal tests in the morning, and head down to Vancouver General Hospital tomorrow evening for an MRI (two hospitals in one day people, good times). Just did some reading on an MRI, and it's not a very dangerous procedure, unless you have certain types of implants in your eye socket. I'm fairly certain mine is ok, otherwise we wouldn't be going ahead with this, but I've seen one too many TV ...

I've decided to head back home for the weekend. I haven't been back to Chilliwack since Christmas time, so I figure I'm long overdue. A whole whack of conferences start soon, and I'm going to by fairly swamped up until mid April. So, I'm going to grab a book and curl up on the couch back home this weekend to relax a bit. Also, for those of you that have been patiently waiting for more information about what was previously called "Startup Weekend Vancouver" or "Beer Camp" -- the wait is nearly over. Stand by for the unveiling of the website along with more information. ...

I got an email this morning asking if I'd like to speak at a university technology conference in Venezuela in May. All expenses would be paid for. Caracas, Venezuela, photo by josemazcona Fun party in Caracas, photo my rmendez Hell yah baby. Hell yah. I just have to come up with something to talk about. Maybe I'll talk about the cute group of women pictured above. ...

For those of you who don't know, the Internet Engineering Task Force is a group of people that ultimately decide the technologies that will ultimately be engrained into the internet. UDP, TCP, SSL, HTTP - these are all examples of technologies that were originally put through the IETF before becoming standards. Next week, the 70th IETF meeting will be hosted here in Vancouver. A bunch of people from our company usually participate in the sessions, and I might swing by and check out what's new and exciting. One of the best parts about meetings like this is that it brings together a bunch of the ...

Tonight I found myself down in the gastown area, having a few beers with old pal Boris Mann down at the Bryght offices. He was nice enough to invite me to some of the Thursday night BBQ lovin at his offices, and introduced me to the ever-sought-after "Save On Meat" store around the corner from the offices. Photo by Roland Tanglao Afterwards, I stuck around and hung out for the Drupal monthly Vancouver meetup and learned both about Drupal 6.0 and some of the Install Profile work that the guys at Bryght have contributed back. I'm in the process of setting up a new website with a different ...

I'm sitting in room 1005 at the Forest Sciences Center at UBC, eagerly awaiting the "User Generated Content and Activist Campaigns" session to begin. Prior to this was the keynote address by Anil Dash, which gave some great insights into the importance of blogging, and a few allusions to where blogging may go in the future. One of the most interesting part of this conference, for me at least, is a glimpse into the nature of bloggers. The other night at the social, Lee LeFever gave a presentation about his trip around the world, and one sentence that stands out in my mind from his presentation ...

Last night was the first event of the Northern Voice conference. Everyone met down at Heritage Hall on Main Street for some great food served by some local chefs here in Vancouver. The beer flowed like Vancouver rain, and people seemed to have a really great time hanging out and getting to know each other. Having been to many conferences, it was a pleasant surprise at how smoothly the events went and how social most people were. Here are some sample photos northern voice so far, along with a live shot of Photocamp: ...

Tomorrow officially marks the start of the Northern Voice 2007 activities. Northern Voice is a Vancouver based conference where web-bloggers meet up and discuss various technological and social aspects of blogging. I've heard a lot of good things about it, and Boris and his company Bryght are the main organizers for it. The main social is tomorrow night, which will be a great chance for everyone to meet each other and break the ice before the main activities begin. Friday is "Moose Camp", which is an opportunity for conference participants to gather around and form their own agenda based ...