GeoLoqi hackathon at the 2010 Hacker Lounge (photo by Igal Koshevoy)

Once again, we’ll be hosting a 24-hour hacker space for you to meet, greet, nosh, exchange ideas, get tips and how-tos, and try out some of the hot new ideas and technologies you’ll be learning about during the conference. There’ll be plenty of wifi and power strips in an easily accessible, comfy, and attractive space to relax and gather. Beverages and snacks will be available.

This year, we’ll be trying out some new ideas to make the Hacker Lounge even better.

We’ll be encouraging presenters to find time in the Hacker Lounge to work on related projects, and to publicize this during your talk. If you’re associated with a company or organization that produces or supports open source, perhaps you’d like to sponsor an evening or a few hours in the Hacker Lounge?

Of course, you don’t have to be a presenter to participate in the Hacker Lounge: Any open source project — whether established or brand new — is welcome to set up shop for a few hours. Maybe you’re brainstorming about a project? Maybe it’s even something that could be developed during a sprint during the conference? Bring your idea, find a time, and let’s build something cool! We’ll be organizing some “midnight madness” hackfests with some group-hacking projects, too.

Evan Prodromou, Don Park at the 2009 Hacker Lounge (photo by John Labovitz)

We’ll also be making the Hacker Lounge more approachable. We’re brainstorming ways of letting people know what projects are being worked on when they arrive in the space. The idea is to keep it flexible, but provide tools to help organize: color-coded areas, an unconference-like time/space grid, and a friendly volunteer who can help you find the project you’re looking for. We’ll be publishing some best practice guides for project organizers, covering things like how to make it easy for people to get started working on your project, and how to make it possible for someone who only has an hour to still feel like they can contribute.

The Hacker Lounge is one of the most distinctive components of Open Source Bridge, and we look forward to bringing it to you again this year. If you’ve already submitted a proposal about a project, consider holding a hackfest session in the Hacker Lounge and encourage the community to come help. If you haven’t submitted a proposal, there’s still a little more time to do so! Visit the Call for Proposals page for more information.

Do you have an idea for a Hacker Lounge activity, or ways of making the space a success? Please let us know at hackerlounge@opensourcebridge.org.

Not sure what to do? Well, they have some examples using earthquake data. Or you could check out their guidance on building widgets.

Better yet, you could join Yahoo! Developer Networks Tom Hughes-Croucher and OSU Open Source Labs’ Peter Krenesky to work on the 50 states project:

Sunlight [Foundation] wants to make sure that legislative information for every single state is easily available. Many of the state government websites are hard to navigate, and provide information in formats that aren’t exactly Web 2.0 friendly (CSV anyone?). The 50 States Project aims to rectify that and make important information easily available for anyone who wants to know what’s going on in their state. We’ve built an example of how you can scrape data by building open tables to get the data from the Louisiana legislature. We hope we can inspire you to write many more tables, one for every state. I’m going to be writing in more detail soon about how I did it and what I learned, and how that can be applied to get data from any web form system. If you live in the Portland, Oregon area and are interested in hacking on the 50 States Project, I’ll be up at the Hacker Lounge for OSBridge this week.

Sound interesting? The hacker lounge at the top of the Portland Hilton is open 24-hours. That should give you plenty of time to muck with this new offering.

Harvard Business just posted a piece bemoaning the state of the modern conferences and suggesting some ways to improve them.

We couldn’t agree more. And it’s nice to see the article reflecting some of the selfsame concepts Selena and Audrey have baked into Open Source Bridge, from the beginning.

1. Conferences and meetings should tell unique stories…. A conference should tell a story, one that unfolds and builds from the initial moments to the close. Like any good story, there should be moments of high excitement, followed by moments of relative calm. That’s different from panic and boredom in ceaseless alternation. A good meeting should make linear sense from start to finish, in a way that allows attendees to retain what they see and hear rather than just feeling overwhelmed by the information.

At Open Source Bridge, we started with a very specific story: trying to share the culture of being an open source citizen. And the conference tries to provide ways of experiencing that culture beyond sitting in sessions—from mellow to engaged.

A good example of that? Our hacker lounge will give you the opportunity to meet with open source citizens for hacking, chatting, or just hanging out, 24-hours a day—and it’s only a short train ride from the convention center.

2. Conferences should be for, by, and about the attendees. A meeting or conference should feel participative, and you, the meeting attendee, should have some significant part in it beyond being a warm body. Attendees should react, critique, judge, schedule, and vote for what they like and don’t like. And that’s just for starters. There are many ways to give attendees a larger role in meetings and conferences, from making them part of panel discussions to creating discussion groups to having them manage Q and A.

We tried to choose the best sessions that we could—but we also knew that getting a group of intelligent and passionate people would result in new ideas and discussions that needed a venue.

That’s part of the reason for the hacker lounge. It’s also why all day Friday will be in an unconference format.

See a session that you’d like to explore more? Set up a session on Friday. Is this conference missing a session you need to see? Plan it for the unconference. That’s why we’re giving you a whole day.

3. Conferences should be about more than just eating and sitting…. We live more and more of our lives in the splendid isolation of the Internet, with all the faux connectors like Facebook, Twitter, email, and the rest. Getting together is an increasingly rare and important privilege. Meetings and conferences should be constructed to take advantage of the gathered group. Every meeting or conference should use the power of the group to give something back to the community in which the meeting is held. Help a local charity, fix a local problem, champion a local hero, start a new movement. There are many ways one could imagine making use of the combined energies of the people assembled. It’s a crime to waste that gathered power.

You know as well as we do that this kind of activity is going to happen. It would happen in hallways, in sessions, and at coffee shops. That’s just how the open source community works. We get things done.

But we’ve tried to facilitate these interactions. We’re planning some activities to help stimulate discussions and solve some problems. But we’re also looking forward to seeing what happens when all of you get together.

Two weeks. Open Source Bridge can’t come soon enough. If you haven’t done so, please take the time to register. Or if you’re interested in helping, there’s a volunteer orientation tonight.

(Image courtesy Mr. Littlehand. Used under Creative Commons.)

If you’re as excited as we are to get to hacking, we’d encourage you to schedule some time in the hacker lounge. This will ensure that folks know about your project ahead of time and can schedule accordingly. Best of all, we’ll help you promote your project to the attendees, so you’re sure to have the best and brightest hacking alongside you.

Chris Messina and the DiSo Project have kicked off the scheduling by adding a session Thursday, June 18, from 1-5 PM.

What’s that? You wanted to run your project in the hacker lounge at that time? No problem. There’s plenty of room.

Fill in the table below with your project name, a contact person, the day and time you’d like to make use of the lounge, and a link to a page where people can get more information on what you’ll be working on. The hacker lounge will be open from 9am Wednesday through midnight on Friday.

We’re looking forward to seeing the projects Open Source Bridge attendees are creating. And we can’t wait to see you in the hacker lounge in June.

(Image courtesy of jeffandmandyg. Used under Creative Commons.)

Hacker lounge view of Portland, OR

We’ve been to any number of open source conferences. And for as much as we get out of the sessions, we always seem to get just as much—if not more—from the time spent with other developers.

Whether it’s camping out in the hallway, hanging out in coffee shops, or late-night code sessions at the hotel, spending time with other attendees working on projects—and reveling in being an open source citizen—is always one of the highlights of any conference.

So, when we had the opportunity to build Open Source Bridge, one of our primary concerns was that we had plenty of space for hacking. But we weren’t thinking a couch in the hall or a bunch of people crammed around the table. And we wanted our attendees to have something better than a desperate search for places with outlets, wifi, and space to code at 3:45 AM. We were thinking about dedicated space for hacking, 24-hours a day.

Introducing the Open Source Bridge hacker lounge, a space dedicated to code sprints, development projects, user-group get-togethers, and general hanging out—open all-day and all-night, throughout the conference. Perched atop the Hilton Portland, the hacker lounge will feature food, drink, interesting people, and plenty of space for various groups to gather.

Even if you’re not interested in hacking, you’ll still want to spend some time in the hacker lounge. From spectacular views of the Portland skyline to direct access to the best and brightest people, the hacker lounge is sure to be the crown jewel of the conference.

The hacker lounge is accessible to every Open Source Bridge attendee staying at the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower. So make sure you’ve got a room. If you’re interested in scheduling time for your group or project to meet, please contact us. We’ll make sure you have all the space, power, wifi, and sustenance you need. Interested in sponsoring the hacker lounge? We’ll be happy to work with you.

We’re looking forward to seeing you at Open Source Bridge—at both the sessions and in the hacker lounge. Make sure to register today and book a room. Have something you want to present? Our Call for Proposals is open until March 31. Submit your Open Source Bridge proposal today.

(Photo courtesy Hockley Photography. Used with permission.)