• Sat. Sep 20th, 2008 @ 8:00am - 4:00pm
• ChicagoRuby.org
• IIT
• Address: 3201 South State Street
• Fee: $ 99.00
• http://windycityrails.org

WindyCityRails is a gathering for all who are passionate about Ruby on Rails. Developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists will interact for a full day in the Windy City. Only 150 seats are available and they are expected to sell fast. Visit http://windycityrails.org for registration and details.

Questions? Contact: http://windycityrails.org

• Thu. Jul 3rd, 2008 @ 7:00pm - 9:00pm
• West Suburban Chicago PHP Meetup
• Wheaton, IL
• Address: Panera Bread, 25 Rice Lake Square, Wheaton, IL. 60187
• Fee: 0
• RSVP @ meetup.com

This month, I\’ll be presenting Subversion, one of the leading version control systems out there. Even if you\’re a team of one, version control can save you numerous headaches. Come learn how you can put it to use!

Be sure to visit our website/blog at suburbanchicagophp.org!

Questions? Contact: http://php.meetup.com/381

• Tue. Jul 1st, 2008 @ 6:45pm - 9:45pm
• NWCLUG
• Harper College - A238
• Address: 1200 W. Algonquin Rd, Palatine, IL 60067
• Fee: Free

We talk about linux and the things in the linux area, open source, networking, interacting w/ other os’s and such. We can have newbies to sys admins to programs at our meetings. So come on out to the NW burbs and see what things we are doing.
We meet the first Tuesday of the month at Harper College in Palatine IL.

Questions? Contact: nwclugadmin@harpercollege.edu

• Sat. Jun 21st, 2008 @ 3:00pm - 5:00pm
• ChicagoRuby.org
• Western Suburbs
• Fee: 0.00
• http://chicagoruby.org

We are ChicagoRuby.org, a group of Ruby on Rails enthusiasts. When smart people challenge each other to grow, great things happen! ChicagoRuby.org meets on the 3rd Saturday of each month at 3pm.

ChicagoRuby.org produces WindyCityRails, the full-day Ruby on Rails conference that starts at 8am on Sat, 9/20/2008 at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). Visit http://WindyCityRails.org for registration and details.

Questions? Contact: http://ChicagoRuby.org

• Wed. Jun 4th, 2008 @ 2:30am - 4:30am
• Bridge2Growth
• Intercontinental Hotel
• Address: 505 N. Michigan Ave Empire Room 7th Floor
• Fee: Free
• http://www.bridge2growth.com/register.html

The
British Midlands, the North American economic development agency
for central England, is bringing their Bridge2Growth
http://www.bridge2growth.com briefing to small and mid-sized Chicago
companies on June 4th. Bridge2Growth’s appeal is the bundle of free
offers being extended to companies in the Chicago area. We offer
information and value to those that are eventually thinking about
expanding into Western Europe or even the U.K.

Additional information follows. Can you pass this along to members and

others in your network? Thank you again and please let us know if you
have questions or need additional information. Thank you! Susan Harris

susan@bridge2growth.com

To register: http://www.bridge2growth.com/register.html

Read the rest of this entry »

• Sat. May 31st, 2008 @ 3:00pm - 6:00pm
• Chicago Lisp User Group
• Institute of Design
• Address: 350 N. LaSalle St, 4th Floor, Chicago
• Fee: 0
• Email Peter Christensen

INTRO TO LISP WORKSHOP

WHO: Programmers interested in learning more about Lisp.

HOW MUCH: The low, low price of 3ish hours of attention span.

WHEN: Saturday, May 31st from 3pm-6pm.

WHERE: Institute of Design, 350 N. LaSalle St, 4th floor, Chicago. Map.

WHAT: A hands-on introduction the the Common Lisp programming language

Tentative Schedule (presentations will be 30-60 min)

* Setting up a Lisp Environment (John Quigley): A hands-on walkthrough of how to setup a Lisp environment, Emacs, and SLIME. There will be documentation beforehand about steps to take and which packages to get.
* Lisp Basics and Idioms (Peter Christensen): Lisp syntax, contructs, basic code, idioms and practices.
* Common Lisp condition system (need a volunteer)
* Macros (Craig Luddington): How Lisp lets you write code that writes code that writes code � and why you�d want to do that.
* Demos of cool things in Lisp (need volunteers): showing off both neat and practical things that Lisp can do.

We�re looking for volunteers to do the following:

* Present on the CL condition system
* Suggest and present on other aspects of CL not listed here that would be suitable for an introductory session
* Walk around and help troubleshoot during the first session about setting up your environment.
* Help with audio and video recording
* Provide audio recording equipment (mics, cords, some way to record the audio on a computer, etc)
* Contact other programming user groups to promote the event

If you�re interested in attending or helping, please email Peter Christensen (http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/contact-me/) and include �Intro to Lisp Workshop� at the start of the message.

Questions? Contact: Peter Christensen

• Fri. May 16th, 2008 @ 7:00pm - 9:00pm
• Chicago Lisp User Group
• CashNetUSA offices
• Address: 200 W. Jackson Blvd, 14th Floor
• Fee: 0
• Email Peter Christensen

NEXT MEETING:

WHEN: Friday, May 16th at 7pm.

WHERE: CashNetUSA offices. 200 W. Jackson Blvd, 14th floor, Chicago. Map.

WHAT: Planning for Intro to Lisp Workshop,
Lightning talks. The following people have signed up, more welcome (email Peter if interested or add a comment at Coordinatr)

* Grant Rattke - A simple object system using macros
* Steve Githens - Scripting a Java SOA system using Kawa and Clojure
* Dry runs from the people presenting at the Intro to Lisp Workshop

Questions? Contact: Peter Christensen

• Sat. Apr 19th, 2008 @ 3:00pm - 5:00pm
• ChicagoRuby.org
• Elmhurst, IL
• Address: Elmhurst, IL
• Fee: 0.00
• Visit ChicagoRuby.org

ChicagoRuby.org is a group of Chicago area Ruby and Ruby on Rails enthusiasts. When smart people challenge each other to grow, great things happen!

Next meeting: Sat, April 19, 2008 at 3pm. ChicagoRuby.org meets on the 3rd Saturday of every month at 3pm. Visit http://chicagoruby.org for details and to RSVP.

Questions? Contact: http://ChicagoRuby.org

• Fri. Apr 4th, 2008 @ 12:00am - Sat. Apr 5th, 2008 @ 12:00am
• UIC LUG/UIC ACM
• UIC
• Address: 842 west taylor st, chicago,il
• Fee: 0
• http://www.flourishconf.com/register.php

To everyone interested,

The University of Illinois at Chicago Linux Users Group (UIC-LUG) and the University of Illinois at Chicago Association for Computing
Machinery (UIC-ACM) are hosting their second annual Flourish Conference promoting the adoption and use of Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS). The UIC-LUG and UIC-ACM would like to invite you to attend this glorious event. The entire conference is free

with registration (or $ 5 at the door), but please do register if you plant to
attend please lets us know how many people we should expect. http://www.flourishconf.com/register.php.

Some of our featured speakers will include: Bruce Perens from Source Labs, Jon “maddog” Hall from Linux International, Brian Fitzpatrick (and Ben Collins-Sussman) from Google, Dru Lavigne from Open Source Business Resource and BSD Certification Group Inc., among many others.

We will be hosting a variety of events which include but are not limited to: BarCamp Mini, Flourish Mini-expo, WAFD (Web Application Framework Development) Rumble, Networking Events, and Hack-a-Thon, BSDA Examination. For more information please visit: http://www.flourishconf.com/flourish2008/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=30

Flourish 2008 will be held on Friday, April 4th and Saturday, April 5th. We expect the conference attendance to be between 300 and 400 people. Please reply and let me know whether or not you will be attending Flourish 2008.

Organizations/Developers: We still have open tables in the expo space, if you’d like to use one of the tables to advertise your said organization or promote an event. We are also still looking for developers to represent the various Web frameworks. If anyone is interested in participating, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you,

Samir Faci

Flourish Public Relations

Questions? Contact: samir at esamir dot com

• Sat. Mar 15th, 2008 @ 3:00pm - 5:00pm
• ChicagoRuby.org
• Elmhurst, IL
• Address: Elmhurst, IL
• Fee: 0.00

ChicagoRuby.org is a group of Chicago area Ruby and Ruby on Rails enthusiasts. When smart people challenge each other to grow, great things happen!

Next meeting: Sat, Mar 15, 2008 at 3pm. ChicagoRuby.org meets on the 3rd Saturday of every month at 3pm. Visit http://chicagoruby.org for details and to RSVP.

Questions? Contact: ChicagoRuby.org

• Tue. Mar 4th, 2008 @ 6:45pm - 9:35pm
• NWCLUG
• Harper College - A238
• Address: 1200 W Algonquin Rd Palatine IL
• Fee: Free

New to linux or an if you are an experienced veteran come out and enjoy NWCLUG. See what where all about.

Questions? Contact: nwclugadmin@harpercollege.edu

• Mon. Feb 4th, 2008 @ 6:45pm - 9:30pm
• NorthWest Chicagoland Linux Users Group
• A238
• Address: 1200 W Algonquin Rd
• Fee: free

We talk, learn, show, share Linux. This can be the OS itself or the apps that run on and so on.

• Thu. Jan 31st, 2008 @ 12:00pm - 2:00pm
• Jason Green - Intelestream
• Please RSVP first
• Fee: Free
• Register for the event at meetup.com

Meet with others in the Chicagoland area to share knowledge about SugarCRM. Learn from SugarCRM experts and hear others present their lessons learned across all areas of SugarCRM.

Member Profiles: Business Users of SugarCRM, Devlopers of SugarCRM, Prospects/Customers of SugarCRM, and Partners of SugarCRM. Both Open Source and Commercial Versions will be included in discussions.

If you are already using SugarCRM or just looking to learn more about SugarCRM before making your CRM decision, the Chicagoland SugarCRM meetup is for you!

Questions? Contact: stafford (at) intelestream.net

• Sat. Jan 19th, 2008 @ 3:00pm - 5:00pm
• ChicagoRuby.org
• Western Suburbs, Chicago
• Address: Elmhurst, IL
• Fee: 0.00
• RSVP thru http://ChicagoRuby.org

ChicagoRuby.org is a group of Chicago area Ruby and Ruby on Rails enthusiasts. We meet on the third Saturday of each month in the Western suburbs of Chicago. The agenda and RSVP details are posted at http://chicagoruby.org.

Questions? Contact: http://chicagoruby.org

• Wed. Jan 9th, 2008 @ 12:00pm - 1:00pm
• Joomla Chicago User Group
• Chicago
• Address: 500 W. Madison, Chicago
• Fee: Free
• Since the downstairs is a train lobby, security is tight, so you MUST RSVP for each and every meeting . Sorry, no last-minute walk-ins.

If you are hooked on Joomla, or just want to learn more, you are invited to attend our monthly General Meeting on the second Wednesday of every month in the Chicago Loop over the lunch hour - noon to 1:00 pm.

11:30 AM: Pre-Meeting - Joomla 101 Basics . . . Noon to 1:00 pm - User Group Meeting . . . 1:00 to 1:30 - Social & Networking Time

• Fri. Dec 14th, 2007 @ 9:00am - Sun. Dec 16th, 2007 @ 5:00pm
• Windy City Perl Mongers
• Hostel International
• Address: 29 E. Congress, Chicago
• Fee: free
• RSVP website

Join local Perl hackers for three days of informal group work on various Perl topics. Volunteer to help other people on their projects, get people to work on your project, or just work alone while hanging out with other Perl programmers.

If you are coming from out-of-town and would like to stay at the hostel, we’ve reserved some beds. See the wiki for reservation details.

Questions? Contact: joshua.mcadams@gmail.com

• Sat. Nov 17th, 2007 @ 3:00pm - 5:00pm
• ChicagoRuby.org
• Elmhurst, IL
• Address: Western Suburbs, Chicago, IL
• Fee: 0.00
• http://chicagoruby.org

Agenda for Saturday, Nov 17, 2007, 3pm - 5pm

• Agile Web Development With Rails -the continued review.
• Google Maps & Rails Apps -integrating the two.
• Unstructured Hackfest - time to hack what we learn that day.

To participate in the hackfest, please install and test rails before the meeting. See you Saturday!

Questions? Contact: http://chicagoruby.org

• Fri. Nov 9th, 2007 @ 12:00pm - 1:30pm
• Lunch 2.0
• Google Chicago
• Address: 20 W. Kinzie Street, Chicago, IL 60610
• Fee: Free w/ RSVP
• Email chi-lunch-2.0@google.com with your first and last name

Lunch 2.0, the popular Silicon Valley community event, is coming to Chicago for the first time, thanks to Google Chicago! Join the rest of the Chicago tech community for some free lunch at the Google Chicago office, courtesy of Google.

RSVP with your first and last name by emailing chi-lunch-2.0@google.com.

Also, since Lunch 2.0 is an idea and not an organization, feel free to share the tech love by hosting your own Lunch 2.0 at your own office!

More info on Lunch 2.0:
http://www.lunch20.com/about/

Help spread the word about this event!
http://www.lunch20.com/2007/10/31/lunch-20-google-in-chicago/
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/309719/
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=5894788778

Questions? Contact: chi-lunch-2.0@google.com

• Wed. Nov 7th, 2007 @ 6:00pm - 8:00pm
• AboutUs.org
• TBD
• Address: TBD
• Fee: free
• sign-up on wiki or email TedErnst@AboutUs.org

WikiWednesday happens the first Wednesday of each month in cities around the world. November will be Chicago’s kick-off. We’ll informally meet to talk about wikis and our lives/work and hopefuly have enough of a good time to decide to do it again.

Questions? Contact: http://aboutus.org/TedErnst

• Sat. Oct 20th, 2007 @ 3:00am - 5:00am
• ChicagoRuby.org
• Western Suburbs of Chicago
• http://ruby.meetup.com/77

Questions? Contact: http://chicagoruby.org

• Thu. Oct 4th, 2007 @ 8:00am - 11:30am
• The Technology Executives Club
• Milwaukee Athletic Club
• Address: 758 N. Braodway, Milwaukee
• Fee: $ 85 - $ 125
• Call Celine Seaback 847-837-3900 x4

How secure is your organization? Are you sure? Explore the latest security technologies, infrastructure and policies designed to protect the 24-7, zero-perimeter enterprise:

Local IT executives will review top security concerns and strategies facing their companies: Keynote Panel
Enabling business through IT security
Steps to building a comprehensive Information Security Management System
Managing identity and access
Strategies for securing the network

Questions? Contact: Celine Seback 847-837-3900 x4

• Sat. Sep 15th, 2007 @ 3:00pm - 5:00pm
• ChicagoRuby.org
• Western Suburbs
• Address: Elmhurst, IL (full details at RSVP)
• Fee: 0.00
• RSVP at http://ruby.meetup.com/77

ChicagoRuby.org features something for every level of Ruby experience in every meeting- Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. Check out our agenda for 9/15/2007:

• Beginner: Agile Rails (30 minutes)
• Intermediate: Overview of RadiantCMS (30 minutes)
• Advanced: When All Else Fails, Go Rails Spelunking (30 minutes)
• Wrap Up and Discussion of Next Agenda (15 minutes)

Questions? Contact: ChicagoRuby.org

• Thu. Sep 6th, 2007 @ 7:00pm - 10:00pm
• WCLUG
• Goose Island
• Address: 800 N Clybourn Avenue Chicago, IL 60614
• Fee: 0
• RSVP website

Discussions of all things Linux and Open Source.

We are finding a new location for WCLUG meetings. Come to goose island to discuss new locations.

Questions? Contact: mmccune@wclug.com

• Tue. Jul 24th, 2007 @ 5:00pm - 8:30pm
• Chicago NW Suburb Websphere Users Group
• IBM Innovation Center, Hyatt Center Chicago
• Address: 71 S Wacker Dr, Chicago
• Fee: Free
• You must pre-register for building security on 1st floor

Agenda

• 5:00pm - 6:30pm Pizza and Networking

• 6:30pm - 6:45pm Membership Meeting (future topics you want to see)
• 6:45pm - 8:00pm Presentation
• 8:00pm - 8:30pm Discussions

Presentation Topic
- What is Ruby (with a perspective for Java Developers)
- What is Rails?
- Why Rails?
- Demo some of our Rails projects
- Talk about deployment/scaling (Rails caching),
- Talk about JRuby, show an example Rails app and how to deploy it to Websphere
Presenters
Blaine Dolph is the Lead Architect for the Chicago Innovation Center and Rails Community Leader for IBM.
David Zayas is an Application Architect for the Chicago Innovation Center. After 8 years leading Java EE based projects, David has been Java-free for the last year and half, leading the charge on the most recent Ruby on Rails projects for the Center, Transition to Teaching and SME Toolkit.
Tom Sokalski is an application developer at the IBM Center for Solution Innovation in Chicago. He switched to Ruby on Rails around a year ago and is planning on sticking around for a while. You can contact Tom at tmsokals@us.ibm.com.

Questions? Contact: bernie@mesatech.com

• Wed. Jun 27th, 2007 @ 1:00pm - 5:45pm
• The Technology Executives Club
• Union League Club
• Address: 65 W. Jackson Blvd
• Fee: $95-$150
• Call Celine Seaback at 847-837-3900 x 4

Flu pandemics, terrorism, hurricanes and other disasters dictate companies immediate response. Executives must plan for the worst while building enterprise resilience and managing costs. Join us and gain insight on these key issues:

Area IT executives best approaches to disaster recovery and business continuity planning:

Keynote Panel
Linking disaster recovery to business and compliance requirements
Business continuity and corporate governance synergies
The convergence of business continuity, security and emergency management trends

Questions? Contact: Call Celine Seaback at 847-837-3900 x4

• Tue. Jun 12th, 2007 @ 12:00pm - 5:00pm
• Technology Advisors, Inc.
• Park Ridge, IL
• Address: Park Ridge Country Club, 636 N. Prospect, Park Ridge, IL 60068
• Fee: Free
• Please fill out registration form online prior to event

The Midwest SalesLogix User Group (MSUG) is a group of users that come together three times a year to learn about and discuss SalesLogix and other CRM related issues. The group was founded in 2002 for users who wanted to discuss these issues but did not have a forum to do so. Since then Technology Advisors has taken the lead to provide pertinent information at each MSUG meeting.

Those who attended have heard presentations and demonstrations on upcoming versions, how to improve sales success, and tips and tricks of performing a proper upgrade. They have participated in discussions of how to improve end user acceptance and what key information to measure in your CRM system. They have seen demonstrations from the top add-on vendors including people from Corum to discuss Mobile Technology and Scribe to discuss data integration.

See what you have been missing. Join other SalesLogix users at the next MSUG Meeting.

Agenda for June 12:

- Registration, Networking

- What is New in v7.2

- A 2 Year Vision of Sage Software

- Stronger Utilization of Your System with iReports

- Considerations When Upgrading v6.2 to v7.2

- Cocktail Reception/Meet and Greet

Questions? Contact: Email: msug@techadv.com or call: 847-655-3410

• Thu. Jun 7th, 2007 @ 7:00pm - 10:00pm
• wclug.org
• State Restaurant
• Address: 935 W. Webster Ave., Chicago, IL
• Fee: 0
• Non needed

Join one of the longest running Linux users groups in the Chicago area for food, drink and all things Open.

Questions? Contact: mjmccune at sbcglobal dot net

• Mon. May 7, 6-8pm
• Chicago Central ColdFusion and Flex User Group
• International Academy of Design and Technology
• Address: One North State Street between Madison & Washington
• Fee: Free, Prizes & Pizza will be provided. win a copy of CF Server Professional
• For security reasons, you MUST rsvp on our web site and bring ID.

Ever wonder why some companies pay good money to develop apps on the ColdFusion platform when there are free robust options available? Well, Adobe’s Senior Technical Evangelist is coming to Chicago to tell you why his company charges $ 1K-$ 6K for a single server license (and developers are still buying them like hotcakes). We will also get a sneak peek into the next release of CF, codenamed Scorpio.

Think CF is lame, too expensive, uncool, unscaleable? We invite you to attend this free event to grill the CF masters, and defend your platform of choice. Perhaps you will influence the future direction of CF, or even find new supporters for your platform.

Even before the release of CFMX 7 two years ago, the ColdFusion team was already hard at work planning the 8th major ColdFusion edition. Building on top of the powerful platform introduced in ColdFusion MX, and the solid feature set of ColdFusion MX 7, “Scorpio” piles on new features and technologies for developers, administrators, technical decision makers, and more. The official “Scorpio” release is scheduled for mid-2007, but you don’t have to wait until then to see it for yourself. Ben Forta will be demoing lots of Scorpio throughout a user group tour, where attendees will get to see “Scorpio” in action, as well as gain access to the pre-release beta, and get the chance to win Adobe software. And since our user group is part of the Scorpio tour, plan on coming out for this special event!!

Ben Forta is Adobe Inc.’s Senior Technical Evangelist, and has over two decades of experience in the computer industry in product development, support, training, and marketing. Ben is the author of the best-selling ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit and its sequel Advanced ColdFusion Application Development, as well as books on SQL, Regular Expressions, JavaServer Pages, WAP, Windows development, and more. Over 1/2 million Ben Forta books have been printed in a dozen languages worldwide. Ben co-authored the official ColdFusion training material, as well as the certification tests and official study guides for those tests, writes regular columns on ColdFusion and Internet development, and now spends a considerable amount of time lecturing and speaking on application development worldwide.

Questions? Contact: Igor Ilyinsky - manager {AT} cccfug [DOT] org

• Wed. Apr 11th, 2007 @ 6:00am - 8:00am
• Chicago Central ColdFusion and Flex Group
• International Academy of Design and Technology
• Address: One North State Street between Madison & Washington
• Fee: FREE
• For security reasons, you MUST rsvp on our web site and bring an ID

Amazon’s Mike Culver is coming to Chicago to educate us about some of the amazing developments over at the retail giant that are available to us all! Need a dedicated Linux box for just a few minutes? No Problem! Need to store tons of files for dirt cheap? No Problem! Need a million bucks? Well, it doesn’t hurt to ask (g-d knows they can afford it).

The PHP group had a similar talk in Oct ‘06 that I attended. It was great! Mike is a very interesting person to learn from and I’d encourage you to consider attending. - JAW, Editor

Questions? Contact: Igor Ilyinsky manager {at} cccfug dot org

• Thu. Apr 5th, 2007 @ 7:00pm - 10:00pm
• Windy City Linux User Group
• State Restaurant
• Address: 935 W. Webster Ave., Chicago, IL
• Fee: 0
• None Required.

Informal discussion about Linux, Free Software and all things open.

Free WiFi and 5 dollar laptop rentals.

State Restaurant now has 1/2 off all items on Thursday, which means most meals are between 5-10 dollars. It is BYOB with no corkage fees.

Questions? Contact: mmccune at wclug dot com

• Sat. Mar 10th, 2007 @ 1:00pm - 5:00pm
• SugarCRM Users’ Group
• Downtown Chicago Marriott
• Register for the event here

SugarCRM is the open source competitor to Salesforce.com. This is an exciting and thriving open source (and commercial) product. Enjoy learning how to make more money converting leads to customers, as well as talk with several key SugarCRM executives.

SugarCRM will have two team members presenting at the event Andy Dreisch (Vice President, Online Team) and Manoj Jayadevan (Product Management). Ken Brill from the SugarCRM community will also be presenting. I will be presenting as well in addition to running the event. Registration is required for the event there will be no walk-in registration and we have a seating limit of 40 attendees.

Here is the draft of the Agenda for the meeting all (times are in Central Time):

1:00 pm - 1:30 pm - Sign-In
1:30 pm - 1:45 pm - Introductions and Chicago SDUG (Max Blackmer)
1:45 pm - 2:15 pm - SugarCRM, Inc. and the Community (Andy Dreisch)
2:15 pm - 2:30 pm - Break
2:30 pm - 3:15 pm - SugarCRM Product Roadmap (Manoj Jayadevan)
3:15 pm - 3:30 pm - Break
3:30 pm - 4:15 pm - Modifying SugarCRM with Studio (Max Blackmer)
4:15 pm - 4:30 pm - Closing by Ken Brill and door prize drawing.
4:30 pm - 5:00 pm - Social Networking.

This agenda will change as content for the event progresses.

More information can be found in this forum thread

• Sat. Mar 3rd, 2007 @ 10:00am - Sun. Mar 4th, 2007 @ 4:00pm
• Bar Camp Madison
• Madison, Wisconson
• Address: Inn on the Park Hotel - 22 South Carroll Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53703
• Fee: free
• sign up here

BarCampMadison 2007 is an ad-hoc gathering of high-tech enthusiasts born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. Participants work together and try to create something exciting by being in close proximity to lots of smart people. Each person contributes in some way by leading discussions, demos, asking a question, or volunteering. Read about the first BarCamp in WIRED or news.com.com

* What - Barcamp is an un-conference about learning, sharing, and participation. See the list of Sessions for more details.
* Who - Anyone interested in technology and creativity; Register Here
* When - March 3rd - 4th.
30 hours of non-stop activities from 10AM Saturday to 4PM Sunday.

If someone wants to go but does not have a ride, post a comment here. I may know of some available transportation from Chicago to up there. -JAW

• Thu. Mar 1st, 2007 @ 7:00pm - 10:00pm
• WCLUG
• State Restaurant
• Address: 935 W. Webster Ave., Chicago, IL
• Fee: 0
• None Needed.

Discussion of Linux and all things Free and Open Source in an informal setting.

Questions? Contact: mjmccune at sbcglobal dot net

• Thu. Feb 15th, 2007 @ 5:00pm - 9:00pm
• Chicago NW Chapter WebSphere User’s Group
• 9 Parkway N, Deerfield, IL 60015
• Address: Meridian IT, Nine Parkway North, Deerfield, IL 60015
• Fee: 0

Call Jan Ashley 847-964-2823 about the latest solutions including presentations on:
* Virtualization
* Microsoft Vista and SQL64
* Network Security
* Unified Communications
* Wireless
* Business Continuity
* Meeting IBM’s solution partners
* Touring Innovation Center
* Demos, Prizes, Food and Drinks

Questions? Contact: JannyLeung@yahoo.com

• Thu. Feb 8th, 2007 @ 7:00pm - 9:00pm
• Chipy
• DePaul CTI 243 S Wabash Ave. The computer lab on the 4th floor
• Fee: free

Meet the founding team behind Enso, as well as learn how it can simplify your computing-life. Seriously, this looks like a really, really, impressive group of founders. Just read Enso’s about page before you dismiss attending this meeting.

I would not want to miss this event. Combine the ever-friendly Phython users group, plus these smart speakers, and you will be entertained and educated. (The President, Aza Raskin is the son of the man who started Apple’s Macintosh project, Jef Raskin).

One of Enso’s products is Enso Launcher. This is designed to give you instant access to your applications and windows. With a few easily remembered keystrokes, you can launch an application, switch to a window by name, and control the state of your windows.

ChiPy is made up of people of all levels of programming and Python knowledge. At every meeting we have had both beginning programmers, people who are just starting to use Python, as well as experienced Python programmers. Don’t be intimidated about coming to a meeting. They also have a great book discount with O’Reilly, just ask.

• Thu. Feb 1st, 2007 @ 7:00pm - 10:00pm
• WCLUG
• State Restaurant
• Address: 935 W. Webster Avenue, Chicago, IL
• Fee: 0
• No RSVP Needed

We’ve Moved! The new location has more room, free WIFI and $ 5 laptop rentals. State Restaurant

Questions? Contact: mmccune@wclug.com

• Thu. Jan 25th, 2007 @ 10:00am - Sun. Jan 28th, 2007 @ 12:00am
• MGChicago
• downtown chicago
• Address: various
• Fee: various
• RSVP website

Chicago Motion Graphics Festival 2007
The Premier Midwestern Event catering to 3D and Compositing Effects
January 25-28th 2007, various locations downtown Chicago

This four-day festival pairs daily educational opportunities
with nightly industry events.

[ Thr ] Screen Magazine’s Star Awards (see the nominees)
[ Fri ] Motion Graphics Interactive Mixer @ Bridges Media Group
[ Sat ] Two Hi-Def Screenings of Festival Winners @ the Chicago Cultural Center
[ Sun ] Forward thinking online event in the virtual worlds of SecondLife.com

The educational conference hosts workshop, lectures, panels and classes on all four days.
Check the website for a complete list of topics and presenters.

Festival Badges and individual tickets on sale now!

Also, Join us Wednesday night for our free informational
Pre-party and DVD launch –> Onomatopoeia Wednesday
Jan 24th @ Dulcenea, 1431 N. Milwaukee Ave. from 7pm - 12am

www.MGChicago.com

Questions? Contact: mason dixon, 312.375.5379

• Thu. Jan 18th, 2007 @ 5:00pm - 7:00pm
• ChiSUG
• 190 S. LaSalle St. Chicago, IL
• Address: Nexum, Inc.
• Secure your spot now by sending your name (for security check-in) to: rwagner [a t] transunion {d o t} com

Happy New Year ChiSUG members — it looks like we get to start 2007 with a bang.

For our January meeting, noted security researcher and consultant, Raven Alder, will present to the Chicago Snort Users Group

Don’t keep the pig all to yourselves - pass this invite on to other security minded peers (no loose cannons, please).

• Tue. Jan 16th, 2007 @ 6:30pm - 9:00pm
• Chicago Java Users Group
• DePaul University, Loop Campus CTI Building, Room #436A
• Address: 243 S. Wabash, Chicago, IL
• Fee: first time free
• Please rsvp so the right amount of food is ordered

Ari Zilka, Founder and CTO of Terracotta, Inc will be giving this talk.

Need to make your Java applications scalable and highly available? Learn how to make your Java applications “Enterprise-class” Java applications. By clustering the JVM, instead of the application, deploying clustered applications no longer requires rewriting code or creating new, complex custom code. Learn how to take several popular open source frameworks and cluster them without rewriting the code.

This is very developer focused.

• Thu. Jan 4th, 2007 @ 7:00pm - 10:00pm
• Windy City Linux Users Group
• Letezia’s Bakery
• Address: 2144 W. Division St, Chicago, IL
• Fee: 0
• None Needed.

We will be discussing and voting on a new venue for WCLUG.

Questions? Contact: mjmccune at sbcglobal dot net.

• Tue. Dec 5th, 2006 @ 6:50pm - 9:30pm
• NorthWest Chicagoland Linux User Group
• Harper College - A242
• Address: 1200 W. Algonquin Rd, Palatine, IL 60067
• Fee: Free

We talk about linux and the things in the linux area…open source, networking, interacting w/ other os’s and such. We can have newbies to sys admins to programs at our meetings. So come on out to the NW burbs and see what things we are doing.
We meet the first Tuesday of the month at Harper College in Palatine IL.

Questions? Contact: nwclugadmin@harpercollege.edu

• Mon. Dec 4th, 2006 @ 6:00pm - 8:00pm
• MobileMonday Chicago
• ThoughtWorks
• Address: 200 E Randolph (25th Floor)
• Fee: 0.00 USD
• Please join the mailing group - link on the website

partyStrands is a free interactive music and entertainment service for bars, clubs and DJs that utilizes screens, mobile phones and digital music and offers partygoers a new, colorful and fresh way to have fun. Partygoers can pick the nights music, send text messages and pictures and vote on songs, drinks, and much more, all from their cell phones.

partStrands will present at this MoMo session. Stephen Venute of pS will present the application and describe his companies view of social technologies such as pS and recommendation based mobile communities. Where is this technology headed and what the future holds and ofcourse we will have an interactive session with pS and get to try it for ourselves.

Thanks to ThoughtWorks for hosting the event.

Where:
The ThoughtWorks office:
25th Floor,
200 East Randolph, (The Aon Centre)
Chicago, IL

When:
6pm on Dec 4th (Monday)

Light Snacks and Drinks will be served at the venue
At this session - be ready to draw your mobile at the sight of partyStrands, the latest in interactive music entertainment projected to a wall. With a simple text message (alias + artist) you will be able to influence the music and request a favorite artist from our music library. You can also interact with other MoMo’ers via text messages sent to the screen, or email your pictures to the display, or even participate in votings.

Please sign up to the mailing group for more details. We might get over-subscribed this event so it would be a good idea to rsvp on the mailing group.

Questions? Contact: Kiran (kiran [doT] bellubbi aT gMail [doT] com

• Fri. Nov 17th, 2006 @ 7:00am - 9:00am
• TECHcoffee
• Caribou Coffee on LaSalle and Lake
• Fee: just buy some coffee

TechCoffee is an idea that’s part running club, part knitting bee, and part hackathon.

Get up early — like a running club — and work on fun, independent, non-work-related projects. Open source is great, but everyone is invited. Spend a few hours with some of Chicago’s most dedicated software developers.

• Thu. Nov 16th, 2006 @ 6:30pm - 8:30pm
• Chicago Area Ruby Group
• ThoughtWorks
• Address: 651 W. Washington Blvd. Suite 600 Chicago, IL 60661
• Fee: free
• RSVP for free food

What’s possible in a post Web 2.0 world? Innovation continues at a mind-bending pace, and this presentation will showcase some thought-provoking new directions that Web Services are headed in. The presentation will provide an overview of Amazon Web Services, including a Web service named Mechanical Turk that allows computers to make requests of people, an online object store, and more. You’ll also see a walk-thru showing how to set up virtual Linux servers.

Amazon spent ten years and over $ 2 billion developing a world-class technology and content platform that powers Amazon web sites for millions of customers. Most people think “Amazon.com” when they hear the word; however developers are excited to learn that there is a separate technology arm of the company, known as Amazon Web Services or AWS. Using AWS, developers can build software applications leveraging the same robust, scalable, and reliable technology that powers Amazon’s retail business. AWS has now launched eleven services with open APIs for developers to build applications, with the result that over 200,000 developers have registered on Amazon’s developer site to create applications based on these services.

Mike Culver, from Amazon.com, will be talking to us about AWS.

Editors Note: I’ve seen Mike’s talk before, and it is good. Say hi to me if you stop by. I’m the fast-moving redhead/blond -JAW

• Thu. Nov 2nd, 2006 @ 7:00pm - 10:00pm
• Windy City Linux Users Group
• Letizia’s Natural Bakery
• Address: 2144 W Division, Chicago, IL
• Fee: 0
• None required

We are into all things Linux. We have been meeting on the first Thursday at Letizia’s since 1999.

Questions? Contact: m.mccune at comcast dot net

• Tue. Oct 17th, 2006 @ 6:00pm - 8:30pm
• Chicago Java Users Group (CJUG)
• Orbitz Building (Olgilvie Metra Stn), 8th floor break room
• Address: 500 West Madison, Chicago, IL 60661
• Fee: Free for first timers, membership is cheap
• RSVP to get through security and for food

Determining how your application will respond to real-world situations is not an easy task. What happens when the disk fills up, the network becomes unavailable or its latency increases, or a system administrator inadvertently removes a necessary file? Writing repeatable tests that create these scenarios can be tedious and error prone at best.

This presentation introduces fault injection as a very powerful technique for any developer to have in their toolkit. A brief introduction to Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) and other similar technologies such as Javassist is provided.

About the Speaker: Rob Grzywinski is an accomplished chief architect and senior developer with expertise in leading projects with short development cycles and limited resources. His focus is on producing quality software that incurs minimal maintenance costs and grows to meet future needs. Rob has run the gamut from content management with the Tribune Company to security with RSA and from rich clients from to embedded devices.

Enter at the Visitor desk - the third floor just one level up the escalators above the train level.

• Monday Oct 16th, 6pm
• Place: Info.com 150 N Michigan, 28th floor, Chicago, IL
• If you will be arriving PAST 7pm, give me your name and I’ll tell Security to let you up.

What’s possible in a post Web 2.0 world? Innovation continues at a mind-bending pace, and this presentation will showcase some thought-provoking new directions that Web Services are headed in. The presentation will provide an overview of Amazon Web Services, and feature a demonstration showing how developers are able to easily utilize on-demand server capacity.

Amazon spent ten years and over $1 billion developing a world-class technology and content platform that powers Amazon web sites for millions of customers every day. Most people think “Amazon.com” when they hear the word; however developers are excited to learn that there is a separate technology arm of the company, known as Amazon Web Services or AWS. Using AWS, developers can build software applications leveraging the same robust, scalable, and reliable technology that powers Amazon’s retail business. AWS has now launched eleven services with open API’s for developers to build applications, with the result that over 160,000 developers have registered on Amazon’s developer site to create applications based on these services.

• First Annual Chicago Hackmeeting!
• October 13 - 15 @ www.dai5ychain.net
• 2159 W 21st PL (21st PL and Leavitt) Chicago, IL USA 60608
• hackmeetingwiki.dai5ychain.net

Calling all free-wheeling free-information free-reproductionistas! Attention to the hackers who love the streets! For the activists that just want to share resources! And for the militant media makers in search of free and open access to knowledge and ideas!
This event will gather some of the regions most committed activist programmers, free software lovers, socially engaged artists, independent media makers and critical thinkers to brainstorm and develop an agenda for the technological support of radical social movements in the great lakes region.

Theme suggestions:
Intellectual Property Regimes, Creative Commons, Low Power Radio FM, Internet Law for Activists, Public Space, Non Profit, Free Labor, Electronic Security Culture, The Global Politics of the Digital Infrastructure

Collaborate and collectively develop the first Annual Chicago Hackmeeting with us by proposing themes, presentations, workshops, discussions, skill shares, swaps, etc…!

• flyer 1 and 2
  

More info:

• http://www.dai5ychain.net
• http://www.chicagolug.org/pipermail/chicago-hacktavism
• http://hackmeetingwiki.dai5ychain.net

This is a special event, as it is out of Chicago, but many of us Chicagoans will be travelling to Sunnyvale, CA for this sweet-action event. Be sure to RSVP here, and if you’re a Chicagoan, leave a comment below on this post.

• Friday - Sunday Sept 29 - Oct. 1st in Sunnyvale, CA
• Free to participate, just RSVP here, on Upcoming’s site (Also leave a comment below).
• www.hackday.org

From Yahoo’s announcement:

We’ll kick things off on Friday, September 29th with a free all-day developer workshop. Then we’ll launch a 24-hour Hack Day with an outdoor party into the wee hours, with special guests providing the soundtrack. (Details to come later, but we guarantee this won’t be your usual corporate-wedding-band leading the crowd through 2am group sing-alongs of “Brick House.”) We’ll hack through the night, keep going through Saturday morning, and wind it all up that evening with hacker demos, judging from a panel of luminaries. and special awards for the coolest hacks. We’ll have special guest speakers all weekend, with Michael Arrington of TechCrunch presiding over the festivities. After nightfall we’ll close things out with another round of entertainment that you would be happy to pay for, except that you won’t have to.

Update:

Most of us are taking a Southwest flight (only $110 each way) out on Thursday night and and leaving Sunday morning. Book a flight with us, or leave a post below to split up the hotel room!
Southwest flight details follow:

• Hacking the Neuros OSD IRC Chat
• Thursday Sept 14, 2006 at 9pm CST
• The Neuros is a DVR for portable media players. And it’s built totally on open source software (there’s an active community to help you too.)
• Access the chat by IRC at #neuros on freenode.net or with any web browser at http://open.neurostechnology.com/cgiirc/

More information is here.

During this weekly meeting, the head of the firmware division will patiently answer your questions about hacking the Neuros, no matter how stupid, ignorant or inane they may be.

It’s the last meeting before we go live with the Beta OSD and our small community will be quickly overrun with the clamoring hoards of outsiders (well I’m praying desperately for clamoring hoards anyway). It’s also special because I’ve invited some folks from the *gasp* outside world to find out about the OSD. Now these folks may not know the Kernel of Linux from the Colonel Sanders, but they have cold hard cash we’re trying to pry out of their fingers to buy the OSD.