Blake Burris

DevHouse evolved: Joyent + Mentez in the developing world

Blake Burris — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:33:45 +0000

I used to think all cool web startups happened in and around the Bay Area, the nexus of innovation, brains, and capital - right? There has been a great change underway with global spread of Barcamp since August ‘05 and Facebook Developer Garages (calendar) that have been going on since May ‘07 (time of Facebook platform launch), there has been a surge in creativity happening in places far beyond the Valley. In fact 8 out 10 most recent Facebook developer garages are happening outside the States.

Juan Franco of Mentez of Miami has smartly tapped several hots trends. Mentez has created an environment for bringing together developers together around the viral platforms, Facebook and OpenSocial. They are reaching out to developers in developing countries like Turkey, Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, and South Africa.

While we have at times raised sponsorships to offer prizes at iPhoneDevCamp and DevHouse events I’ve been part of organizing, they are paying cold cash and providing consulting services and infrastructure through a deal announced yesterday with Joyent. I don’t think they’ve quite reached the OLPC-destination villages in Africa, Asia and Latin America but maybe that’s the next stop.

Their approach builds on things that have worked elsewhere like SuperHappyDevHouse in Silicon Valley and its dirivitives, CocoaDevHouse, MashPits, and in another vein, Startup Weekend.

Developers interested in the next round of Mentez competitions have until the 24th of February to signup. Check it out if you’re a developer and if you’re a blogger in those countries, help spread the word.

I’d be happy to field your questions about scaling your business or social applications on Joyent Accelerators. If you’re a Facebook developer, check out our free Accelerator offering in partnership with DELL and Facebook.

[Disclosure: I'm a platform evangelist at Joyent. ]

16Bit Party @ SXSW Interactive 2008

Blake Burris — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:25:33 +0000

SxSW 16Bit Party Ad, originally uploaded by joyent (textdrive).

Planning to be in Austin for SXSW Interactive? Don’t miss THE party. Last year’s 8-bit went on and on and on and with the time change, most of us didn’t make an early sessions the next day.

As a newcomer to Joyent as Platform Evangelist for Cloud Computing and Facebook, I’m excited to be a host for this party.

The venue is pure Austin! Outside, fire pit, and good music - just east of the freeway (don’t try walking though). I hope to see lots of you there.

Upcoming Facebook Developer Garages: Silicon Valley, Dallas, San Francisco

Blake Burris — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 20:15:23 +0000

Upcoming Facebook Developer Garages: Silicon Valley, Dallas, San Francisco, originally uploaded by davemc500hats.

If you’re anywhere near Texas on Tuesday, Nov. 13th, make sure Facebook Developer Garage @ SMU is on your calendar.

If you can’t make it to the main conference sessions 10:00AM to 4:00PM, be sure to join us at Trinity Hall for the after party sponsored by Joyent.

Facebook Developer Garage Dallas, Nov. 13th

Blake Burris — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:25:33 +0000

dallas garage logo.jpg, originally uploaded by blakeburris.

Time to get your hack on Texas developers. Join us on Nov. 15th @ SMU to learn everything you wanted to know about building facebook apps - the API, what’s new, and who in Texas is building great stuff. Entrepreneurs and students welcome.

Join the facebook dallas group and follow us on twitter for updates.

Planning on joining us @ SMU? Registrater today (EventBrite)

Schooling on the Social Graph

Blake Burris — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:50:18 +0000

It’s been a wild few months since the f8 launch event…but most of you reading this don’t need to be reminded of how much things have changed since then for web startups and entreprenuers with app ideas brewing. While we’ve not solved global poverty yet, it’s still early in the game! (90 days or so) Already, there’s been significant participation in the Facebook Developer Garages around N. America , the U.K. and another in Singapore upcoming.

In October, there are *two* multi-day facebook conferences with broader agendas: CommunityNext Platform organized by Noah Kagan & GraphingSocialPatterns put on by Dave McClure. The latter, is where I’m focusing my attention (read: building apps to demo) and contributing time; raising sponsorships - as I did for iPhoneDevCamp. Check them out and see what’s the best fit for you.

Dave McClure has steadily been building his facebook street cred, f8 knowledge and best practices. To be fair, along the way he has taken some heat for his f8 zealotry!

I think GraphingSocialPatters will be a great conference at a great price. Out-of-towners will have easy-access from the San Jose airport. It will be great investment of time for the increasing number of traditional businesses looking into facebook, developers with apps to showcase, and anyone wanting to learn the intricacies of building smart, scalable apps on facebook. Check out the details and maybe I’ll see you in San Jose soon.

Tags:
facebook, f8, graphingsocialpatterns, davemcclure

time for blogging

Blake Burris — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 22:05:16 +0000

Every time I’ve thought to blog in the last couple of months, I’ve instead spent time updating either Facebook or Twitter (follow me)! Now, I’ve got to think harder about what I really care about sharing here.
A few things have consumed my time lately:

My web startup, Goalcamp

Facebook in general, keeping up with friends, and testing new apps

DevCamp planning - like iPhoneDevCamp and the more recent MobileDevCamp (event pics)

Maybe with the change of seasons and the breaking of the Texas heat wave, I’ll be more inclined to blog here. There are some exciting things on the horizon!

iPhoneDevCamp wrap

Blake Burris — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:46:18 +0000

The DevCamp weekend in San Francisco was a great time for Apple fanboys, mobile geeks and web entrepreneurs lusting for the opportunity to extend their apps to new iPhone owners. I think it was also a test for the extension of the Barcamp brand (as factoryjoe noted). Barcamp, for many, has come to symbolize the “unconference” movement; a way to quickly mobilize people around common interests for the greater good of the community.

I talked with many paticipants who were unfamiliar with either “Barcamp” or variations on DevHouse and MashPit. After the weekend I expect most new to the fold will be converted to this way of open assembly and participation. Most were just happy to be around so many others interested in learning the ins and outs of getting web content to render correctly on iPhone. I for one, am holding out hope for a bit more access to core OS X services. For now, we’ll have to be content working through the viewport of iPhone’s Safari browser - which ain’t so bad as these hacks prove.

It’s interesting to read how traditional media represented the event their audiences. A few newspapers articles covered the event and I even managed to get a short quote in the first article

SF Chronicle & L.A. Times (I wonder how long those will be publicly accessible)

The Flickr pool is here and whurley should be announcing some videos posting soon.

iPhoneDevCamp Saturday

Blake Burris — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:51:22 +0000

Making a Philz Coffee run at iPhoneDevCamp Saturday, originally uploaded by Steve Rhodes.

iPhoneDevCamp was a good time for all. Working the event was rewarding in many ways and I met some great guys both organizing and developers hacking all weekend.

I’ve posted 5 developer interviews on CocoaRadio if you’re interested in learning more.

iPhone competitive specs

Blake Burris — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:57:47 +0000

iPhone competitive specs, originally uploaded by blakeburris.

Apple continues its build-up to the iPhone launch date with better specs posted today for both the screen and battery life. Coupled with the WWDC news about how developers can address the iPhone, these recent details answer developer, consumer and some analysts’ concerns. I wonder what else they have up the sleeve?

Now, we’re all anxious to see how Apple and AT&T handle the flood of switchers from other networks. I can think of a few carrier stocks to short.

Dallas web geeks @ Democamp2

Blake Burris — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:23:48 +0000

At DemoCampDallas2, friends and newcomers showed off new web apps and previewed progress with others. We had enough folks for lively conversation over pizza and beers.
For anyone in Dallas seeking CoWorking space, let’s talk. We’ve got some open desks and the startup vibe going on.