next »

[Corpus]

There's already a google map of tigers with quite a few people on it.

I'll see if I can find it.

[Laremere]

Oh, cool, that would save allot of work.

Ok errrm.... how does one add a pointer to this shared mapthingee?  Don't laugh darnit!!!!

Hit edit and click the marker icon in the upper right corner, then move or click to where you want it on the map (I forget which.)

[Corpus]

Here.

For some reason, my marker has turned transparent, but I can't work out how to fix it.

[medieval]

I will attend to this in about six years.

[agj]

Anyway, this thread has me wondering what the geographic spread of the TIGers is? Is there a thread on this?

There is.

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=2547.0

[Matthew]

Would it be worth paying some attention to some other international events? For example, Unity has a 'Unite' conference in October in Copenhagen.  Denmark.  Europe.

(ie not America)

Unity actually rotates between San Francisco and Copenhagen (the first Unite was 2007, in SF, and the next will likely return there).

But, yeah, the notion of a conference in both North America and Europe is great.

[Xion]

It should be in the US and EU simultaneously with live video feed and stuff between the two.

And I'd love to go but only the SF/bay area would be feasible for me probably.

[Alec]

Would it be worth paying some attention to some other international events? For example, Unity has a 'Unite' conference in October in Copenhagen.  Denmark.  Europe.

(ie not America)

Unity actually rotates between San Francisco and Copenhagen (the first Unite was 2007, in SF, and the next will likely return there).

But, yeah, the notion of a conference in both North America and Europe is great.

Oh if Unite is in SF I might actually go! :]

[progrium]

Ok, doing this sort of conference is not that hard. SuperHappyDevHouse helped inspire a worldwide phenomenon known as BarCamp, which are considered "unconferences" in that they're volunteer, self-organizing (mostly) and completely user-generated. I've been to a good number since they started in 2005, including the first (put on by friends) and even organized my own (not including SHDH, which isn't considered a BarCamp).

I'd highly recommend this model for TIGConf. There are tons of resources on putting this model into action. Definitely the biggest hurdle is the venue, which does not need to be a convention center! Any office space with enough rooms is good enough and many companies are willing to donate/sponsor to be associated with the event since these are not-for-profit events.

It takes almost no money to make these happen! And seriously, these events are usually much better than most "real" conferences. It just makes too much sense to do TIGConf this way. I love GDC, I've been going for 8 years, but honestly a real conference is waaaay too much work to organize in a centralized way.

[increpare]

Thanks for mentioning that progrium; I hadn't heard of that model before.  Very interesting.

[Corpus]

Hmm... that's more of a -Jam than a -Conf model, though.

I think the original idea was that we already have these decentralised events, and that it would be good to organise one big daddy.


(By the way, the thing about BarCamp is pretty cool! One of those came to Newcastle a few years ago, though I didn't hear about it until late last year.)

[Craig Stern]

This sounds cool! I'd like to attend, but if it's during the summer of 2009, I won't be able to come until August. (I'll be studying for the bar before then. )

[progrium]

No, it IS a conf model. In fact, that's why SuperHappyDevHouse is different. SHDH is the jam model, BarCamp is the conf model. Take my word for it.

And it's not that it's decentralized as in all over the place. It's decentralized in planning and organizing. TRUST ME you want this.

Btw, here's a video from the first event: http://laughingsquid.com/bar-camp-video/

Ignore the text at the beginning. It's kind of a silly video. The video footage of the event is what's interesting. You see there is jamming (as can happen at conferences), but you also see the grid where people put up sessions, people giving sessions, etc. Anybody can put up a session, and everybody helps out to make the event happen. The venue was FREE and everything else was donated.

[Rudolf Kremers]

Sounds really good to me. This kind of anarchic but focused setup really suits the personalities involved in the indie scene. I am all for it.

[Don Andy]

Heh, as long as all people have the same idea in mind anarchy usually works better than central organization.

Reminds me of something from school. We made a trip with about 15 people on a boat in the Netherlands and our teacher brought up a big plan about who is supposed to cook and clean and stuff like that on which day.

On day 2 of the trip, he took a big marker and wrote the typical anarchy A sign on top of the plan and surprisingly everything went smooth as hell. There weren't just 3 people doing all the work while the others went lazy. EVERYBODY did his part without having to be told that he has to.

It really surprised me as this isn't what you expect from a school trip that involves alcohol and weed. That the teachers supplied.

On a more related note, though, I want something TIG-related to happen in Germany someday 

[GregWS]

This idea sounds really great, actually.  It allows people who want to lecture a chance to, and it makes a great deal of sense for our type of community.

So yes, hooray for progrium! 

[increpare]

On a more related note, though, I want something TIG-related to happen in Germany someday 

you could count me up for that 

[Alec]

Jeff speaks wise words! 

[fish]

prognium makes a very good point.

ive participated in many unconferences types of events like pecha kucha, barcamp, etc etc.

i also like the idea of a standard format like what pecha kucha does.
something indie-centric like that would be amazing.

this makes me want to put together something right here.

but events like these would stay local.
one of the biggest draw of something like GDC is to get together with friends and make new ones. if everybody just stays in their home town, you lose that.

[GregWS]

i also like the idea of a standard format like what pecha kucha does.
something indie-centric like that would be amazing.

Let me just add that I don't just love Pecha Kucha, I Fucking Love Pecha Kucha! 

I was at the first one in Edmonton in May, and Winnipeg has been running these events based off of PK called 10x20x20 (I have NO IDEA why it isn't just the official Winnipeg PK night, and that's really bugging me; same format, and they even cite the creator's of PK).

Come to think of it Alec, you totally should speak at the next one of those here in Winnipeg.  Last I've heard, they're planning for one within the next couple months (some of the main organizers are in my faculty), PM me and I can probably dig up a link to it.