Just wanted to write a quick post about 2 cool things I “discovered” this weekend.
First, the Chicago BarCamp meeting was this weekend. I had a picture in my mind of what it would be like and it was pretty right on. Tons of developers clustered in various spaces within a larger loft-like space. I also knew I would not have much to offer, as I am not a developer. But I may be hiring some very soon, and I thought it would be good to get out there and meet some people.
Funny thing is I have been networking more in SF, Toronto and cyberspace than in Chicago. Met Jason Jacobsohn form the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center and Jason Rexilius from hostedlabs and who organized the event. They urged me to start going to more Chicago events, and I think I will. I am about to free up my evenings, which has really been the one thing keeping me from them. I missed 3 events this week (web ascent, tech cocktail and going.com party) from other commitments. Gotta stop that.
I will post my couple pictures I took and tag them barcampchicago. One cool one is of two guys projecting a terminal window on the wall to jointly look at or debug some code they were working on. 😀 Very cool scene indeed.
Then the other quick thing I want to post about is the AWESOME new site I found called Competitious. It’s in beta like a good little 2.0 site should be. Any one who has worked with me knows that I am a stats hound and frequent stats sites like Alexa and Compete looking for how sites fair against each other in various way.
Competitious is cool because it combines the stats functions with comparison grids and clippings of news articles about the sites all in one area. So you can have all the social networking sites you are track in one area, run quick comparisons on them and then aggregate articles about them all in one place. I sent 2 or 3 emails to them praising them this weekend. They probably regret the feedback link. 🙂
technorati tags:stats, competitious, barcamp, barcampchicago, chicago, developers, geek, conferences, unconference, alexa, compete
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Joi Podgorny 
I think I missed ya at BARcamp this past weekend, but if going to more Chicago tech stuff is your bag, you should check out my site: WindyBits.
Joi, it was great meeting you as well. I am glad that I was able to persuade you a little to start attending Chicago tech events. While Chicago has a wide range of industries, we still have a thriving tech community. It is worth exploring more so you can appreciate what we have here. You should definitely check out Tom’s WindyBits.com site for tech events. Also, check out TechVenue.com and MidwestBusiness.com