Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Looking ahead on December 24th

The free Friday Open Court Workshops resume on January 9th. They run from 4 to 7 PM. Interest has built to the point where we are going to kick off a campaign on the weekend of the First Friday in February to set up the FSO (Free Space Optics) link from the building that holds The Rack at 1844 Springfield Ave. and  Scoops & Soups at 1846 to the building that holds the office of Dr. Dione M. Williams, MD, at 1787 Springfield Ave. (See http://geeksfso.blogspot.com/2013/12/introducing-geeks-fso-proof-of-concept.html )

Draft schedule:

Putting the talent and genius of
Springfield Avenue on Display!

First Friday Weekend at The Rack

February 6th to 8th
Friday, Feb 6th
4 to 7 PM:    Geeks FSO Free “Open Court” Workshop for coding apps and creating content.
7 PM (open ended until 10 PM): Open Mic talent platform: $10 
Saturday, Feb 7th
10 AM to 2 PM: Networking brunch when it’s OK to talk to someone you haven’t met before. No host menu.
4 to 7 PM:    Seminar w/discussion: Connecting Springfield Avenue via FSO (Free Apace Optics). No host menu. (Note: Panel moderated by Hilding Lindquist.)
Sunday, Feb 8th:
2 to 4 PM:    Seminar w/discussion: Investing in the Future of Springfield Avenue Through Technology: $75 at door; $50 thru Feb 5th:
Moderator: Hilding Lindquist, System Design Consultant
Principal Speaker:
Dr. Barnet Schmidt, PhD, SM IEEE
Managing Partner
Kaplan/Schmidt Associates, LLC
Consulting Communication Engineers
West Orange, NJ,
Please note: Barnet doctorate defense was on FSO at PEP (Stevens) on November 19, 2013. He is an experienced communication engineer and prepared the presentation for theMaplewood proof of concept testbed.


Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Looking ahead ...

Geeks FSO, a local virtual community committed to open source development, is offering a free “open court/drop-in” workshop for coding apps and creating content every Friday evening from 4 to 7 PM at The Rack CafĂ©, 1844 Springfield Ave., Maplewood, NJ 07040. Our mission is to provide access to practice, like shooting hoops at a local gym or park.

If you want to hone your skills in coding apps or creating content then bring your laptop, tablet, or smartphone and join us. If you don’t have one of those, come on down anyway. We’ll work something out.

Starting with the first Friday in the coming academic semester (a la Essex County College), January 30th, we will organize around a maximum of five continuing teams of two persons each, a “mentor” and a “student,” in addition to the “open court/drop-in” format. Team members will be selected on a first come/first served basis from a list of workshop participants who register and apply. After participating for two Fridays in a row, an individual may register to apply. After three Fridays he or she may apply to be added to the respective student/mentor lists from which team members are selected as vacancies occur. Teams will disband when either member dro ps out—either intentionally or after two consecutive absences from the Friday workshops—or after the last Friday of the academic semester, April 24th in this case.


Some of the projects we are working on:

- Website basics: HTML, CSS, JAVA
Use w3schools.com website to learn and practice coding websites as an introduction to coding.

- Performance videos:
Participant paired with video professional to produce the participant's video of her performance.

- Live stream events:
Every Monday morning between 9 and 10am Geeks FSO holds a community forum as a livestream event at The Rack, as well as conducting the workshop as a livestream event.

- "How to" videos:
We are working on a videos that show
1. How to use products that have social value such as pedestrian safety reflectors.
2. How to use multiple cameras to enhance the visual effects of telling a story or providing information.

- Local virtual community for our Seniors/Older Adults:
See NYTimes: Retirees Turn to Virtual Villages for Mutual Support
Hilding "Gus" Lindquist, workshop coordinator, is a member of the virtual community of Community Geek: Using Science to Build Better Communities, providing resources for building successful online communities at communitygeek.com