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March 15, 2008
The MilwaukeeDevHouse Experience
Last night, Nathan and I packed up the MacBook, Canon scanner, 27 of his "transportation" themed drawings and headed downtown.
We were off to take part in the first ever MilwaukeeDevHouse at Bucketworks — an opportunity to hang out with a bunch of local Milwaukee tech geeks, doing stuff together.
When we arrived, Bucketworks was already hopping! I counted 30 people, and I may have missed some attendees wandering around Bucketworks (not to mention those who came after we left at 9pm).
We found a spot at one of the tables and setup the MacBook and scanner, then Nathan and I worked together as a team to scan, tune and upload his drawings on Transportation to Flickr.
Today I asked Nathan his thoughts on the event, and he said:
"I liked the people and the noise and the food. I liked pushing the buttons to scan my drawings. I liked everything there!"
This was an excellent experience for us both on many levels:
- We shared quality father and son time in a fun, shared environment
- I was able to encourage Nathan in his creative work by scanning his art
- Nathan met a variety of Web414 pals and learned how to interact with others
- We were able to build a memorable experience with tangible results
In a nutshell, a DevHouse is a space where people can work on serious or fun projects, either by themselves or in a team. Here's the official description:
MilwaukeeDevHouse aims to be the premier regularly scheduled hackathon event that combines serious and not-so-serious productivity with a fun and exciting party atmosphere.If you’re a coder, designer, or just someone who enjoys software and technology development, MilwaukeeDevHouse was made for you...
MilwaukeeDevHouse is intended for passionate and creative technical people that want to have some fun, learn new things, and meet new people.
If you have the chance to check out a DevHouse locally, do it! Our experience was wonderful. Even better, start a local DevHouse in your area.
Special thanks to Pete Prodoehl, one of the leaders of MilwaukeeDevHouse.
We're already looking forward to MilwaukeeDevHouse2! :-)
Related Links
MilwaukeeDevHouse1 Photos on Flickr
Nathan's Transportation Drawings:
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
March 15, 2008 8:41 AM | Milwaukee | 
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Rohdesign is the site of designer Mike Rohde, who writes about design, sketching, writing, mobile computing, technology, travel, cycling, books, music and more.
