san antonio

Podcamp San Antonio 3.0 is Around the Corner

Do you want to learn how to craft a podcast for your organization or for personal enrichment? Do you want to learn what tools podcasters use in their art? Would you like to find out how to make money with your podcast? Have you ever wondered how to create video for the internet?

The world of media is changing. What was once only possible with expensive equipment is now easily done with your home computer and a microphone or camera.

Podcamp San Antonio 3.0 is the place you want to be on May 16. Visit PodcampSanAntonio.org for more details.

Going to Veterans March Instead of SXSW

America's Last Patrol Post #3
I heard through the grapevine that my friends over at America’s Last Patrol Post 3 are planning another march from Edinburg, Texas to San Antonio, Texas to demonstrate the need for a VA hospital in the Rio Grande Valley. The first time they did this was in November 2005. Rep. Aaron Pena documented his walk with the group on his blog. Their second walk in 2006 was from Brownsville to Rio Grande City. I was able to walk with them a couple of days and photograph the event. I am leaning towards joining them on their latest march. I am not a veteran, but I do recognize the need for a hospital in South Texas and could lend a hand in helping them get the word out about the trek.

Background

This group, along with several other veterans groups, have consistently worked hard over the years to get Congress to open up a VA hospital in the RGV. Their efforts have yielded a VA clinic in Harlingen, which is great for simple medical conditions; however, veterans must make the trip to San Antonio for more serious problems. Travel expenses and lodging are often a big hurdle for many vets to receive treatment. Another problem is that the VA hospital and clinics get hit with a large increase in veterans every year during the winter season, making timely care almost impossible. Even with a good measure of success towards their goal, South Texas veteran groups have to keep working towards their ultimate goal.

What You Can Do

Most importantly, you could help spread the word about the event. Let people know that it’s coming. You might join us along the route. You could donate some money to the cause. I’ll set up a page where you can sponsor miles. The total walk is over 200 miles.

What I’ll be doing

I will be marching with the veterans, first of all. I’ll also be taking pictures along the way. I will do my best to post to Utterli and this blog. I’ll also enable my Google Latitude so that you can track our progress; my Latitude account is shaine.mata@gmail.com.

If you want more information about the march, contact Jesus Bocanegra at 956.246.8342. If you want more information about what I’m doing, call me at 956.205.0706.

UPDATE

Here are websites created for the March to San Antonio
http://www.marchtosanantonio.tumblr.com/
http://marchtosanantonio.webs.com/

Freelancecamp San Antonio

Freelancecamp San Antonio 2009
Freelancecamp San Antonio 2009
This weekend I had the chance to travel to San Antonio with Sergio Chapa to the 2nd Freelancecamp in the nation, and first in Texas. As a recent freelancer, it was a great experience for learning what other freelancers are doing and for a little bit of moral support. When you make the choice to go it alone, you get that sinking feeling that maybe, you made a mistake. It was great to see that many others have made that mistake successfully for many years.

I appreciate the work that Luis Sandoval, Alysan Delaney Childs, Jennifer Navarrete, and Gylon Jackson put into organizing the event. After speaking with them I learned that more than half of the attendees had never been to an unconference, like a Barcamp. That is a great success. I can’t get over the energy that was present at the event. Great job, guys.

I got recruited into doing a couple of presentations, though the first was more of a group interactive presentation. The first presentation was titled, I’m a Freelancer… Now what? We shared experiences with taxes, health insurance, and dealing with the challenges of being a freelancer.

The second presentation was on Creating a New Market for Social Media. Sergio Chapa helped me out on that one. We learned that Corpus Christi has some of the same challenges we have in the Rio Grande Valley. Fortunately, it was recorded by Leslie Baldwin and is viewable below.

After Startup Weekend San Antonio

I’ve had quite a bit waiting for me since my return from Startup Weekend San Antonio this weekend. If you have kept up, you know that I am a part of the team that started ForceXchange.com. We are still working to carry the project forward in addition to carrying out all that pertains to our daily lives. It’s funny, I’ve heard it said that if you want something done, ask a busy person. Well, there you go. All of us have plenty to do and we have taken on more. We must be nuts.

I do want to also recognize, with a little bit of link love, the other teams from Startup Weekend San Antonio. There is IDre.am; which is a team of developers who threw up a functional website in record time. The website is a fun idea. People post what they dreamt the night before; others post interpretations of the dreams. Still others can vote on the interpretations for the best one.

The other team is RentEscapes.com. It is the most ambitious of the startups, which can potentially earn the greatest amount of money. On the other hand, it is also the most complex to carry out. The good news is that the team has a large pool of talent from which to draw.

We all want to carry our projects forward and monetize from our efforts. We’ll see how things work out in the coming weeks. I am grateful for the experience; and I am glad to have met so many awesome like-minded people. Even though I am still catching up on rest, I am clear of mind what I want to do as a result of the experience. I will keep you posted on what is going on with the ForceXchange team as we work to complete our project.

UPDATE

You can read more about Startup Weekend San Antonio at the San Antonio Express News. Watch video here.

San Antonio Startup Weekend

Next weekend, I’ll be heading out to San Antonio for Startup Weekend. I’ve heard of Startup Weekend from friends. It has all been second-hand knowledge in addition to what’s on the website. My understanding of Startup Weekend is that it is 54 hours of putting a company or a project together over the weekend. There have been several of these Startup Weekends already, so you can search around for projects that have come out of it.

Everything that I’ve read about Startup Weekend glosses over all the technical stuff and focuses on the people. Andrew Hyde, the founder of Startup Weekend, is very much interested in promoting community. I can’t say that there is anything wrong with that. After all, the business may succeed or fail; it’s up to the market. However, you will have spent three days seeing other people work on a project for long hours. If the company succeeds, that’s great. However, you’ll have the relationships for years after (positive or negative).

I’m not exactly certain where I fit in through all of this. So, to give myself a chance to grow, I signed up as a Cook. My understanding is that there will be food available, so I don’t know that there will actually be any cooking, but I’m up for the challenge. 🙂

I’m in it to help bring a new company to life. Yet, I am equally interested in meeting some great and talented people. If you are looking for a business startup, you may consider joining us next weekend from May 16 to 18. You should buy a ticket before showing up. It should be a good experience for you entrepreneurial types. I hope to see you there.

PodCamp San Antonio Numero Dos Conference Call

I just got off a conference call with members of the San Antonio Podcasters and New Media Group. We discussed that latest in our work to organize PodCamp San Antonio Number Dos, which is still the ONLY PodCamp in the State of Texas. At the moment, we are working to find sponsors for the event. We have some deadlines looming for sponsors so that we can put their logos on t-shirts, badges, and the guide to San Antonio.

If you are interested in sponsoring, we need your firm commitment by April 15 so that we can send off the t-shirt order and have them printed in time. For the badges, we have April 25 as the deadline. We can mess around with the Guide to San Antonio a little, but would appreciate as much time as possible so we can do a good job.

Another point of discussion is sponsorship levels. We are asking for $250 and $500 sponsorships. However, if you want to give $10, we’re not going to turn you down. Whatever you can contribute would be of great help. You can contact Jennifer Navarrete for more details on that. There is also a donation button on the PCSAII website.

The rest of the discussion centered around getting the word out to the press, the public, and sponsors so that we can meet the deadlines. It’s coming down to the wire, folks. Before you know it, we’ll be 30 days out and we’ll really be working it.