This is something I have been trying to articulate since the first BarCamp Orlando almost 4 years ago. The whole idea behind FooCamp and its bastard offspring BarCamp was to use Open Space Technology to create order in chaos. Our events have had both order and chaos, but the order is not ordered toward much of anything productive. Some people have started new events to achieve this: I think our BarCamp can be better on its own, but these other purposeful events wouldn't be bad either.

One year ago, I was approached by Julia Young, the President of a local nonprofit organization called the Urban Think! Foundation. She was charged with transforming a soon-to-be out of business local bookstore into a Coworking space, event space, and a program to support local creatives. There were hazy thoughts about having a cafe, putting in a loft, and creating a versatile space. She found me because of my numerous blogs posts about Coworking, and my involvement in the local community.

I'm a regular reader of the Orlando Business Journal's blogs. As far as I know, they don't post all of their articles online. I get a lot of great info from the blogs though, and they help me keep in touch with my city in ways that I don't get from other publications.