superhappydevhouse

11 Things: SuperHappyDevHouse

Thursday, October 2, 2008

When we first stumbled upon SuperHappyDevHouse, we weren't quite certain what it was, but we were curious. Co-founder David Weekly was kind enough to explain:

1. The basics: SuperHappyDevHouse is an informal get-together of geeks from all around the Bay Area. Every six weeks or so, 150 programmers and designers with laptops meet up and in anarchic format work on whatever they feel like working on. Think of it as a "productive party."

2. The name: The name comes from the "Saturday Night Live" skit "Happy Fun Ball." Do not taunt the Happy Fun Ball!

3. The beginning: It started when Jeff Lindsay conceived of mixing a LAN Party (where people bring computers to play video games against each other in the same room) with productive development time.

4. The love: We're open to the public and volunteer-staffed - nobody's making money off of it. We accept donations and have sponsorship from Mohr Davidow Ventures.

5. The history: The first DevHouse was in late May 2005 and consisted of about two dozen people at my house. My company (PBwiki) was started there and is now a global organization with over 25 employees.

6. The context: This isn't the first regular nerdathon in the Bay Area. The Homebrew Computer Club ran from 1975 to 1977 and provided the roots for the creation of both Apple Computer and Microsoft. BarCamp is another "unconference" for nerds that happens periodically in the Bay Area.

7. The invites: We encourage "hackers and thinkers" and discourage recruiters and marketers. (And by "hackers" we don't mean stealing military documents or destroying the Internet. We mean creating new things.)

8. The location: The location varies but is usually at someone's home. The Web site is the best way to find out where and when the next event is happening.

9. The lightning: During the event, we let speakers talk for five minutes each about a helpful technical subject. The time limit is strictly enforced.

10. The definition: This is not a networking event (though you'll meet new people) nor a competition or conference (though there are talks and semi-famous attendees), nor a party (though people do have fun and there's sometimes music). It's an olio.

11. The details: Please come having already eaten lunch. Bring your laptop and ideally some (healthy) snacks and/or beer.

SuperHappyDevHouse 27, 2-11 p.m. Sat. $10 donation. Google, 345 Spear St., San Francisco. www.superhappydevhouse.org. (Online registration encouraged.)

- Tim Sullivan, tsullivan@sfchronicle.com

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/02/NSJM138575.DTL

This article appeared on page G - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle