Oncee@Blogger

Create WV Conference on the Future to be Held In Richwood

2013-06-27T10:47:00.006-04:00

Excited to be a part of the Create West Virginia Conference planning team this year.

Even more excited that it's going to be in my hometown of Richwood this year.

CHARLESTON, WV – Nicholas County’s City of Richwood will be the site of the 2013 Create West Virginia Conference, Thursday, October 24 through Saturday, October 26. The subject is The Future.

“Richwood? Richwood has no conference facilities,” is the typical response to that news. In fact, the city, with its 29 boarded-up storefronts on Main Street, would appear to be a highly unlikely location for a conference that has attracted as many as 400 conferees in the past. “It’s true that it’s a creative challenge to have the conference in Richwood,” says Rebecca Kimmons, the 2013 conference director, “which is exactly the point. It’s one thing to go to a nice hotel and talk about the issues many West Virginia communities face. It’s another to be there. We considered several distressed towns around the state. Richwood’s Mayor Robert Johnson was very excited about the prospect of the Create Conference, and proactively encouraged us to come. It turns out that Richwood has more facilities than meets the eye.” Richwood High School will be the site of the conference, with keynote speeches to be delivered in the school’s comfortable and well-appointed 500 seat theater.Break-out sessions will also be held in the high school, and some meals will be served there. Students and teachers will have access to some conference proceedings. Keynote speakers lined up so far include Dr. Thomas Frey, Google’s favorite futurist; Dr. Naomi Stanford, an organizational design expert whose TEDx Talk on the future of work can be found on the Intenet; Dr. Greg Bowman, newly named associate dean of the WVU College of Law, whose topic will creating professionals who can go anywhere; and Thomas Worlledge, the West Virginia architect whose award-winning design for the Williamson Smart Office won a top award at The Building Conference last January. His topic will be “Don’t Touch That Town—Yet.”

The high school, to be renamed Create School during the conference, is a short, relatively level walk from Main Street, which the conference planning team is planning to transform into the Village of Create, West Virginia. Sally Barton, executive director of the Tamarack Foundation, is working with the team to populate the village with professional artisans and artists who will set up shop in as many storefronts as possible. Building owners are being contacted for permission to use their storefronts in much the same fashion as booths at a festival.

Conference food will be designed and prepared under the supervision of Chefs Dale Hawkins and Tim Urbanic. Hawkins is the proprietor of Fish Hawk Acres, a supplier of locally sourced, responsibly grown food, and Urbanic, who is listed on the Website BestChefsAmerica.com, operates Café Cimino in Sutton, in partnership with his wife, Melody. Most conferees will stay in Summersville lodgings, about a 30-minute drive west on WV 39. “We’re planning to shuttle our guests to and from conference proceedings, and we’ll use that time to both entertain and inform our riders,” Kimmons says. Limited lodging will be available in Richwood, but plans are not yet finalized.

“We don’t aim to ‘fix’ Richwood by holding a three-day conference there,” Kimmons emphasizes. “The city is engaged in a thorough, multi-faceted assessment and planning process through the WV Community Development Hub’s Blueprint Community program that will enable the residents there to come up with their own long-term remedies.

“Create West Virginia’s goal is to bring some of the country’s best thinkers and doers to our doorstep, to engage with our state’s own visionaries in many different disciplines—business, applied science, education, design, and the arts,” Kimmons explains. “The conversations and connections made at previous Create WV conferences have born some interesting and long-term results. Create Huntington and Create Buckhannon have adopted innovation economy principals in their city planning processes, and many conversations around the state have been infused with innovation economy language and concepts.

“The Create West Virginia Conference is broadly inclusive, a place where you can expect straight talk about real issues,” Kimmons continues. “The gathering really does serve to empower communities to see themselves as drivers of their own destinies. Looking at ourselves through the new economy prisms of diversity, entrepreneurship, education, quality of place, and technology offers an innovation context for growth.”

For more information, visit www.createwv.org.

Hack3rcon Registration is Open

2010-08-23T22:25:00.002-04:00

Hack3rCon Registration from The 304 Geeks on Vimeo.

Register for Hack3rcon here.

Hck3rCon 2010: Only $40 for the entire weekend. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Hackers for Charity.

Hack3rcon

2010-08-21T16:11:00.001-04:00

The 304Geeks will be hosting "Hack3rCon", the first of its kind Information Security Conference in this State!

http://www.hack3rcon.org

Register Now!

Events:
Ethical Hacking Workshops with the guys that created, teach and develop Backtrack, the most widely distributed open source penetration testing toolkit.

We have a full day of special gust discussion on everything from advanced password cracking in 2010 to detecting and stopping intruders to hands on hacking lads.

That is right, we will be holding a hacking village all weekend. Get hands on experience on our private network. Experience mentor will be on hand to guide you through the exercises. Prizes***

We will also be hold a Hacker's Capture the Flag event! Go against other ethical hackers in an attempt to get all the flags first!!!

*****WINNER GETS A NETBOOK PREINSTALLED WITH BACKTRACK!!!

Special Guests:

Dave Kennedy a.k.a. Rel1k Creator of SET
Adrian Crenshaw a.k.a. Irongeek - Security Researcher
Dennis Boas - **Classified**
Martin Bos a.k.a Purehate - Core Developer Backtrack-Linux
Lee Baird a.k.a. LeeRock - Security Consultant, Ciphent
Mark Baggett - SANS Instructor, Security Blogger - Pauldotcom

$10 Hack3rCon All Access Weekend Pass when you purchase a CharCon weekend pass. (requires pre-registration before the event)

Keep an eye out for technology driven events and contest that will be host by the 304geeks!!

The 304Geeks is a local technology group here in Charleston. It was founded in 2009 by Rob Dixon and myself.

More on Hack3rCon to come!!

West Virginia Needs a Better Hacker Community

2010-06-19T12:09:00.008-04:00

First let us define the term hacker. The word hacker has been adopted by the press to mean someone who breaks the law using a computer. Some hackers are criminals, but most are not. It's sort of like saying all motorcycle clubs are outlaw gangs. Hackers push the boundaries of technology, and sadly some hackers push the boundaries of the law and end up in jail.

Hackers build things. Hackers secure our networks. Hackers built the Internet.

To get hackers out from in front of their computer screens and to start networking I co-founded a technology group called 304Geeks. The purpose of 304Geeks is to give people interested in technology and computer security a way to network. Hackers are not always the most social of people. Since we started the group last year our gatherings have been rather small.

Most gatherings are six or less people. We would like to see that change. There has been some talk of building a hacker space, but we are going to need a lot more people to make that happen.

There are a couple of events this year of interest to hackers. First there is the First Annual AIDE Conference at Marshall University. AIDE is short for the Appalachian Institute of Digital Evidence. The First Annual AIDE Conference is July 27, 28, and 29 at the Marshall University Forensic Science Center. 304Geeks co-founder Rob Dixon and I will be speaking on the first day of the conference.

Rob is also working on putting together a mini-con and capture the flag event in October, and we have a verbal commitment from a computer security a-lister who has spoken at a number of hacker conferences, including DefCon, Notacon, PhreakNIC, and ShmooCon, to come speak and help with capture the flag. I will post more information once we confirm the details.

Rob is also a board member of Hackers For Charity, an organization started by security expert and hacker Johnny Long to match the hacker community with technology skills for people in need. We would like to see 304Geeks get more involved in Hackers For Charity. Rob and I attended a Metasploit class in Louisville in May. The proceeds of that event went to Hackers for Charity. Rob also spent time working the Hackers for Charity booth at DefCon. We are interested in trying One Laptop Per West Virginia Child under the HFC banner.

You can learn more about 304Geeks by visiting us at 304Geeks.com, the 304Geeks Google Group, or by following me on Twitter at twitter.com/oncee or by following Rob on Twitter at twitter.com/304geek.

As for the term "hacker", we're taking it back.

304blogs Social Media Meet-up Wednesday Feb. 17th at 5:15 pm at Capitol Roasters

2010-02-14T09:03:00.000-05:00

304blogs Meet-up Wednesday at 5:15 pm

304blogs Meet-up

Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 5:15 pm

Capitol Roasters

160 Summers Street

Charleston, WV

Leave me a comment if you need directions.

10 Questions

2010-01-03T07:39:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite things I've done since I start contributing to Shouts and Hollers again is 10 Questions. So far I've done email interviews with Flare Baroshi, Rebecca Burch, and Rudy Panucci. Another one is coming soon so stay turned.

Update: Just added an interview with Sharon Lyn Stackpole this evening.

Google Now Personalizes Everyone’s Search Results

2009-12-04T18:50:00.003-05:00

This video explains the change in detail.

Vampire Mafia - Flare Baroshi

2009-10-30T07:39:00.001-04:00

Happy Halloween Everyone!

304blogs Meet-up Today at 5:15 pm

2009-10-29T04:40:00.003-04:00

304blogs Meet-up

Today at 5:15 pm

Capitol Roasters

Summers Street

Charleston, WV

Leave me a comment if you need directions.

My New Favorite Trace Artist Flare Baroshi

2009-10-29T04:15:00.011-04:00

As many of you know I'm a huge fan of electronic music, but Charleston doesn't have much of an electronic music scene. I was happy and surprised to find local trance artist Flare Baroshi in the latest episode of Radio Free Charleston. Her track "The Vampire Mafia" really rocks.

RFC 85

RFC Archives | MySpace Video

You can find more about more about Flare Baroshi on from her YouTube Channel.

I'm hoping "The Vampire Mafia" gets cut into a standalone video.

Remembering My Father

2009-10-12T18:29:00.014-04:00

As many of you know my father passed away on Friday afternoon. My father read this blog religiously. He was always bothering me about posting more. Things got pretty quiet over here once I discovered Twitter and Facebook, two services my father never understood or joined.

As I wrote his obit last night I realized there are many things that needed to be said about my father that don't fit into the obit. My father was a coal miner from the time he was a teenager until he was forced into early retirement due to a back injury. While I was glad he got to retire early, my grandfather Gardner died in a mining accident when my father was 14, and he was in constant pain from the injury for the rest of his life.

My father was a member of the West Virginia National Guard. He worked his way up from Private to Staff Sergeant with Detachment-1 157th Military Police Company based in Richwood, WV. As a member of the Guard he helped rescue miners trapped in a flooded mine at Hominy Falls, was called to keep the peace during various floods in WV and at the State Penitentiary at Moundsville when prisoners took five guards hostage. And he responded with other rescuers to Buffalo Creek to retrieve the bodies and comfort the living. One of my favorite pictures of my father is in his uniform with my little sister when she is about three. (I don't have that picture here or I would post it.) When I was around seven my father purchased me an Army uniform at the PX while he was at "summer camp'. I have fond memories of wearing it in the Cherry River Festival Parade.

157th. Military Police Company Camp Dawson, West Virginia, August 22 to June 1968

My father is far left in the second row

My father was an amateur radio operator. In 1998 and in 1996 he and other amateur radio operators spend tireless hours providing flood relief and communications to Marlinton and surrounding areas. He came up the old way in ham radio. He first built his own Heath Kit radio and learned morse code. When I decided to enter the hobby in the late 1990s he was very proud.

My Father Loved to Cook

My father died young. He was born in 1942. My father had four brothers and two sisters. He also leaves behind my mom, my sister, and a granddaughter. We leaned he had stage IV cancer the first week of July. We all knew this day would come, but we thought we had more time. I've spend the past week sitting with him as he battled cancer. First in a hospital room and finally in a hospice house.

My father had many friends, but I don't think he knew how many friends he had. In the end my father wanted no funeral nor flowers. As we prepare to bury him in a private ceremony tomorrow, thanks for taking the time to help me remember my father In lieu of flowers we ask you make a donation to Bowers Hospice House in Beckley, WV.

My father always said he wanted someone to sing 'Sweet Beulah Land' at his funeral. Since in his last days he requested no funeral, this one is for you dad:

Yuenos & Wings Blues Things at Power Park

2009-08-24T20:39:00.001-04:00

New Art at the Restore

2009-08-24T20:08:00.000-04:00

Protest bad East End commerical development

2009-08-24T19:57:00.003-04:00

Not everyone is happy about Charleston developer Bill Ellis' plan to build a new Dollar General store on Washington Street East near Ruffner Walk.

CURA approves unpopular East End store

Amy Williams Sewing Classes at Taylor Books

2009-08-24T19:46:00.002-04:00

I've also heard Mark Wolfe might be teaching an iPhone class.

One Laptop Per West Virginia Child

2009-06-19T08:20:00.006-04:00

While we have done a pretty good job of putting computers in West Virginia classrooms and getting broadband in the rural parts of West Virginia. We have done nothing to put laptops in the hands of every West Virginia child.

The economic reality is that not all WV families can afford to buy there children laptops. This is a disservice to the children of WV, and I call today for a private/public partnership to fund this project.

One laptop per WV child can be achieved with inexpensive netbooks running either Windows XP or linux. With this laptops children who do not currently have access to their own computers at home could write, make music, learn to program, and do homework.

If public funds are not made available, this project could be funded with private money from the WV blogging community, or from some other online donation model.

Please leave you suggestions as to how we can achieve one laptop per West Virginia child in the comments.

New Works by Sharon Lyn Stackpole Opening Next Week at The Purple Moon

2009-06-18T07:05:00.004-04:00

Excited to see new works from one of my favorite artist, Sharon Lyn Stackpole, scheduled to open during next weeks FestivALL Art Walk at the Purple Moon. '3 Art Openings - 1 Night' will also feature 'Hard Times: a new dollar for america' and Dario Cardenia from Italy back for another FestiALL show.

'A Better West Virginia Challenge' 2009

2009-06-17T17:09:00.003-04:00

Jason Keeling has posted a new challenge for West Virginia Day this year. Keeling who has the A Better West Virginia blog, hosted a challenge last year were WV bloggers changed WV stereotypes. This year Keeling challenges WV bloggers and Twitter users to identify challenges and obstacles facing West Virginia and offering solutions.

Jason writes:

"I am working various media channels to promote the challenge and greatly appreciate your potential contribution, no matter how large or small. Last year we countered stereotypes. This year the objective is to facilitate conversation about obstacles and solutions in West Virginia.

Thank you for your consideration and feel free to contact me with questions.

Sincerely,
Jason Keeling
p.s. – For those on Twitter, you can update thoughts there using the #aBetterWV tag, which allows everyone’s comments to be tracked.
__________________________________

Keeling Strategic Communications
P.O. Box 7423
Cross Lanes, WV 25356

Mobile | 304.989.3262
jason@keelingstrategic.com
Visit our blog at aBetterWestVirginia.com

It's Almost Time for FestivALL

2009-06-17T06:54:00.004-04:00

When A City Becomes A Work of Art

This years list of events are too long to list here. For the complete 2009 schedule see the FestivALL website. The events run from June 19 until June 28 this year.

Are you part of the Underground?

2009-04-18T04:25:00.002-04:00

http://24theunderground.wordpress.com/

“Y” I Give to the YWCA

2009-04-08T18:18:00.001-04:00

http://24theunderground.wordpress.com/

Art Walk Video

2009-03-26T06:30:00.002-04:00

Great Art Walk Video by Jerry Fugate.

Jerry we'd like to see your stuff on Shouts and Hollers.

304blogs on MyZ 10 pm News

2009-03-26T06:05:00.002-04:00

I was interviewed via Twitter for a feature on 304blogs for MyZ 10 pm News. It will air tonight.

Sharon Lyn Stackpole at the Purple Moon

2009-02-27T05:41:00.003-05:00

Looking forward to attending the opening reception for "Filters of color, words & light" Works by Sharon Lyn Stackpole" tonight at 6 pm at The Purple Moon.

Are you ready for 10 digit dialing

2009-02-27T05:17:00.000-05:00

The new 681 area code goes into effect on Saturday. No one will be assigned the new area code right a way. Only new numbers will receive the new 681 area code. All old number will keep the old 304 area code.

The big change is you will now have to dial 304 + the seven digit number to dial a local numbers.