Las Vegas (PRWEB) January 6, 2006
It started with a room shortage in the resort capital of the world during one of the computer industry’s mainstay conventions: International CES 2006 in Las Vegas. At the same time that veteran CES-goers and bloggers – or online journalists -- like Doc Searls, Mary Lu Wehmeier, and Microsoft’s Robert Scoble posted on their websites that they were having trouble finding rooms for CES, the CEO of startup photo-sharing company BubbleShare, Albert Lai, was also having difficulties finding a vacancy within a 30-minute drive of the convention center. Lai discussed the situation with his team and asked developers Mazdak Rezvani and Vitaliy Fuks to contribute their expertise in setting up a wiki. The morning of January 2, the Unofficial CES 2006 Wiki (http://ces.bubbleshare.com) was ready for contributions.
A wiki is a collaborative website that lets users dynamically add and change content, recording each individual edit so that a page can be changed back to its previous state if necessary. Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com), the collaborative online encyclopedia, is perhaps the best known wiki destination on the Internet.
“We knew that a wiki would be a great tool for everyone to share information about CES – especially given the shortage of hotel rooms we were all up against,” said BubbleShare’s Albert Lai. “We’re glad to have been able to get the wiki online over the New Year’s holiday so our friends in the industry would have a one-stop discussion spot for finding places to stay and connecting during the conference.”
Since the first information hit the wiki, more than a dozen people have contributed contact information, advice, and tips to the site. As is often the case with the collaborative nature of wikis, a new idea took shape as the site expanded: a plan for more formalized evening get-togethers “tech style” in the form of CESCamp.
Modeled after BarCamp (http://barcamp.org/), a participant-driven, ad-hoc “un-conference” born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment, CESCamp will take place each evening after the convention, from Thursday through Saturday, January 5-8. Keeping with the tradition of BarCamp, anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to attend CESCamp. These intense events are noted for their lively discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.
Specifics on location and times are still being discussed by the collaborators on the wiki at http://ces.bubbleshare.com. Those wishing to attend should check back frequently during the conference, and are welcome to contribute to the unconference and the wiki. There is also a Google discussion group for CESCamp located at http://groups.google.com/group/CESCamp
About BubbleShare
Toronto-based BubbleShare is the first zero-registration, “click-and-tell” photo-sharing service to help people tell stories in their own voice. Designed to provide a simpler way to upload and share photos, BubbleShare lets users quickly and intuitively create and email albums to friends and family privately, with the option for making albums public within the BubbleShare community. BubbleShare’s outstanding user interface and feature set have won accolades from users and the press alike, described as: “ridiculously easy to use,” “just wonderful,” and “sheer simplicity.” For more information, please visit http://www.bubbleshare.com or call 647.885.1897.
###