Other Virtual Talks
This isn't the first time someone's tried to give or distribute presentations virtually - I'm stealing borrowing ideas all over.
Here's some other sites similar to this one - I encourage you to check them out, because if you like this concept, you'll probably like them.
- Virtual Alt.Net
- Virtual Alt.Net is a collection of online Alt.Net communities (one unfocused, others focused around Europe, Australia, MVC.Net, and Spanish-language). It aggregates talks given across all the communities.
- Defcon Archives
- The simplicity of downloading talks from defcon (as opposed to streaming them) has really inspired me towards making downloads as easy and painless as possible. And the talks at defcon are usually amazing. If you've never heard of Defcon before, it's a security conference.
- Black Hat Archives
- Archives from the (more professional) Black Hat (Security) Conference that takes place right before Defcon.
- NotAtPDC
- This is the site that inspired me to make vconf. It has many sessions from last November that took place - Not at PDC.
Then how is this different?
So if all these things exist, why does vconf.org? I have a few guiding philosophies that I think make this stand out from the crowd.
- Downloading presentations should be easy. No required streaming, no 3rd-party sites - just a link to an AVI.
- Focus on technical content. I'm selfish. Hearing about patterns (DDD, IOC, DI, etc) doesn't interest me all that much. I want to learn about new languages, new engines, new database systems, and optimizations. I try to alternate between introductory topics on new technologies and in-depth examinations.
- Schedule. I'm not a contractor. I have a 9-6 (7, 8 or 9). Presentations will be live at night, not during the day. I aim for 10:30 EST for East and West-coasters, and try to hold them on a Tuesday as a regular schedule.
- Bent. Not that I'm against Microsoft (I use it daily both at home and work) - but I'm also interested in other things. Including Linux as a desktop or server, Mac development, and languages that are well outside of MS's world: Java, Scala, R, Erlang, and so on. Alt.Net usually has a Microsoft-technology lean to it.