Following the Government 2.0 movement? Inspired by Apps for Democracy, SFData.gov, or NYC Big Apps? Want to use the web to make a difference in Providence? Come join me for the first CityCamp, sponsored by O'Reilly Media and Code for America.

Here's the invite email from CityCamp. You can follow them (Twitter) at @CityCamp or @CodeForAmerica. Let me know if you are interested in attending.

CityCamp, an unconference dedicated to practicing Gov 2.0 at the local level, will be held January 23-24, 2010 in Chicago, IL at the University of Illinois Chicago Innovation Center (get a look at the space here).  Please put it on your calendar and make plans to attend!

Great, now that it's on your calendar, here are a couple of things you'll want to do:

1. Please sign up to attend here: http://citycamp.eventbrite.com/

2. Visit the wiki and add your thoughts on topics to cover.
3. Help us spread the word!  We need to reach out to municipal government employees and officials especially.  Please forward this email, tweet out the dates, and also let me know of any mailing lists or organizations we should reach out to directly. 
4. Interested in sponsoring?  Sponsorships levels are only $100 and $500.  Attendance is free, so we need a few helpful souls to help pay for the venue and food.

A recent article in the Economist about RI's economic stats got a lot of re-press. Fewer folks noticed that they also did a video piece featuring Barrett Bready of NabSys, which is doing genomics-on-a-chip. The Geek community also gets a mention in the interview from the only economist who ever gets quoted about RI, Leonard Lardaro.

The RI First Lego League Robotics Tournament is coming up on Jan 10, and they need judges. I haven't done it previously, but have heard from others it is a lot of fun, and would be interested in getting a couple geeks together to help out the next generation.

There is a training on Jan 6 from 7-9 PM and the tournament on Sat Jan 10 in the morning. More info here. Msg me or respond on the thread if you are up for it !

The next RI Nexus Open Coffee is Wednesday, September 17th 8am-10am. Check out the calendar for details.

Even entrepreneurs need a vacation, but folks, August is over and its time to get back to starting up. And Open Coffee is the place to be if you are starting up a technology-driven business, thinking about it, investing in it, or just like hanging around geeky entrepreneurs.

Over the spring Open Coffee grew from a few folks around a cafe table at 729 Hope Cafe to a vibrant (and loud) caffeine-buzzed gathering of 12-20 people.  The intimate format and startup focus makes for good story sharing, resource swapping, and idea floating.

The vibe is casual drop-in, drop-out, buy your own coffee. We have fluid discussion topics focused around tech startups, a few will be suggested by the hosts, but its up to those who show to decide what they want to talk about. Open Coffee is a place where you can "dig in" on an idea or question, with a few compatriots or the whole group.

I'm sure a big topic of fall discussion will be how the economic downturn is affecting our markets, fundraising, revenue and hiring. Though its been unsettling, I've continued to see the energy in tech and internet startups stay strong, both locally and globally. Good ideas have no "season".

So come share your tales of woe and glory, and lets figure it out together.

We've been running bi-weekly RI Nexus Open Coffee events for tech entrepreneurs for a few months now, as an alternative to the large scale evening festivities of Providence Geeks. It's been a great place for founders of tech/web startups to float their new ideas, find developers & new customer leads, and even share cautionary tales of deals gone bad. Since it's a casual thing, sometimes we only fill a table, and other times a dozen or so people show up.

Well, this week, we hit critical mass. 729 Hope Cafe was buzzing as techpreneurs flowed in throughout the morning, pushing the count over 20 at one point. Open Coffee took over the main room of the cafe, as table discussions formed around web marketing, hiring summer interns and new grads, online health startups, and the emerging smart energy grid. We celebrated Andera's recent funding with Charlie Kroll and Slater Fund's Thorne Sparkman, and toasted the acquisition of Shazamm Interactive by Atrion with Dana Paul. First-timers showed from Precision Web Marketing , MoFuse , Thinking Phone Networks , Providence Health Solutions , Alektrona , VentureFuel , and J&W .

There's been a lot of discussion recently among our civic and business leaders on how to create an "entrepreneurial ecosystem". At RI Nexus Open Coffee, it's happening - organically and enjoyably. The next one is in two weeks, Wednesday June 11th. Welcome to the (genuine) social.

Update: Michelle Girasole of Precision Web Marketing and The Sassy Ladies wrote up an excellent, detailed recap of her "newbie" experience at the event.

For those of you who are garage inventors of non-virtual things, the PBS show "Everyday Edisons" is doing an open call in Providence for the next cool gizmo.

Staples, Home Depot, and other big retailers are sponsoring this as a form of crowdsourcing.