I got this link in one of the many feeds that I receive. It seems if you compare Ireland to Puerto Rico, as it has been done very many times before, that Puerto Ricans are just like the Irish in something else. This quote is from a wiki announcing the plans to host TechCamp:

“Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be as much tech innovation coming from grassroots-tech in Ireland. The US is doing some great work in Web 2.0 and Blogging; having loads of conferences and blogger-dinners; while all we have here is a few very business-like events, and seemingly very few new projects. What’s needed is for us to CONNECT and SHARE and maybe a few companies will get started as a result!”

Here is an interesting exercise. Where ever it mentions Ireland you replace it with Puerto Rico. I really couldn’t have said it any better. So first, things first. My initial gut feeling was right. Just as the founders of TechCamp realized, I now realize. Yes, I want to participate next year and setup a simultaneous BarCamp in Puerto Rico, but we can’t wait! There is no time to waste. We have to kick start our Web 2.0 economy and I can’t think of any better activity than a collaborative, get things done, have fun event like this.

So second things second. Where to conduct the event? We need a comfortable meeting place, with ample room, whiteboards, projectors, wireless high speed Internet, and preferably 1 large meeting room and two smaller (or a large room that can be divided). That’s not too much too ask? Some sponsors for breakfast, lunch, and after event drinks would be nice too!

Finally, I need to pick a date. I’ll be very busy through September, so October looks good to me. How about mid-month, October 15, 2005. That gives about 6 weeks to get everything ready. I’ll start asking around for a location and hopefully within a week, I can announce the availability of the CollabCamp Wiki.