Google's been in the news a lot this week. They released their Google App Engine, which allows you to build apps on their servers, using their databases, for free. They're investigating a partnership with Yahoo regarding seach ads which will end up going nowhere for anti-trust reasons.

I'm a big fan of Google - I use Gmail, Google Reader, Google Calender, iGoogle - we use Google Groups for the discussions here at ScoreOS. I spent some time thinking about the Google App Engine and what it means to us here and the broader software market.

I posted a Twitter message on Saturday that if no one is organizing a BarCamp for your town, you should seriously look at putting one together. BarCamp is billed as an "un-conference" - essentially, a couple of low-key venues are chosen, for Orlando it was two bars next door to each other and anyone can give talks on any topics. There were over 30 talks given on Saturday (and probably just as many on Sunday, which was more geared towards new media and less on tech/programming).

So far, Randy's done all the talking on here and I've been silent. No more - it's my time to contribute to the commentary here. I do want to tag onto what he said earlier - there are many ways to help. If you look at the Areas of the Project link, you'll notice the design areas are mysteriously vacant - mysterious, that is, unless you've seen my attempts at design. That said, design is not the only area we could use extra hands and we'll welcome any input you have.

On to technical stuff...