We'll be including more video in the Chippewa Guide as time goes on - for now, here's the first stab at the Chippewa Guide Video Channel, featuring some recent sights and sounds from the Chippewa Valley.

A few of the best regional performers will entertain diners through a meal prepared by Native Bay Restaurant. $75 per plate, $35 is a tax deductible donation to the CVCA.

Our commitment to promoting artists and performers with disabilities. Admission is free.

Dispose of your old medications and help to protect Dunn County's ground water by coming to the Medication Take-Back program. Bring your outdated and unused medications to the Education Center of the Red Cedar Medical Center.

For purposes of identification it is best if you can bring the medications in their original container.

Accepted items include prescription and over-the-counter medications, ointments, sprays, inhalers, creams, liquid medications, patch medications, vials and pet medications. Do not bring illegal drugs, biohazardous materials, needles/sharps, personal care products (shampoo, soaps, etc.), or household hazardous waste.

Each participant will be asked the township/municipality of residency, why the medication is being discarded, and how they heard about the event. No personal information will be requested.

Download the attached handy brochure for further details.

Native Prairie plans, craft fair, Flea Market, and more. Beaver Creek Reserve and WIse Nature Center - 4 Miles north of Fall Creek on Cty. Hwy K.

Wise Nature Center

Here’s your chance to pick up unique native prairie plants started in the BCR greenhouse this spring as well as plants that have made it through their first Wisconsin winter. These plants are not normally found in area nurseries. If you are putting together a small wildflower garden or a prairie plot, these plants can give you instant success. Sale proceeds help support BCR greenhouse activities.

I've seen some discussion lately and have had some conversations with people revolving around the question - If this is the "tech corridor" of Wisconsin, why don't we have the kinds of web interactions and tech events that tech areas usually have?"

You'll ask yourself - what the heck does he mean by that?

I'm a web developer, and I build interactive web sites as a freelancer, mostly for nonprofits. This site is actually a pretty good example of what I do. Almost all of my clients are from outside of the area - in fact, one of the reasons I built this site was to try to have a local client - myself. I get clients on the coasts, clients in the Twin Cities, but in the Chippewa Valley, the general response I get is a blank stare. I'm beginning to believe that the Chippewa Valley isn't ready for Web 2.0.

This site is a good example. When I approach local businesses, they often think that this is a great idea, but they don't seem very much interested in participating, despite the fact that it's a great source of free publicity. Nonprofits that I approach in the area seem very wary of building a web presence that lets their constituents talk back to them. The idea that the Internet is inherently interactive seems to be lost on most people here, and I don't know why. I long for kindred tech geek spirits, and I'd love to meet you. I know you're out there.

I also edit a political web site, Uppity Wisconsin . It's based in Downsville (well, I'm based in Downsville so --). I have lots of politically active friends in the area, none of whom participate. They usually say that they're too shy to express an opinion that is publicly available - yet they write letters to the editor, they go to rallies, and they participate in lots of other ways. There are quite a few participants, but they're almost all from Madison or Milwaukee. Isn't there a possibility for web interaction in the rest of the state?

Likewise, I participate in lots of tech activities - Barcamps in other areas, Drupal Camps, nonprofit tech organizations, and more. The one thing all of this has in common is that none of it happens here.

So I have been asking myself - can we do something about that? Which finally brings me to the point. - Why not have a Chippewa Valley Barcamp? It would be a great way for people who are involved in net technologies to meet, and should provoke some interesting discussion. It also will give us all a chance to show off a little and demonstrate what we're doing.

What the heck is a BarCamp, I hear you cry? According to Wikipedia, it is

BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — often focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats.

For more information you can look at http://www.barcamp.org

I'm suggesting that Chippewa Guide and my consulting company Cruiskeen Consulting LLC get together with some other local organizations, and we organize a Chippewa Valley Barcamp. As a first stab, I suggest that we should make it be a smaller affair than a lot of them, and that we should go for a little broader audience than most - let's open it up to technologists of all sorts in the area, including talks on nanotechnology, web applications, the Internet as a communications tool, and more.

So Chippewa Valley, what do you think? I think that a Barcamp some time this summer would be great fun and a wonderful chance to bring together like-minded people. We're willing to organize it if you're willing to participate. Let us know you're willing to help out. A camp in Menomonie, Eau Claire, or Chippewa Falls would be great.

To give you a little better idea what BarCamp is like, here is a video from last year's BarCamp in Milwaukee.

Those of you who've been around for a while on the site know that we used to have a classified ads system.  We took it off after the company that we were contracting with for the classifieds went out of business. 

We're planning on bringing the classifieds back. Some time in the middle of May, we'll have classifieds available on the site again.  These will be completely local and for the time being at least will not be sent out to any other web sites. But they will be free.  We will have a range of different classifications, and will probably expand those as time goes on.

So - look for the free classifieds on the Chippewa Guide in a few weeks.