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Last weekend I jumped in the car and headed to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Why? They were having a "GiveCamp". Haven't heard of a GiveCamp? Well, they truly a wonderful thing. Here's the lowdown:

"A GiveCamp is a weekend-long event where software developers, designers, and database administrators donate their time to create custom software for non-profit organizations. This custom software could be a new website for the nonprofit organization, a small data-collection application to keep track of members, or a application for the Red Cross that automatically emails a blood donor three months after they've donated blood to remind them that they are now eligible to donate again. The only limitation is that the project should be scoped to be able to be completed in a weekend." See here for more info

The event kicked off on Friday and the developers and charities worked round the clock all weekend long. Some people camped out, while others pulled all nighters working on their code. At the end of Give Camp, the teams of developers, designers, database admins and charities present their project to the group. There's usually not a dry eye in the building.

While I was visiting, I got to talking with one of the sponsors, Matt Lagrotte from Verio (TechSmith was a sponsor too). Turns out that Matt is putting Camtasia Studio to good use at his company. I shot a quick 2 minute video with Matt so you could hear how he's using it and get his advice. The audio is not perfect since we were in the middle of GiveCamp central, but hopefully it is tolerable. :-)

Tools used to create the video:
Flip HD Mino
HP Compaq 8510
Camtasia Studio
Screencast.com

And, curious to see what a GiveCamp 'looks' like. Check out the quick video below from Patrick Steele. It's very entertaining! Jennifer Marsman has a great recap of the event here. I also snapped some pics which you can see here.

Inspired? Why not set up a GiveCamp in your area? You can see here how to coordinate your own event. Not a techie? Fear not, there's still lots you can help with at GiveCamp... bake cupcakes, teach a charity how to use Twitter, stuff envelopes, help set up work spaces... and so on.