Updated Sept. 4: September is here, so it’s time to think ahead to the next Manoa Geeks! This Web 2.0 meetup has become a fantastic place to see new things and meet new people in the local tech space. As before, I wanted to give you lots of notice so you can mark your calendars and start collecting cool links and projects to share. I’ll send another reminder a week or so before the meetup as well!

Date: Thursday, Sept. 25
Time: 5:30pm
Location: HONBLUE, 501 Sumner St. [Map]

General Overview:

• Introductions: A quick zip around the room!
• Presentations: Got something you’d like to show people? Something to announce? Get in touch!
• Eat, Drink & Talk Story
• Guided Discussion: What’s going on in the web world?
• More Talk Story (and maybe go out for drinks)!

The September 2008 meetup is hosted by HONBLUE, Honolulu’s premier reprographics imaging company. HONBLUE is a leader in technology via print, web based collaboration software, bid document distribution and consulting. A big mahalo to Larry Heim and Lee Hopkins at HONBLUE for hosting and feeding us! You can find them on Twitter at @larryheim and @leehop.

Feel free to invite a friend — we looking forward to seeing you there. Please register below so everyone knows you’re coming!

Directions & Parking

From Downtown/East Honolulu: Heading Ewa (west) on Nimitz Highway, turn right at Sumner Street (just after the Salvation Army and before the K-Mart store). Cross Iwilei Road and proceed to the end of Sumner Street. Go through the parking guard gate (take a ticket, we will validate) and park. The public entrance to HONBLUE is on Sumner St.

From the Airport/West Honolulu: Heading Diamond Head (east) on Nimitz Highway, turn left onto Pacific Street (after Hilo Hatties and before Zippy’s). Proceed past City Mill and turn right on Iwilei Road. Turn left onto Sumner St., and proceed to the end and go through the parking guard gate (take a ticket, we will validate). The public entrance to HONBLUE is on Sumner St.

NOTE: Please do not park in the customer parking area at HONBLUE!

A local user group is forming for Eclipse, an open source, Java-centric Integrated Development Environment with an active and growing developer community. The Eclipse Hawaii User’s Group, or eHug, is one of several regional communities devoted to Eclipse, and it is planning its first meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 16 at IBM’s Honolulu office (1240 Ala Moana Blvd.).

eHug maintains an informational page on the Eclipsepedia wiki (including slides from the group’s organizational meetings), and a mailing list.  The group’s coordinator is Greg Hester, CEO of Pacific Hi-Tech and a product manager at HMSA. [Hawaii Blog]

Local ubergeek Burt Lum’s monthly “Bytemarks” geek lunch has been scheduled for 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 28, at Don Quijote (a.k.a. Holiday Mart) on Kaheka Street near Ala Moana [Map]. Bytemarks lunches are casual, local, drop-in affairs that draw anywhere from two to twenty people. Lum has been experimenting with venues since relocating out of downtown Honolulu. “Last month we meet at Don Quijote on Kaheka Street and that seemed to work out pretty well — they got tables, lots of choices for lunch and parking,” he says. “Just bring your stories and your gadgets.”

Perhaps not coincidentally, Don Quijote is across the street from Hawaii Public Radio’s studios, from which Bytemarks Cafe is broadcast live every Wednesday afternoon. For more information on the Bytemarks group, join the mailing list.

Molly E. Holzschlag — well-known Web standards advocate, instructor, and author — is returning to Honolulu this week to lead workshops for Pacific New Media.

On Friday, she’ll give a free public lecture titled “Browsers, Web Standards, and IE8” in Krauss Hall at 7 p.m.  Those looking for more intensive instruction can sign up for “Hot n` Spicy Style with CSS,” running 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday in Sakamaki Hall (the Manoa MultiMedia Lab). Registration is $270.

Holzschlag co-authored “The Zen of CSS Design” and has written over 30 other books related to web design and development. Named one of the 25 Most Influential Women on the Web, she is a steering committee member of the Web Standards Project.

Truman Leung (of Ascribe Data Systems) has scheduled the next couple of Jelly/Coworking Groups on TechHui. Next week, on Aug. 13, the venue will be Tropical Smoothie Cafe on Piikoi St. near Ala Moana. The cafe has successfully hosted the Jelly/Coworking Group before. On Aug. 20, they’ll meet up at Jupiter Cyber Cafe, located on Kapiolani Blvd. (across from Shokudo). [Lumihana]

Local geeks (and long-time Manoa Geeks) Sid Savara and Shawn Drost are hoping to organize a startup weekend — “You and your geekiest friends, making something for the internet in one weekend,” they explain. An example of this is described in detail here.

They’re still feeling out the level of interest among local geeks, so if you’re interested, spread the word, and join the conversation at TechHui. In addition to participants, they’re looking for suggestions for a date (possibly early September) and a venue.

You may have met some of the Chimps at the last Manoa Geeks. But next week brings an extraordinary opportunity to meet most of the core Chi.mp team. They’re hosting a “Meet the Chimps!” gathering at P.F. Chang’s (1288 Ala Moana Blvd.) next week, Aug. 12, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. In attendance will be:

• Josh Porter Author of “Designing for the Social Web” http://josh.mp
• Brian Oberkirch Author of “Like it Matters” the blog of social media
• Anthony Eden (CTO for chi.mp) Ruby Rails God Father http://anthony.mp
• Tony Haile (CSO for chi.mp) http://tony.mp
• Rob Farrow (VP of Marketing) Brand Evangelist for chi.mp
• and a few other team members with newly-formed opposable thumbs.

“Please join us on the lanai for cocktails, heavy pupus, and great conversation with the Chimps … and Honolulu’s brightest technology and social media stars. We look forward to seeing — and evolving with — you.” Please RSVP here.