Everything in tech these days needs a camp. With the buzz around cloud computing, like clockwork CloudCamp was born. CloudCamps have started to spring up around the globe and now it’s Portland’s turn.

Today (June 5th) we are having a planning kickoff meeting at Beer & Blog, which is held at the Green Dragon pub. We’ll be there from 4-5pm to talk about how to pull this together. (Look for either myself or Dawn Foster.) We’re shooting for a fairly aggressive schedule so your help would be appreciated. If you can’t make it to today’s meeting but are interested in participating, please email me and I’ll get you looped into the planning group.

On a related note, Microsoft is holding a developer challenge called new CloudApp(). It’s for .NET and PHP developers to create cloud applications and services on the Azure Services Platform. Prizes include being featured on azure.com and major Microsoft events, $5000 VISA gift cards, and being able to gloat over lesser developers. Check it out at www.newcloudapp.com.