After an absolutely beautiful spring weekend in Washington, DC, we’re starting off the week with rain — and a lot of it. One good way to shake off a rainy Monday is to check out a new technology event. Below is a roundup of the technology events that caught our attention this week. You can find a full calendar of local events at DC Tech Events.

Monday, March 22

6:30–8:30 pm

Africa Rural Connect 2010 Launch Party : Tonight the National Peace Corps Association is hosting a local event around a worldwide twitter discussion to brainstorm ideas on how to curb water problems in Africa, as part of its Africa Rural Connect grant competition and World Water Day. At the DC event, people will gather to talk about water problems facing African countries and share ideas on approaches and technology that can help alleviate them.

Tuesday, March 23

6:00–8:00 pm

DCPHP Beverage Subgroup Meeting : This event is exactly what it sounds like — a side meeting of the local PHP group where php developers and users gather to talk about code over beverages.

7:00 pm

NetSquared: Citizen Effect’s New Approach to Philanthropy : This month’s NetSquared meetup will feature Citizen Effect, a technology and new media platform that connects communities in need of small projects that can be achieved with the help of a few more people. The creator of the platform will talk about how the model is opening up new fundraising channels and then open it up the discussion to the group to brainstorm and give feedback on how to improve it further.

Wednesday, March 24

6:30 pm

DC Media Makers: Samurais, Audio/Video, and SXSW : This month’s event will kick off with a talk on “What a Samurai Is (finally!) Doing with Video and Audio This Year”, followed by a recap of some of the panels held at this year’s SXSW. If you were at the conference, be ready to chime in and share what you took away from the conference.

Friday, March 26

Noon — 2:00 pm

Legal Lunch : Starting this Friday at 1410Q, a local law firm will hold monthly open lunches to provide legal advice from everything from non-disclosure agreements to contracts to trademarks for local technology entrepreneurs. Free lunch and free legal advice — not a bad deal at all.

This Weekend

8:00 am — 5:00 pm

Transparency Camp : In the third unconference looking at how to make the government more transparent, technologists, journalists, activists, and of course government workers will gather to talk about how to use technology to better get data and information out to the public.