Another weekend another BarCamp… well InteractionCamp actually. By all accounts we had a great day. I know I really have a lot to think about after the event. The crowd was different then our normal BarCamp crowd, as we hoped it would be and many of the people there have never been to an unconfernence. I think we may have some new converts. I hope this is the start of many more events like this within our community.
My co-organizers Audrey, Kaleem and Lindsay worked very hard to put the event together. I hope they got as much out of the event as I did.
Another event people should really check out is this years CanUX. CanUX2007 – The Canadian User Experience Workshop. I have attended these for the past two years and it is the best kept conference secret going.
I was asked to be part of the SpeedGeek at the recent CopyCamp. The SpeedGeek was a congregation of 14 presentation setups where 14 groups could watch 14 five minute presentations by going through the room. This is a video that was hacked together by combining an audio recording by Phillip Smith of one of my presentations sync’d to the images I brought to show. I had a lot to say in my 3-4 minutes plus questions and doing that 14 times in a row is very tiring : – )
I talked about the rich (albeit year old) history of BarCamp from a Toronto perspective and what our community has done.
So in my rush to meet the timeline I made some mistakes. Minor mistakes like saying the first BarCamp was in SF instead of PA, and that we have 4 demos at DemoCamp instead of 5. There are other mistakes but hopefully no one will be too upset.
On a final note I’d like to address something that I have been thinking about with all the excitement over the past couple of days. Leesa Barnes of Podonomics, who also presented at CaseCamp, wrote in her blog that she was upset that I posted Andrew Baron’s entire speech on YouTube. (UPDATE: She has clarified her position below) She said that Eli promised that there would be no recording of the talks which honestly I never heard; if it was said and I missed it, sorry. Andrew never asked me personally to take it down but I did remove it as soon as Joey said that Andrew asked him to take his video down. I wrote Andrew and asked him if he could let me know if or when I could put the video back up. Andrew wrote me back very quickly to let me know that he thought about it and he decided that I could put it back up.
What I would like to address is that whether or not I was a responsible or irresponsible citizen journalist doesn’t really matter to me because I am not a citizen journalist that is a term that journalists apply to people; I am a BarCamper.
BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.
Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.
When you come, be prepared to share with barcampers. When you leave, be prepared to share it with the world.
I think that Eli should clarify this with presenters at CaseCamp or call his event something else if that is not palatable to marketing people. We have worked hard to build an open, engaging community in a Toronto and it would really be a horrible shame if people latched on to the TorCamp train without paying the fare. Don’t get me wrong, Eli is a great guy and I know he gets what BarCamp is about and the value of the community.
I week ago I was sending messages back and forth with Kristan and Rehan off the TorCamp list because they decided they wanted to record and podcast the demos at DemoCamp. I told them it might not be a good idea because some of the presenters may not want their presentation podcasted. I was wrong.
Everyone loves the idea of social networks and Web 2.0 and community building when it is taking from big corporations like Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft but when it time for them to participate then it is a different story. If you want the insight, feedback and other benefits of participating in our community then be prepared to share; if you don’t want to share DON’T COME OUT.
I this evening attended Eli Singer’s CaseCamp and was treated to hearing Andrew Baron tell us his side of the story of the recent turmoil at Rocketboom. I had my digital camera with me so I shot this video of his talk.
I really appreciated what Andrew had to say and I hope that Rocketboom will emerge better then ever. Andrew was a great speaker I think it would be interesting if he got in front of the Rocketboom camera for a while but he has other plans for the direction of the show.
I am not offering this video for download incase Andrew wants me to take it down, I mean I know that flash is not super secure but I’ll do what I can. PodChick was also there so I assume she will be posting her video of this as well.
UPDATE: Andrew says it is cool for me to start showing the video again :-)
DISCLAIMER: This is a personal blog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer. The information that I present will often be created by others and they would be the owners of that content, I do not presume any ownership of their content.
