Personal Highlights from BarCamp
Written on October 3, 2006 by Conor O'Neill
I can honestly say that I didn’t attend one bad talk in the entire day but there were a few which really did make the conference for me. I also missed a bunch of great ones, a few of which were videoed so I can check them out today.
Mark Twomey’s presentation on Data Retention was possibly the most entertaining one I’ve been at since Marc Canter in Dublin in April. Not just funny, but also challenging and in your face. I think the crowd were evenly split between those who disagreed with him and those who hadn’t a clue what he was talking about. Joke! Mark covered both sides of the wedge issue and I think he did it very well. Video on YouTube.
Brian Caulfield’s talk on VC funding was excellent because he didn’t play down the tough approach they take when investing money from their fund. They want a return and they are not a charity. I think this may have been an eye-opener for some in the audience. The slight bubble nature of web 2.0 investment in the US may have led people to believe that funding is available for any half-assed idea.
Haydn Shaughnessy’s presentation, simply titled “Content” was the highlight for me. Haydn is a journalist and he is trying to figure out where we are going with content, what is the future of newspapers, who generates the content, what is the future of online newspapers, what are the delivery mechanisms and where are the business opportunities. He talked for a few minutes without slides to a room of maybe 15 people and then threw the discussion open to the floor. We kept it going for another half an hour and I think there was at least another hour’s worth of opinion there if we hadn’t had to stop. That session was one of the most talked about in the pub afterwards. As I said recently - his blog is a must-read.
John Breslin’s talk on “the Semantic Web” was very well attended and John gave an excellent overview of both the concepts and practical implementations in the that world. The project he is working on, called “SIOC“, looks very interesting and touches on many of the hot topics on the web right now - particularly the idea of distributed identity. Whilst the little “s” semantic and big “S” Semantic groups often seem to be at loggerheads, they are both concerned with many of the same problems and it would be remiss of me not to pay attention to both to see what problems are being solved and how they are being solved.
And then came Petcha Kucha. This should be a mandatory session at every BarCamp. Like Walter, I won’t ruin the surprise of what we did at it. But can I just echo the most important idea that came out of it: “wallpaper design“.
One real treat for me was the outcome of inviting my friend Marcas to attend. Whilst he works in IC design, he is still a general uber-geek so I thought the day would appeal to him. He mentioned the night before that he was involved in MediaForum.ie and The Radharc Trust and explained what they were (I’ll do a separate post on them later). I realised that there should be some cross-over with the work of the DRI and hooked him up with Simon McGarr on Saturday morning. Simon’s opening presentation caused a meeting of minds with Marcas and several others in the room and it required both a follow-up breakout session and a wrap-up after lunch. These guys have a bunch of things to talk about in the coming weeks and months. And that, in a nutshell, is why I loved BarCamp.
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I agree that there was lots more conversation to be had in relation to Hayden’s talk… something to be picked up at the next event! It’s probably worth considering how interesting topics and ideas like this can be followed up for discussion or development online after the event. Can the backnetwork accommodate this?
Glad everyone enjoyed the Pecha Kucha, it could have gone either way at times… “melissa” couldn’t have been more dull.
Thanks for organising the event Conor.
Great idea - maybe I should pop up a wiki page on things that any attendee would like to hear followed up on at the next BarCamp.
Poor Melissa - her and her octopus products.
It was gret to be involved in the discussion - must be other opportunities? I wonder where the first signs of sn=ynergybetween techies and content people will really break trhough in Ireland - like who has the next RTE on their laptop?
I wish I could have been to your BarCamp. I spent the weekend at the BarCamp in New York, which was also a great experience. I wrote about it for Wired News: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71897-0.html?tw=wn_index_5
I’m curious to know more about what your experience was like.
I assume it’ll be baby steps like Slugger O’Toole and the Blogging The Election conference that Damien is organising. Back to the discussion of “niche by niche” chipping away and providing an intelligent alternative to the mainstream press whilst still appealing to a mainstream audience.
The Ryder Cup Diary is a perfect example of that in another sphere. I had my Da subscribed to the RSS feed in Thunderbird. He loved it. Obviously as an addition to the newspapers but who knows, maybe replacing them the next time around.
One simple area that is ripe for exploitation (in the good sense) is cookery. Blogs and web-sites devoted to this are already deeply embedded in US culture and it is only a matter of time before that happens here. Caroline from Bibliocook has a great Irish food blog but clearly as a food journalist she has to play a delicate game of not damaging her mainstream career whilst continuing to build her online presence.
I mentioned PodChef before with his podcasts and now with his videos. Despite some ropey production quality, I’d prefer to watch and listen to him than most TV chefs because he clearly knows his stuff in a very deep way. There is nothing stopping an Irish foodie doing the same thing and getting some traction. It would be a perfect match for someone like Clodagh McKenna.
Next BarCamp can’t be too far away? Or even MediaCampIreland?
Hi Dave,
You can see an aggregated collection of blog posts over at the Backnetwork. Also a technorati search on the barcampireland tag will get even more.
Overall, it far exceeded all my expectations and did not require as much direction on the day that I feared it might. Everyone came with the attitude of “let’s participate” and it made for a fantastic event. There are very few opportunities for Irish techies to get together and exchange ideas so I think we tapped into a huge pent up demand. I fully expect several per year to happen from now on.
I concur. I asked for questions and was met with disapproving frowns and expressions of puzzlement.
Get me an Aircraft carrier, a stereo playing Berlin’s Take My Breath Away, and a big banner which says “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!”
Yo Maverick, any time you need a wingman!
Goose.
BarCamp Ireland was a run away success…
After an unexpected bad traffic jam at Abbeyleix, I finally made it down to Cork late Friday. (It was only unexpected because I forgot the National Ploughing Champianships were nearby).
The first person I met when I entered Webworks …