BarCamp Dublin
A while back I saw a video of Donncha’s talk
at Barcamp South-East and so when I heard that
there was a Barcamp Dublin in the works naturally I
was intrigued.
There was a bit of hymning and hawing on my part because
for the most part face-to-face networking was something
I had little experience with, especially with professionals
of such a high standard.
In the end I decided there was nothing to lose and after getting
the bus half an hour later than I had planned (damn Journey Planner)
I found Barcamp at the Digital Exchange (thanks to a kindly place “Barcamp” sign).
I was too late for Eoin’s “Law of Blogs” talk but I still got to go along to some great ones, which included:
Darren Barefoot - Social Media Marketing
Darren Barefoot had an engaging and entertaining presentation that
had a perfect balance of information and humour. It was an added bonus
that Darren had a full crowd because the atmosphere was buzzing.
Eoghan McCabe - Web Usability 101
This was another talk that I couldn’t miss, and judging by the size of the crowd
either could anyone else. Eoghan basically ran through the “common sense”
element of design that, while seeming simple, makes a designer an expert if they can interpret what a user wants to do before even they know it. Eoghan’s choice of example site also spurred a very “lively” debate which started the day off nicely!
Paul Campbell - The choices that lead to rails
I decided to go the “Ruby/Rails” talk to see if Paul could present a new insight into Ruby/Rails
for someone who knows little but has heard much. Unfortunately, I must say, Paul understands Rails so well that he was unable to clearly convey to a Rails agnostic why exactly I want it without getting into code.
The Social Web Panel
The BarCamp Social Web 2.0 Panel consisted of Tom Raftery, Sean O Sullivan, Darren Barefoot and Karlin Lillington.
Overall the panel discussion was interesting as each panelist gave their personal view on the topic however I felt there was far too much time spent on what seemed like 2 questions in the hour.
Tom Raftery - CIX Energy Efficient Data-Centre
I must admit I quite liked this one because I
enjoyed a change from the airy-fairyness of social marketing
to solid numbers and pictures of this “ground-breaking” development.
General Comments
This was my first BarCamp and I have to say it was a very pleasant experience. Despite initially being slightly nervous I found the people I met such as David Behan, Richard Hearne, Robin Blandford, Cormac Moylan and David Rooney very friendly and very inclusive.
Although I don’t have first-hand experience of other BarCamps I think that the next one could be less formal (as is the BarCamp philosophy) since the setup of the panel created a sort of one-way platform instead of the traditional two-way conversation.
Finally, hats off to the organisers and to those I didn’t talk to: see you next time!
Hi David,
Your late bus saved you from a fate worse than death: a lawyer trying to make jokes. The slides, minus the jokes, are here. Hope they help.
Eoin,.
Hi David,
The panel was a bit one sided. I put my hand up for that, I should have spent more time engaging the audience. 4 out of 10, must do better
Joe.
David,
I rather hoped that getting in to code would clear up anything left over after all the talk of philosophy!
What exactly is it you don’t get? I’d be interested to hear, and more than happy to post up any clarification if you had any specific questions.
Paulo
Hi Dave. We must swap IM’s. Drop me an email.
-Robin.
David,
thanks for the kind words about the presentation.
I was afraid I was going to put everyone to sleep!
Thanks for the comments.
@Eoin: I know those ones, I’m sure you pulled them off.
@Joe: If that was 4/10 I can’t wait to see 10/10!
@Paul: It wasn’t particularly the code that I thought was the “problem”. I myself have no problem looking into nitty-gritty mallocs but I felt it could have been lighter with maybe a few more screenshots - to go with the theme of the day.
@Robin: *Send*
@Tom: Am I the only one who doesn’t find data-centre schematics boring?
Great writeup Dave. Sorry I couldn’t be there to pick your brain
Me personally I think there should have been more techie stuff and less theory. But it was great to meet you and see a new post up