May 26, 2019
2 barcamp
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2 barcamp
Today's morning sunshine was irresistible so all I did was walk. My unremarkable hotel is in a remarkable neighborhood, the Old Town section of Philadelphia. Whether Ben & Betsy, the bridge at Race Street, the spare elegance of Christ Church (1695), the surprising Alaska-like paper birch or the fine Israeli-Moroccan poached eggs I had for breakfast, it's all a feast. I've long loved Philly; recently I learned to my surprise that my first Weaver ancestor (then named Weber) landed here in 1711, so now I feel especially connected.
BEIJING'S BIGGEST BARCAMP
The third and biggest Barcamp ever held in Beijing attracted more than 350 visitors today to the Microsoft building in Zhonguancun, the up-and-coming Silicon Valley of the Chinese capital. Organizer James Flanagan described the event to BJTR as a kind of "flea market" or "primordial soup" of ideas. He and his team had hoped to make Barcamp as open and participatory as possible, and it certainly did receive cross-industry support. Dozens of speakers presented on a wide range of topics, from education and entrepreneurship to philosophy. The whole event was noticeably shot through with a strong tech theme, though, such as in the intersection of art and new media.
Participants had the option of listening to whichever speaker they wished to, completely free of charge, at 30-minute intervals. Think Ted Talks, but on a more amateur scale. Indeed, part of the objective of Barcamp is to allow contributors to practice their presentation skills. Flanagan and co. aim to eventually create a whole ecosystem of talks in Beijing where, he says, it can be tough to track down experienced speakers because of the lack of a feedback mechanism. In the past, Barcamp approached potential contributors. This time, people put themselves forward, and there were more than enough willing volunteers.
BJTR attended as many of the seminars as we could throughout the day. To give you a better feel for what Barcamp had to offer, we’ve compiled some key quotes.
“It’s just a matter of time before you start seeing ads on your Weixin.”
“Mobile ad growth in 2013 won’t be sexy.”
–Ted Mui on mobile advertising
“Good content is not enough anymore.”
–Kevin Dewalt on blogging
“You have never done anything irrational, ever.”
“Even when someone straps a bomb to themselves, they are acting rationally.”
–Nils Pihl on why your brain is your enemy
“If you learn too much, your brain is gonna get full, it’s gonna puke and you won’t retain it.”
–Irene Shao on teaching/learning languages
“Do one thing well.”
“Less is more … more or less.”
–Mickey Du on mobile app development
“It’s about gamefying the learning experience in a fun and responsible way.”
–Raj Sodhi on edutainment
“It’s not a local problem. It’s not a global problem. But it’s somewhere in between, and its big.”
–Kamil Bojanczyk on how a smart grid can reduce pollution
If the speakers aren't enough entice you, today's BarCamp also featured an exhibition by CircuitPot. Attendants could bring their laptops to build and program simple circuits on Arduino boards, like the buzzer I made in the photo below. The company will release their own more powerful version of a prototyping board sometime after Spring festival.
And one more thing ... lunch is free! Keep an eye out for the next BarCamp in a couple months.
UXCamp DC 2012
This last Saturday, Graham, Todd, Amanda, Emily (our new intern), and I trekked to Washington, D.C. to attend the 2012 DC UXCamp. Graham and Todd are veterans of the Bar Camp style of conference, but the rest of us had never attended one before Saturday, and I, for one, was not entirely sure what to expect. I am as fearful of speaking in public as anyone - would I have to present something on-the-fly? Would I be required to be actively involved in every discussion? Egads, I’m just the developer over in the corner with my head down, coding!
As it turns out, the entire concept behind a Bar Camp is that it is very informal, and how involved you choose to be is entirely up to you. The sessions ranged from full-on presentations with slideshows to very loose group discussions. I honestly expected there to be a lot more in-depth, fine-grained discussions about UX - including maybe some HTML5, or jQuery, specific talks with some nitty-gritty details. Instead, the sessions I attended were much more high level.
The first two sessions I attended revolved around wireframing and prototyping. The first was a presentation of a tool that the presenter’s company had built to facilitate quick creation of wireframes and the second was an open discussion about various tools that attendees use or have used and what we liked or didn’t like about each.
One thing I love about the Bar Camp format, is the informality. We attended WordCamp in Richmond in the fall, and while I do feel that I learned more there than I did at UXCamp, I found that it got to be a drag being in the same room the entire time. UXCamp allots a 2-hour break for lunch, which allowed us to venture out, get some fresh air, and get some quality team-time in together.
After lunch, I attended what was by far my favorite session. When I walked in the room, the presenter was showing a slideshow of pictures from a recent concert by the band Rush. I knew then that I was in for a different session than the previous. As people wandered in, he discussed Rush’s show aesthetic and how it relates to UX. Then the session transitioned into a presentation/discussion about Frank Lloyd Wright and how his architecture and designs relate to UX. Very cool concept, and my interest in FLW was renewed after this session.
I was very excited about the final session of the day that the entire team attended. I don’t recall the title, but it was about iPad/iPhone design, and I was hoping to learn quite a bit as Business Bullpen is growing our mobile development experience. Instead, the session ended up being about the new features in iOS5, and admittedly I found myself nodding off a couple of times. To be fair, we left Charlottesville at 6 am and had a hefty lunch so I’m not blaming this entirely on the topic or the presenter, but I found it to be a little too much of an Apple advertisement.
Having said that, I am already looking forward to UXCamp 2013! And who knows, maybe I’ll even find it in me to lead a session …
Posted by Brian Chenault, developer for Business Bullpen. You can follow Brian on Tumblr or Twitter.
Catamiati
Catamiati in siciliano significa smuoviti, datti da fare. Per questo abbiamo scelto di chiamare Catamiati un servizio di consulenza per chi ha un'idea innovativa, creativa o anche semplicemente il desiderio di realizzare una propria micro-impresa commerciale, artigiana o professionale (www.catamiati.com). Un po' di promozione e sono arrivati i primi clienti - singoli e gruppi - con passioni e progetti nei campi più disparati. Il primo anno di questa esperienza ha confermato che ci sono in giro un po' di teste e idee molto interessanti e che creare una micro impresa può essere difficile ma non impossibile. Basta cercare on line "Catamiati BarCamp" per averne una prova tangibile...
A history of FOO Camp and O'Reilly's Sara Winge's involvement.