BarCampTdot - Toronto May 13 - 14, 2006 3
OK, I know this is really late for bloggin about, but since I've just launched my own site, I had to include a post about this BarCampTdot as it was one of my first exposures to Toronto's web community.
If you've ever seen my desk, and chances are you haven't, you'll see what I call an "organized mess". Having said that, I have to say that my first impression of BarCamp was an organized "mesh" of people helping each other, setting up their props, organizing their presentations and coming together in an organized collaboration to discuss the various aspects of today's web experience. Web 2.0 is no longer a buzz word, but a collection of content-driven, user interface focused sites. The presentations quickly turned into conversations with everyone adding their two bits, or 8, and contributing to one another's growth, development, which was more "knowledge-sharing" than any other buzz phrase I could muster. On Brian Oberkich's Weblogs WorkNotes, Lane Becker from Adaptive Path used the term Open Source Consultancy as a description of giving away intellectual property, techniques, ideas, and tools in the same way the open source community of developers share their code bits and full applications. To give you an example of what Open Source is capable of, this site's log license for Typo is Open Source. Hampton was the first to post a blog from BarCampTdot at justasloud.org, and his blog is WordPress, another great Open Source application.
This ad-hoc approach to sharing ideas is a large-scale version of the Socrates Café approach to discussions, in that the organizers don’t plan anything, just organize the location ( in this BarCamp's case an empty warehouse ) and format ("must give a demo, a session, or help with one"). Any one can come and start a topic, and with so many people involved, each topic’s importance is determined by its participants. If you suggest a topic on the board, and no one shows up, you move onto one that is attracting more interest and most likely learn how your own idea can be developed further. One such topic worth taking a look at was Email 2.0. Daniel, whom I met there had some great ideas and new features coming out for Email applications. Perhaps another great 2008 idea in 2006. People will catch on, they always do.
Hey Bart, glad you were able to come out and contribute, this is all about building a community.
Open-source consultancy, we have a number of Canadian groups doing a good job at moving this sort of thing including RainCity Studios and Bryght. They haven’t opened up their practices as much as they could but they are building on top of open tools. Will Pate lists a bunch of new startup cultures, though the IT Manager’s Journal lists 7 open-source business models that might be closer to what Brian was discussing.
Thanks David,
It’s good to see such great work being done here in Toronto. Promotion is definitely the key, as Open-Source has already proven itself time and again. IT Manager’s Journal mentions IBM uses Open Source to drive standard adaptation, hoping their own work will become defacto-standards. Just shows the power of the Open-Source community. Will Pates has great examples of the unorthodox ways companies and ideas are developed nowadays. A good idea and smart people really can take a chunk out of the market share.
When I first heard about BaseCamp from Hampton, I was intrigued by the nature of it, and wondered if it would manage to organize itself with so many tech-egos competing for attention. When I got there, it all fell into place so quickly all I could do was join in the fun, and learn.
Thanks for bringing it to Toronto.
I’m busy getting ready for DemoCampToronto9
IBM has formally announced concentrating on open-source, actually partnering with Red Hat on a more secure RedHat Linux 5
Check out the many open source project they have.