Now I’m armed with my MacBook, I’m having a go at logging during the weekend so I can try and capture more of the thoughts that go off from various sessions.  Might be interesting for me to look back over and see a difference in writing style too.

2pm Saturday

So after a cold, frosty, foggy morning getting the train over from Stockport, there was a pretty warm welcome for people registering and straightaway you get a sense that it’s pretty well organised.  By the time I go there the chart was fairly full already for the sessions over the weekend and a really varied lot – possibly more out-and-out techie than the two BarCamp style events I’ve been to before.

First off I caught Caz’s talk about Geocaching.  I had a fair idea what was involved in it but it’s always good to feed off someone’s enthusiasm; something you get a lot of at BarCamps.  It might be a little geeky to wonder around with a GPS unit of some kind trying to find caches but it can a real team thing and actually quite social.  You can see how people can really get into it and interact in a practical way too, setting caches of their own and exchanging stories, etc.

Alastair held an open discussion, in part attempting to find a definition everyone could agree on for what community actually is or what it means.  Going round the table there were some interesting ideas and arguments, most of which accepting that many of our interpretations may be based on the bastardisation of the word community.  It’s interesting stuff considering my talk I’ll be trying again tomorrow (trying to improve from SocialMediaCamp).  Are communities implied?  Do you have to actually decide to become a part of a community?  More musing to be done on this, I think…

10pm Saturday

Hmm…my ‘live blogging’ slipped through lack of power outlets or maybe absorbed in conversation then darting out early for the train?

The afternoon was really pretty good.  Got talking to a few people, notably Neil Crosby (a Yahoo! fella) and Pippa Buchanan and it was Pippa’s talk around Friendship & Jedi Mind-tricks, which kind of took over the afternoon.  There was good reason – the Jedi bit was to pull a crowd and I think a few left after realising it was a ruse but that left a core that really got a lot out of the discussion about friendship in the Internet age; whether it’s something quantifiable in the real world as more formal relationships or whether the online world has had an impact.  We all ended up gassing in though provoking ways for a good 2 hours so I missed a session or two I had my eye on, but it’s this I love about BarCamps; a lot of intelligent people from different backgrounds enthusiastic and yet they listen.  Discussions are the best part and with there being so many elements related to social psychology, anthropology, social networks, etc it was right up my street.  I never tire of hearing other people talk about their experiences and perceptions around human interactions, especially in such a forum.

The downside is that I had to leave early so I donated my beer tokens and caught most of Paul Stanton’s ‘Self Defense for Geeks’.  You can’t always tell if the title is literal for BarCamp sessions, but this one was and shows the diversity of what you can get; actual basics of how to respond to confrontations without any practical demos, even though Stanton is a black belt karate type.

More tomorrow…

4pm Sunday

Tedious journey in ment that I missed the first couple of sessions but ended up catching Emma Persky’s around women on the Internet.  Loads of interesting sub-issues and discussions over how to gauge amount of usage by women of services on the web with as many questions raised as were answered.  A real strength of BarCamps is the range of discussions and debates.

Tim Nash showed us all the evils of SEO techniques and busted open a few myths, which was unexpectedly interesting.  I heard a little idea about some of the ways that search engines found their results but seeing a few diagrams and learning about some more nefarious techniques opens your mind a little.

I caught Jon’s talk around 10 ways to f**k up your website, which was actually really true and simple thing that can be forgotten about a web project, from DNS settings, getting content from clients, etc.  Always worth being reminded about this stuff and not be too complacent that maybe you already know it all.  I have admit the one about colour profiles is one I hadn’t heard before.

So as the day peters out, it’s more of a hang out and I’m quite in the mood for a pint so time to work on a new presentation for BarCampLiverpool next week?

Yesterday I went down to Bristol to sit on a panel at the Web Developers Conference, which is mainly aimed at university students that have an interest in getting into the web industry.  It was a really good idea that Alex (and Dan) started last year – to bring the industry to the students so that they can figure out what the reality is and ask questions.

I’d had a late one coding the night before and got an early train down just in time to catch James Box’s talk, which was very cool and exactly the kind of thing that would work at most conferences, very thoughtful and a great introduciton for the amassed (mainly) student audience.  The panel I was on, along with Dan W, John Gibbins, Elliot Jay Stocks & Elliott Kember went pretty well.  There were some good questions asked and I think we all had different experiences to draw from to paint a broad picture.  It was my first time in this kind of set-up and I really liked it, despite a yearning for my missed breakfast.

Alex had done a great job of organising the event and getting some really interesting people involved, in addition to those I’ve already mentioned: Rick Hurst, Jon Tan, Mel Kirk, Peter Coles, Joe Leach, Patrick Lauke and Chris Garrett were all great and it was a great oppotunity to have a chat with most of the them before dashing off for a train.

Seeing what was done with this, it could and should be duplicated in any major university where there is a decent amount of interest in web development.  I know when I first started out I had no idea what to learn, what it was like to be a pro and so had many misconceptions.  It was actually really nice to chat with some of the first years who were really keen to get into it and be reminded of what it was like for me starting out and hopefully offer a few constructive words of encouragement.

I finally managed to get everything organised to get myself on an early train from Manchester down to SocialMediaCamp London on the 4th October. It’s my second venture into the community; my second BarCamp style event too.

First thing I noticed was that the facilities were great at Wallacespace in St Pancras. It’s a pretty well done out building; modern and friendly. Everyone I met, straight out of my zombied train mode, were really welcoming, especially Vero who organised the event.

The site of the board waiting to be filled up with sessions got my nerves going. I think I had a bit more preparation than with my first BarCamp at Brighton a month ago but sometimes you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone…

I can’t remember everything I saw or heard but the day started for me with Carl of Fellow Creative’s talk about Hedgehogs. I know – what has hedgehogs got to do with social media? That was the beauty of what Carl does – there were loads of meandering ideas, which in turn encouraged ideas from the people in the session, but it did have a point! He is after all a ‘creative midwife’ ;) Good to bump into him again after Brighton.

Damien’s ‘Scrumping 2.0′ was actually was about scrumping but more in relation to community projects and somehow using more contemporary web technologies to help sections of a community garner support to achieve their goals. It started the old cogs turning, thinking about engaging with technical and non-technical people within the community and what kind of structure any web platform would need. Should there be personal achievements or should together achieving a goal be enough? Could you use RFID or would it work to use that and offer other formats through a single tiki-tag like QR codes or SMS short codes?

I caught most of Peter O’Neill’s talk on metrics and how we can measure the impact of social media, which was pretty informative especially as there is only so we can go. We can tracks visits to our websites but keeping tabs on the ‘buzz’ we’re trying to create especially through newer social channels is difficult. Food for thought and one to keep looking into.

From what I can remember, I think I sauntered into LLoyd Davis’ session about being a one man/woman social media empire. Illustrating the great contrast you can get in talks, Lloyd’s was interestingly practical. He once had a canvas bar in which he carried everything he’d need for work, blogging, podcasts, interviews, etc but his latest experiment is to try to downsize that and see how little kit you can get away with. His Nokia N95 was hooked up to the huge plasma screen and the little bluetooth keyboard showed that with the right apps, it was possibly although clunky and for the more technical proficient. He demoed how using a Python app, he could take a photo (upload to Flickr through ShoZu) and write a blog post and submit to WordPress all relatively pain free – the results of which are on his blog. It shows we’re getting closer to the mobile dream but there’s still a way to go till it’s convenient for most people.

I managed to make it up to one of the ‘nest’ rooms to catch Alison’s session about her creative/web project. I’d spoken with her throughout the day and it was clear that there is real mileage in her ideas to help creatives embrace collaboration but that aside from technical solutions there would need to be a shift in the community to actively encourage sharing of skills and ideas – to maybe use her solution as a means to land bigger project through collaborating with similarly minded creatives.

It was my turn to take to the stage. I’d done a bit more preparation for my presentation this time although suffering from major dry-mouth and nerves, I got through it and actually enjoyed it! I didn’t really know who I was pitching to so in retrospect I might’ve thrown too many concepts at the audience. Although it wasn’t completely technical, that side of it underpins the more philosophical ideas I was trying to get across. Maybe it’ll need more work and try version 2 out next time…

Ben’s talk about FOAF/XFN & Dunbar’s number was exactly the kind of thing I’m into but it immediately raised my pet subject of context of social relationships to my mind as FOAF, which it is practical for basic mapping of relationships, leaves no room for negative relationships, saying how we know each contact, etc. XFN was briefly touched upon (or was that just in my mind?), which I like and try to use on my own code but is another static technology whereas the web needs live social data or we’re not much farther forward than we currently are. Great talk though and it was interesting hear more about Dunbar and the kind of research that has been done on a more anthropological and psychological wavelength about human social interaction.

There was a real mix of people from developers like me to PR and journalistic types to marketers and entrepreneurs to creatives and freelancers. Judging by the success of this one, I’m sure Vero would be looking to do another sometime next year and I’ll be there! The food and drink supplied by the sponsors was welcomed after a day filled with so many ideas and so much conversation. Good to meet so many people, such as Peter from viewmy.tv/brandstation.tv, Matt from localmouth.com, Mary from JuiceCaster and Goldmund from The Sun. I’m sure I’ve not name-checked everyone , but it was a pleasure to meet you and I’ll hopefully bump into you sometime in the future.