layout: post title: BarCamp Vancouver 2007 a wrap created: 1187504611 categories:

• Ad Hack
• b5media
• barcamp
• barcamp vancouver
• barcamp vancouver 2007
• community wireless
• Free Geek Vancouver
• My Call Monster
• Vancouver

Photo by Ariane Whew. /me lets out big breath.

As always, this year's BarCamp Vancouver event was absolutely fantastic. Ideas, social media, intense thinking, tossing around concepts, learning from everyone, lots of fun, beer, eats, etc. etc.

Feedback and thoughts in no particular order.

1. we didn't do a good job of kicking off BarCamp with the straight-to-the-bar party on Friday night; there was no announcement, it really was just a party to drink at...let's move this to the day after? not sure...
2. the "Camp" aspect of doing stuff overnight is really important for cranking stuff out -- how do we do this better? I flubbed as much as anyone and just needed to go home and crash (see point #1) plus giving Scott a comfortable place to sleep for the night
3. follow on again from last point: needs for hacking code together are different than talking about ideas in sessions...maybe stamp the night with the SuperHappyDevHouse moniker (plus social media project creation? I love having artifacts to show...), and then have set aside time in the tracks for everyone to demo
4. My Geo presentation was very unprepared, which I apologize for -- it was supposed to be in the afternoon, and I ended up being computerless in the morning...I've put up notes on Geo on the wiki, hope that helps -- don't forget to leave a comment if you want to bulk buy a GPS logger
5. I like wearing a cowboy hat and my rockin' sleeveless "Boris" t-shirt
6. I've still got more thinking to do about helping / assisting / developing / connecting something that feels a bit like an advertising and/or blogging network; spent some time musing to Miss604 and Jordan Behan about this; b5, is this you? We need to talk...
7. I had *so* *much* *fun* in James' session on DIY advertising. Yes, it's all an evil plan as part of Ad Hack...but getting groups of people together, falling into different roles, and then producing a video advertising a product in one hour....rocked. I'll need to dedicate a whole post to my team, "Vice Ads", who produced the Share a Fatih video... (see James' post on all three videos)
   
8. I flubbed collaborating with Duane on MyCallMonster...he did more hacking, we have a project space set up, stay tuned. What is it? Tagline: eating your voicemail so you don't have to. In a couple of weeks, ditch your cellphone voicemail and get voicemail via email and more for the same price...Sign up if you're interested.
9. Megan Cole was missed ... sheesh, I haven't seen the girl in ages. Red wine when you return? (Note: that link goes to Canada Bombshell...a group blog to highlight coolness in Canada's New Media sector...subscribe to it, it's good)
10. I'm recycling the name "Innovation Commons" along with partner in crime and entrepreneur extraordinaire Danny Robinson (aside: dude, when the hell are you going to get a blog up? :P) to accelerate startups in Vancouver -- we socialized the idea among some developer / entrepreneur types that wandered by...yep, this is also in need of an entire blog post(s)
11. I've wanted to get more involved with Free Geek Vancouver -- I really dig the people and I believe in their ideals. But: I'm not a hardcore hardware guy. So? The Free Geek Vancouver Wireless Cadre. We had an ad hoc session and talked community wireless, mesh networking, Wifidog / DogOnRails (by Joe Bowser already a FGV member, who brought all the actual wireless knowledge to the session), and various ideas how everything from VCN to Mobile Muse / MUSE3 can fund some of this work. This also needs to be a whole post...

We capped off the day with a trip to New Town Bakery for a shared Chinese meal before everyone headed their separate ways. I'm ripping on the writing here only because I had a Hong Kong Milk Tea. It's supercharged with caffeine.

No (more) links to the many many many people I connected with. So much fun as always (yes, even with you, Lyal, and no apologies...). I love the people, culture, and energy we create from these events. How to filter / channel these connections into the next project / cause / business / meetup?

Update:
Dustin Sacks wrote up some very good thoughts on BarCamp Vancouver. I left a comment there on the timing / structure that I want to repeat here: BarCamp could start late morning or early afternoon with a true kick off and three tags once around the room. We might break for lunch right afterwards and then do sessions right after lunch. Sessions would "officially" end at some evening point and there would be ad hoc dinner / cocktail plans, and then return to the space to "camp" as well as clearly labeled hack / develop / create spaces, a la SuperHappyDevHouse but expanding into social media creation and such (all night DIY ads, anyone?). In the morning, we would reconvene, maybe recap sessions and do demos from the previous night's hacking / creation, then continue with sessions until lunch time. We'd wrap up and clean. This, I think, is a good formula with a wide mix of goals met. I think I'll make some space on the wiki specifically for discussing / planning / templating this.