From the nobody-told-us department

Friday, May 12, 2006

It turns out Barcamp Bangalore was stupid and a disaster. I wish we knew when we were having so much fun out there. It is morally wrong to benefit from someone or something stupid.

sumit_mittal — May 12, 2006 9:34:27 AM — # ↩

Goatie has an opinion on everything. And boy, does he provide entertainment! :D
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 12, 2006 10:46:13 AM — # ↩
  
  Entertainment when at a distance. Sheer irritation when you're the target and actually trying to achieve something.
  - sumit_mittal — May 13, 2006 7:23:42 AM — # ↩
    
    Entertainment when at a distance
    
    aww c'mon, just trying socking him on his nose. I'm sure he could be fun when he's nearby as well :p
    
    Sheer irritation...
    Thats goatie's middle name, what else did you expect?
sidcarter — May 12, 2006 10:59:57 AM — # ↩

He eggs you and you do what he wants you to do ;)

Chill, take a sip and see him cry foul. He likes it. Let him be :D

I am sure there are better things to make a post about, no ?
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 12, 2006 11:19:33 AM — # ↩
  
  Fear not, my man. This post has greater purpose. Note that he continues to be tolerated despite his tendency for offensive behaviour. I wish to marvel at humanity's resilience for kooks. My faith in humanity is strengthened.
  - mat_attack — May 12, 2006 12:48:40 PM — # ↩
    
    Working towards kookhood yerself are ye? :P
    - Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 12, 2006 12:49:22 PM — # ↩
      
      Oh yes, full steam ahead.
  - ashwinne — May 12, 2006 5:39:16 PM — # ↩
    
    Kook?
    Keeper Of Odd Knowledge?
    - Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 12, 2006 5:45:08 PM — # ↩
      
      Re: Kook?
      Rather, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net.kook
raghav — May 12, 2006 11:42:40 AM — # ↩

This is starting to sound like a continuum of sorts... history.
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 12, 2006 11:55:34 AM — # ↩
  
  But of course. History repeats itself. The story's new but the plot's recycled.
appaji — May 12, 2006 1:18:05 PM — # ↩

Verbal diarrhoea.
lawgon — May 12, 2006 3:15:24 PM — # ↩

in fact barcamp bangalore was the only barcamp in india to be an actual unconference - and make people like atul chitnis, bluesmoon, spo0nmman and the rest of the BLUG crowd uneasy - mumbai will be easily on league with chennai and hydrebad - a conference, not a bar conference. imagine, atul, spo0nsman and bluesmoon without a projector, in a room with five people ...
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 12, 2006 3:26:37 PM — # ↩
  
  What? There's an actual conspiracy involved? And nobody told me?
  - lawgon — May 12, 2006 3:41:01 PM — # ↩
    
    ok, forget conspirancy, i liked barcamp bangalore - next time, at least 10 rooms, no projectors .. we will have a ball. Anyway, by next year atul, spo0nman and bluesmoon would have migrated to mumbai, which looks as the next site for foss.in
    - Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 13, 2006 12:04:52 AM — # ↩
      
      Don't lose the plot, lawgon. We refute curmudgeonry with humour, not finger pointing.
- bluesmoon — May 15, 2006 8:12:58 PM — # ↩
  
  meet me when you feel up to it old man
  - lawgon — May 16, 2006 7:36:29 AM — # ↩
    
    do i get to choose the weapons ;-)
    - bluesmoon — May 16, 2006 8:15:41 AM — # ↩
      
      pick yours, i'll pick mine
      - lawgon — May 16, 2006 10:01:16 AM — # ↩
        
        pythons easily swallow perls
        
        bluesmoon — May 16, 2006 10:45:29 AM — # ↩
        
        no talk
premshree — May 12, 2006 3:19:15 PM — # ↩

From what I’ve heard and seen (photos), BarCamp Bangalore did sound like a lot of fun. But to be honest, I thought the planning involved was a tad more than what I’d expect.

But then again, you guys had fun, and that'’s important and a good thing.
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 12, 2006 3:25:10 PM — # ↩
  
  We had a lot of unplanning involved, offlist. The list was essentially hijacked by some people who had grand ideas for what a barcamp should be.
  
  Offlist, we bickered a bit about how unplanned we should leave it, but that was about it. We were ready to have the event less than a week after starting planning, and considered it too (one week before Chennai and Hyderabad), but decided we could do with keeping a stable date. That was about it.
  
  If nothing else, the belligerent voices onlist turned off a lot of people who complained privately.
  
  I wish I could turn hypocritical and ban the fuckers, while still claiming this is an open event. It seems such a clean solution (and such a slippery slope)...
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 12, 2006 3:27:15 PM — # ↩
  
  Oh, and did you guys have a good hack day? Jess was telling me about it.
- dhempe — May 13, 2006 2:25:14 PM — # ↩
  
  >>BarCamp Bangalore did sound like a lot of fun
  
  It sure was loads of fun ! So many ideas were discussed and so many useful information was picked up !
hserus — May 13, 2006 4:48:12 PM — # ↩

99.999% of most of the Indian barcamps sounded like either [wannabe] bloggers or people raving on about what they thought was bleeding edge tech. Web 2.0, Ajax, Podcasting .. random other buzzwords.

*yawn*
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 13, 2006 6:57:10 PM — # ↩
  
  Give them a break, Suresh. Everyone starts out a wannabe. The fact that there are so many takers for Web 2.0, Ajax etc (despite our efforts at being broader) is indicative of a desire to be part of the "in" crowd, something by implication they aren't already. Give them a dose of a few such conferences and they'll see the light.
  
  What's important is that we set in motion an effort to liberate conferencing from the hands of a few organisers who currently impose their will about what is cool and what is not.
  - hserus — May 13, 2006 7:11:29 PM — # ↩
    
    Yea - but I've seen gatherings that have a rather more eclectic taste than simply one flash in the pan technology after the other. Silklist meetings, or KCircle / QFI / KQA type quiz clubs. You'll get really interesting conversation there, including tech, to be sure - but rather more wide ranging than a bunch of people doing these.
    
    Oh - and I've seen (and helped organize) my share of conferences - speak at probably one conference a month (mostly if not all on network operations and/or spam, but well..) http://www.apricot.net for example. Or http://wiki.apcauce.org/index.php/APCAUCE_2006
    
    Most conferences work their best with a few organizers who
    
    1. Are prepared to roll up their sleeves and work
    2. Have a set of open, published standards and stick to them
    3. Have enough clue level to implement those standards
    4. Know to give speakers as much leeway as possible - after selecting them carefully
    
    I dont count unstructured conferences like Barcamp (or other wannabe foo camps) in that category though .. trying to micromanage those works far worse than trying to micromanage the larger conferences - and its much more fun bitching once attempts to micromanage them are rejected.
    
    I'm sure the Madras and Bombay barcamps are going to be held up as sterling examples of how to do a barcamp ..
    
    Oh, and I'd just love it when non "IT" geekery comes to the fore, as it should. Was Kallu there with wildlife photography tips and tricks? Or (say) Udhay with something that's actually bleeding edge AND interesting for a change? Or someone who could talk about using Ham radios for tsunami relief?
    
    Nope .. reading through the barcamp archives looks like flipping through a random copy of PC Mag (or maybe PCQ). Not too good an idea for a foocamp wannabe, I guess.
    
    --srs
    - Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 13, 2006 11:04:14 PM — # ↩
      
      But what do you expect when the event's hyped up by mainstream media as a tech event, is not publicised outside tech circles, and features resident loudmouths who discourage people unfamiliar with their antics?
      
      Events such as Barcamp are useful in spirit, but in the absence of a regular conference line up (your examples have strong focus and there really aren't many other), Barcamp has no status quo to be the "anti-conference" of, giving it far more prominence than it deserves, and thus stifling the chances of anything interesting actually happening there.
      
      I fear that if we're going to achieve the spirit, we can't use the name "Barcamp" next time. That name is lost. However, let's not already write off the possibilities for a movement that has just started rolling. Who knows what it will mutate into once everyone's had a dose?
      - hserus — May 14, 2006 12:09:56 AM — # ↩
        
        Hi Jace
        
        Sadly, I have a feeling that this was attracting a primarily tech
        crowd even BEFORE your bearded friend got into the act. [Heck, not
        bearded, the photos I saw of the madras barcamp look like he's shaved
        it off or something, gone back to the mustache only look that he had
        in the mid 90s]
        Did you see the reportage in The Hindu about the madras barcamp? The
        reporter took one look at the agenda and she was like "run away, run
        away" apparently [well, e&oe the usual abysmal quality of reporters
        in india, she did have a point there]. According to her the topics
        were all geekery, interspersed with M$ bashing that struck her as
        especially vicious (and would have sounded normal to people who read
        j.random linux lists.
        I dont know how the hell you are going to get a great non tech crowd
        into it. Probably stick to Udhay's FOU camp for silklisters in future
        (how I regret missing hte last one, it sounded just great).
        
        Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 14, 2006 11:05:20 AM — # ↩
        
        Fou camp 2.0 does sound good.
        
        lawgon — May 16, 2006 7:41:56 AM — # ↩
        
        incidently the two talks i enjoyed most in barcamp bangalore were on observing traffic rules in bangalore and on the effect of lengthy traffic signals on road rage - and next in the list, a disucssion of the bangalore lj community. And we *did* have a socially conscious doctor in attendance
Anonymous — May 22, 2006 9:03:42 AM — # ↩

Hell No

I disagree with comments on barcamp bangalore. Barcamp Bangalore was absolute fun ! I thought that the barcamp was a lot unstructured.

A conference like this should be unstructured but certainly not unorganized. There are many things that I will take some of learning from bangalore barcamp and am gonna propose in the barcamp hyderabad 2.The key of which is to make it lot more unstructured but still not make it an organizers nightmare :) I could see how challenging it became for Jessica and Manish to coordinate with so many people especially the last leg of the barcamp :)

Rajan
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 22, 2006 9:53:07 AM — # ↩
  
  Re: Hell No
  I could see how challenging it became for Jessica and Manish to coordinate with so many people especially the last leg of the barcamp
  
  Umm, Muthu, Sathish and I somehow had it easier?