Barcamp: Wrap-up

I have been busy this week with work and such, and haven't had a chance to sit down and writeup a postscript for last weekend's Barcamp. Thankfully, Justin has prodded me through e-mail, so here it is. Justin writes:

"Any final thoughts on BarCamp? Were there things that you thought they did particularly well? Anything they should have done better?"

And here is my response:

I probably should blog about this, but I think that BarCamp might have been a little over-hyped in my mind. I expected to be fully blown-away by all of the smart people talking about really smart things. Instead, there were a few sessions that were like that, and bunch that were just "ok".

Things that they did well - for being an event that is supposed to be barely-contained anarchy, things were planned really well, there was tons of food (which was all very good), and there wasn't really a time where I didn't know what to do. It also seems like they were pretty good about casting the sessions on the 'net (with video, irc, etc.).

Things that weren't as good -- I don't think that we (the participants, myself included) did a good enough job capturing things in the wiki.

All-in-all, it was a weekend well spent, and I would like to go again. I'm pretty happy that so many people volunteered to pull-off Barcamp, because it really was great. I think that if I do go again, I need to work harder on doing a session of my own. By the time I finally decided what I would like to talk about, it was too late. I think it is true that you get out of Barcamp what you put into it, and I was a bit timid this time, and need to put more into it next time.

Justin is also aiming for me to head up to Seattle for Mind Camp, which is also a possibility.

-Andy.

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