On Sun, Apr 20, 2008 at 1:14 AM, Mayank Dhingra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Friends, > > Attended barcampbangalore 6 at IIMB today. It was the best barcamp i've ever > attended. From "startups" to "citizen matters(education issues,ecological > issues)" everything was covered. > > list of sessions: http://barcampbangalore.org/wiki/BCB6_Sessions > > Anyone coming for the last day of barcamp tomorrow ? > > Thanks, > Mayank > (http://mayank.name)
Hi Mayank.... Yesterday, when I wanted to attend Barcamp, I was told that unless I was making a presentation or wanted to volunteer for both days, I could not attend...I could not volunteer, because I will not be able to come to the event today. And since my perception of Barcamp was as a pre-dominantly techie event, I abided by this rule and didn't go....and apparently missed being able to contribute on several fora where I am actively interested. When Subbu Vincent asked why I had not come, and told me that a lot of things would have interested me, I went over in the evening.I found that I had, indeed, missed several interesting discussions. I did enjoy the last bit of the dating discussion that Zainab and TBD (in the flesh, and one single person this time) were moderating. Apart from anything else, the level of interaction was amazing...we could hear the group all the way to the entrance hall! I would have loved to attend the "Mobiles and Gadgets" discussion too...especially since I am NOT a gadget person, I like what it is that makes other people so fond of gadgets. Keshav, who actually showed me his videos once again, later explained to me that the "only presenters and volunteers" rule had been...sort of....thought of to prevent people from coming in for marketing their own products or initiatives, and to prevent people who were not committed from being casual visitors. But while I do agree with the logic behind this, the imperfect implementation of this rule ultimately did result in at least one interested person keeping away,when I could have both benefited and contributed from the event. Also, I think that keeping casual visitors out is not logical..the casual visitor of today might be the committed contributor of tomorrow. Since the whole Barcamp premise is based on freewheeling, impromptu discussions and presentations as well as scheduled ones, trying to exclude casual visitor is, to my mind, contradictory. I do not know to what extent Jace is involved with Barcamp now...but if you are, Jace...that's feedback I want to give you. I pondered on whether to take this offlist and email only Mayank and Jace...but decided to let this stand. But the next Barcamp, no matter who says what..I am going! :) Deepa.
