Saturday, August 20, 2005
Foo Camp, Bar Camp, Do Camp -- an Earth Day for Geeks
Tim O'Reilly hosts a Friends of O'Reilly (FOO) Camp . . . I think this is its third year. It's going on, now. David Weinberger seems to be having a great time there! I wasn't invited, so (invoking Groucho's ghost) it MUST be a GREAT event :-).
Actually, Tim O gives this talk where he asks the coolest geeks he knows, "Who's the coolest geeks you know?" Then he asks those people, "Who's the coolest geeks you know?" And eventually, he comes up with what he calls, "The Alpha Geeks." It seems to me that these are the people who get invited to FOO. It seems a bit . . . uh . . . clever for Tim to position himself at the head of the Coolerati, but he does good and does well doing it. There have been worse business models, much, much worse.
(On the other hand, people's opinion of whether or not you're cool might only be tangentially related to the weight or originality of their work.)
Here's the big rub: not everybody is invited. A bunch of folks, including my friend Ross Mayfield, and others I know less well, have started Bar Camp for "the rest of us." Excellent. Even Tim O likes the idea.
Nivi says,
Actually, Tim O gives this talk where he asks the coolest geeks he knows, "Who's the coolest geeks you know?" Then he asks those people, "Who's the coolest geeks you know?" And eventually, he comes up with what he calls, "The Alpha Geeks." It seems to me that these are the people who get invited to FOO. It seems a bit . . . uh . . . clever for Tim to position himself at the head of the Coolerati, but he does good and does well doing it. There have been worse business models, much, much worse.
(On the other hand, people's opinion of whether or not you're cool might only be tangentially related to the weight or originality of their work.)
Here's the big rub: not everybody is invited. A bunch of folks, including my friend Ross Mayfield, and others I know less well, have started Bar Camp for "the rest of us." Excellent. Even Tim O likes the idea.
Nivi says,
Why don't we create a model to propagate FooCamp throughout the world so that their are simultaneous Foo/BarCamps worldwide? In Boston, Palo Alto, Tehran, Moscow, Bombay, and Baghdad. He suggests we call it Do Camp!Nivi's suggestion is the coolest suggestion I've heard! I'm in!
Technorati Tags: Bar, Foo, OmMalik, TimOReilly
Comments:
Hmmm. I always thought a central tenet of geekdom was that you are 'so out you're in.' (Yeah I'm quoting myself. What of it?) Thus, an exclusive meeting where an in-group of well known, self-designated ubergeeks deigns to make such judgments seems to me to be a contradiction in terms. Indeed, one might argue that FOO's exclusivity, coupled with the 'alpha-geek designation program,' demonstrate said group's lack of qualifications for the job it has conferred upon itself.
I suggest that in the future, the proceedings begin with a collective pause to meditate on the immortal words of The Church Lady: "Well now, aren't we special?"
I couldn't quite figure out what constituted "Bar Camp." But whatever it is or was, it sounds pretty good. Little makes me happier than a chance to fixate on the many and varied implications of technology with what appears to be a minute group of like-minded souls (the truly obsessed?). Besides, I'll take the dorky, dweebish and humble over popularity contests and the technology social register any day.....particularly when good music and sporadic bouts of irrational exuberance (aka silliness) are present.
Now that's the kind of geek-fest I could go for.
(I had to erase the previous version of this comment when I realized, to my horror, that I had incorrectly quoted The Church Lady. Otherwise, it's exactly the same as the first.)
Post a Comment
I suggest that in the future, the proceedings begin with a collective pause to meditate on the immortal words of The Church Lady: "Well now, aren't we special?"
I couldn't quite figure out what constituted "Bar Camp." But whatever it is or was, it sounds pretty good. Little makes me happier than a chance to fixate on the many and varied implications of technology with what appears to be a minute group of like-minded souls (the truly obsessed?). Besides, I'll take the dorky, dweebish and humble over popularity contests and the technology social register any day.....particularly when good music and sporadic bouts of irrational exuberance (aka silliness) are present.
Now that's the kind of geek-fest I could go for.
(I had to erase the previous version of this comment when I realized, to my horror, that I had incorrectly quoted The Church Lady. Otherwise, it's exactly the same as the first.)
