BarCamp Rochester3
So this is going to be a running report, so following the model of the last post or two things will change without RSS updates. This being my first BC some thoughts: I suddenly understand why there needs to be a limited attendance. This one is between 70 and 100, not because it was limited but because it was Rochester. First up was a OLPC XO demo, neat that the audience knows more than the ‘presenter’.
Nexts up is controlling a web site from your cell phone. Which was kind’a "Huh?" to start with, then a got it; if you have a display in your store window, the folks outside can change pages by using their cell phone. A user controlled ’sign-board’. It’s kind of cool that he can do this but I’m not sure it’s not going to be outdated before it takes off; as in, "Why not just use the phone to display the website. May have application for Macy’s Christmas Displays, thought I don’t know how it handles dueling cell phones; kind of cool that 80% of what he’s showing is Ruby code.
Sort of dead this half hour; not sure if that’s me, the topic, or the presenter. Maybe all three, the thing that becomes obvious fast is that there are egos at large. On the other hand I can sit in the back of the room and learn stuff from watching the other users, and it’s significant that that’s what they are, because even if they aren’t ‘paying attention’ they are working, writing code, blogging, something.
On to ‘Natural Language Processing" which is so far a grad-student presentation, and as is often the case the ‘presenter’ isn’t real comfortable with that ‘natural language though I suspect he might be pretty good at the processing.
session on ‘creativity’ sort of interesting in that the techie’s are still caught up in the art worship thing. No particular news, but part of that is the structured time frame; the sessions last for 30 minutes and there’s very little you can do in that time constraint.
Next is a demo of the Novint Falcon, which is a Haptic controler mainly for games so you get texture and feedback so that if you pick something up it has weight, the guns kick. There’s a $300 emotiv Brain Machine interface on the way in a couple of months. Add i-glasses and you have an amazingly effective immersive experience/environment.
Two nice kids, what can I say, the scary part is that I’m much more in their world than I am in the ones that seem to be inhabited by my contemporarys, SKINC is sam and katie inc. Good deal fo chatter about Fire Eagle
Social Conventions, interesting discussion, and a real moment of human contact with one of the other participants.
James Turk on Changing the World Through Software..Now this kid, I know I know, is interesting, we’re getting a get involved lecture & he’s got a laptop that looks like a folk singer’s guitar case, featuring an Obama sticker and much much else. Basic message ‘Developers Control the Internet". He promised to put his PP up on the Barcamp Wiki, if he forgets I’ll bug him because there were some great links and my notes don’t do it justice.
