A Geek’s 4.5 Days in Perth
Whilst driving from Perth airport to the Hotel on Sunday, I determined that I haven’t been in Perth since late 2005. Nearly 2 years. Perth is greener now.
My first visit to Perth was in 1993. I think I’ve been here at least 27 times through my last 4 employers.
The Duxton Hotel’s high-speed internet access is wireless only, and keeps dropping VPN connections to work. As a video-blogger, I am constantly moving around multiple-hundred of Mb files around the world, and the lack of network stability is frustrating.
This danah boyd video is killing me. Note to self: choose a different hotel. And one that doesn’t think I am a Ms.
I’ve already captured two videos: one with Gary Barber and one with Stephen Price.
Stephen is the cartoonist who created my new avatar, and Gary is the geek-father of Perth.
My discussions with Gary revolved around “why Perth?”. Is it the tyranny of distance that forces Perth people together; which is like Australia. Why then do humans seek like minded people out and see a need to get together in meatspace? There is no doubt that Perth people have this innate drive to help each other in a way that you do not see in other cities. Maybe Melbourne at little. Adelaide should learn from Perth.
By strange coincidence, I ran into Nick Randolph and Brian H Madsen (and a bunch of .Net dudes) at the centre of Perth Silicon area, Tiger Tiger. Thankfully, they didn’t ask me some obscure .Net technical question. If they had, I’d probably called Joel Pobar.
On the return walk to the hotel, Stephen lead me astray into the Hay Street Border’s Bookstore. Yes, my book collection +1. And friendly staff. The geek-girl behind the counter loved my “geek” t-shirt. rscpt.
Tomorrow is more than another Wednesday for Perth: its WebJam day. Lachlan Hardy and Lisa Herrod land to get the Perth experience. I hope that WebJam is a two-way experience for all conference people in Australia, especially in the online space.