In keeping with the Recession theme of BarCamp there are a few changes to this year’s BarCamp. Firstly a new venue, whilst we loved UNSW it was quite expensive. Thankfully the Australian Technology Park (ATP) Innovations Centre is giving us access to the space for free! Yay!

Secondly, we need to spread the load of the cost of running BarCamp across more people so we are asking for individual sponsorship as well as our traditional corporate sponsorship. So what do you get for your individual sponsorship? Nothing really, just the warm fuzzy feeling that you get from helping run this fantastic community event. Hopefully there will still be T-Shirts but that will depend on how much money we raise in sponsorship. However, if you are a corporate and would like to sponsor the event please contact us ASAP.

Finally, we have a new idea for a few of the sessions — the Think Tank room. The Think Tank room is a small room with no projector and no tech — just enough room for a small group of people discussing ideas. And what better ideas to discuss than ideas about the future. As a result of the recent FutureSummit attended by a few of the local twitterati, @liubinskas has suggested we keep the ideas coming with a FutureCamp! There will be a real FutureCamp later in the year but we can start the future discussion right here at BarCamp Sydney.

There will be more details forthcoming about the venue, the logistics and how you can register and sponsor, but for right now please block out Saturday June 27 for BarCamp Sydney and put your thinking hats on to present a ripper of a session.

Keep up to date at the BarCampSydney Blog or this email list.

Thanks to Jodie Miners for driving this Barcamp. Community is fun

We will be there.

Will you?

15th November 2008. Sydney, Australia.

1. Mark Pesce’s Python BlueScanner
   
   
2. Liam and Alex’s Presentation on Lua in Garry’s Mod (hence missed Anna Liu’s presentation)
   
   
3. http://goodbarry.com/  We’re going to see more of this little application.
4. The expertise of those who have gone down the VC path: the depth of sharing was great
5. LOLCODE in UR BarCampSydney2 (at the end of the day to liven up the day)
   

The number of sessions seemed a little less geeky this time; and being on the “wrong” side of the UTS building stopped people congregating around the lounges. Lounges and wireless are good for conversation. Well un-organised again.

The deep conversation around Venture Capital, Startups etc were eye opening — and connected some of the stuff on online advertising I learnt at the AwardCraft session at DDB yesterday.

Eyeballs, eyeballs, eyeballs. Know your monetisation strategy. Getting communities (demographics are dead) to your site and knowing who they are and what they are interested in is the thing.

On the money-side, the economy around online ads are massive. As financial industry ads have made a significant % of this sector, it is going to be interesting to see the impact on this side of the business over the next 6 months as the credit crunch hits the US markets.

Ran into some old Apple friends (hi Tom!) and shared the joys of Frankarr moving into the US.

Tim, an old friend whom I owe much, a key shareholder in NextByte sold out to FoneZone. Congratulations, and enjoy the rest, Tim. I am jealous! Tim, an occasional commenter here will now have time to become a real geek.

Telstra’s Georgia Lee says To grow a small business, it helps to be a Geek. In fact, Georgia is looking for Geek Stories. Been there, doing that Georgia. Call me. We’ll do lunch.

Politicians just don’t get Wikipedia, and the traceability of editing on the internet — where people no know if you are a dog. Of course the PM doesn’t need to ask our public servants from editing Wikipedia.

Cleaned up some slack paperworking on my behalf; and have some more to get through (I owe some people prizes: waiting on them to come in so I can send them out!). Paperwork has never, and will never be, my strong point.

Questions from the week I am going to let settle in my brain, and answer next week. Tomorrow: BarCampSydney2. No videos, no laptop. Just popping in with Liam to soak up the geek world.

One day, Liam will create his own geek empire. And he’ll sell it. And I can then retire. And join Tim.

Joel Pobar: I have this quiet passion for dynamic languages. Meeting Joel Pobar made me realise how little I know. There is another, longer story here. Watch this space! 

Behind-the-Scenes: http://www.on10.net/Blogs/nhodge/the-geek-stories-behind-the-scenes-of-barcampsydney/

Thanks to Liam for his help on Saturday.

So, rather than discard the bits: I’ve uploaded them to YouTube.

Follow the tag “BarCampSydney” or just look at this playlist.

My favourite: Geeks in Startups are Hot

fixed playlist URL, thanks mountainash

OK, this a little cheeky. I never got the “programming in XML” thing of Coldfusion. Give me PHP anyday. Photo from Barcampsydney

In the UK they may translate this to Pubcamp — but that would be the completely wrong interpretation.

Liam is coming along too — so you will see us with the new video camera (named Flashheart) in hand getting geek stories from participants.