The Definitive Blog on All Things Vague

I think I am kinda special. Not quite like Paris Hilton special, but getting a  chance to attend two Barcamps separated by 8000 miles in a span of 3 weeks has got to be some kind of special stuff. I think the big guy above is smiling at me. Invest in my equity. This is an article outlining some of the interesting differences I saw between the barcamps in Bangalore (BCB3, 31 March -April 1, 2007 ) and Minnesota(Minnebar 2007, 21 April). This is not an article intended to compare or pass a judgement. Just throwing up some observations, fwiw . I am not offering explanations, I am not a socio-anthropology by training. Some of these do not require a degree to arrive at the reason of causation, but I want to keep this blog close to what I saw, not what I think. At most, some "could-be"s. Both the barcamps have a local flavour and preservation of local flavour to me, is inherently good.  Consider food, for example.  A predominantly South Indian buffet spread for lunch ...

  The drive from Milwaukee to Minneapolis/St.Paul is about 320 miles, each way. Takes about 5 hours, you can do it in 4.5 if you push it a bit. The drive cannot really be called scenic, unless you put it in compare mode against Ohio, I guess. I really wanted to see a barcamp outside India and there was no way I would this one in Minneapolis (since I was already in the area.)  So I got up at 3:46 am. The rest is sweet memories. Minnebar  (pronounced minibar) is in its second edition. It is  a BarCamp organised by enthusiasts in the twin cities of St. Paul/Minneapolis, Minnesota.    You can see the pictures here.   William Gurstelle literally blew us with his presentation on explosive underground technologies: potato guns, pumpkin throwers, tesla coils. He is the author of 5 books on how to increase the entropy of the unverse by factors of 10 or alike.    In some sense, the starCamper, if there be one was David Hans...

There is a lot of talk about the last mile problem in developing nations as to how people do not have access to the Internet. Today I feel that some parts of the apparently civilized world are not yet broad-hearted enough to let you get on the Internet seamlessly. Compare this:   Hotel Homestead Marriott Downtown City Brookfield (tiny town) Indianapolis (large city) Rate/night $36 $150 WiFi in room Yes No Cost $5 per stay 10 per night   Downtown Marriott, Indianapolis sucks. Somebody is going to hear an earful from me today.

Identify the three campers at BCB3. No exciting prizes. HeadlessException Hint: This is the photographer at the time of the shot. The one with the camera the above shot it a few seconds before. "Ssssh children, His Holiness is Clicking". The caption makes sense only if you see the whole picture at flickr by clicking here .

www.slideshare.net seems to have a large loyalty base in India. So much so, that a dropdown list on their registration screen has quickfinds for USA and ....   I never knew we had so much national fascination to create powerpoints (ok, also Impress presentations).

Rakesh and I shared some thoughts on unstructured innovation such as unconferences and codejams in large, well-structured (and somewhat paradoxically) very innovative companies.       Technorati tags: barcampbangalore3 , innovation