The Un-Conference
Monday, April 21, 2008
Warning: This is a very passionate post.
This post is a direct response to Vijay "PROTO.IN" Anand's post. Its a "howto" on Barcamps. In one sentence "impose some rules". Which begs the question: why?
I have been an avid barcamper. Starting from BCB1 to BCB6. I skipped BCB5 since I got thrashed by the un-organizers on when I suggested that collectives dont work. It pissed me off big time. But BCB6 went back to its original roots. The good old paper wiki and a better second day crowd. And damn.. i loved it. There was this session conducted by our own Prof. Suresh, on Startup Pains. He asked for a show of hand on how many people wanted to startoff on their own. Allmost all the hands in the room went up. And mind you, people were standing and sitting on the stairs. The energy there was incredible.
I loved the in feeling there. So you are a CEO. So what? So you are a hot chick. So what? So you are a avid barcamper. So fucking what? You do not deserve a t-shirt or a mug if you have attended all the rest of them. You are just as good as others.
Who makes rules in barcamps? Who has the right to do it? If you are an organizer, or as my good friend Werner says it, "organ-raiser", can you impose rules? I dont think so. Barcamp is like the linux kernel. To borrow Greg Korah Hartman's words, its not intelligent design: its evolution.
So beware. Stay away from those Barcamps which impose rules on you. You are the barcamper. You decide whats going to happen. Not some moron who's intent is to make the world more friendlier.
Tags: barcamp, barcampbangalore, barcampbangalore6, bcb6
This post is a direct response to Vijay "PROTO.IN" Anand's post. Its a "howto" on Barcamps. In one sentence "impose some rules". Which begs the question: why?
I have been an avid barcamper. Starting from BCB1 to BCB6. I skipped BCB5 since I got thrashed by the un-organizers on when I suggested that collectives dont work. It pissed me off big time. But BCB6 went back to its original roots. The good old paper wiki and a better second day crowd. And damn.. i loved it. There was this session conducted by our own Prof. Suresh, on Startup Pains. He asked for a show of hand on how many people wanted to startoff on their own. Allmost all the hands in the room went up. And mind you, people were standing and sitting on the stairs. The energy there was incredible.
I loved the in feeling there. So you are a CEO. So what? So you are a hot chick. So what? So you are a avid barcamper. So fucking what? You do not deserve a t-shirt or a mug if you have attended all the rest of them. You are just as good as others.
Who makes rules in barcamps? Who has the right to do it? If you are an organizer, or as my good friend Werner says it, "organ-raiser", can you impose rules? I dont think so. Barcamp is like the linux kernel. To borrow Greg Korah Hartman's words, its not intelligent design: its evolution.
So beware. Stay away from those Barcamps which impose rules on you. You are the barcamper. You decide whats going to happen. Not some moron who's intent is to make the world more friendlier.
Tags: barcamp, barcampbangalore, barcampbangalore6, bcb6
4 Comments:
Said 
Anonymous, 3:40 PM
Anonymous, 3:40 PM
Rajiv,
BCB6 was my first barcamp experience and I just loved the way it was organized. Keeping the spirit of "un-conference" is extremely important. Imposing rules or bringing in "corporate" way of doing things just won't work.
I saw you in BCB6, but couldn't talk to you.
Cheers,
Jayakumar
Barcamp ROCKS! unlike our education which is a shi_hole, I always attend un-conference it gives freedom to my thoughts and dreams.... Great post :-)
I will add your blog to my blogroll :-)
Great information, thank you for this nice post.
