There is a lot of these gatherings happening here and there now. They are short (one-two days) events where attendees meet to share ideas, learn from others, and just hang out. They are short open-space informal conferences. There are certains community rules to them. If you are not from the local area, you’re often invited to stay overnight right there where the event takes place - just bring your sleeping bag. FooCamp, BarCamp, TagCamp, recent MindCamp, as well as BrainJam, TechCrunch BBQ, and now HyperCamp - these events are organized more and more in different places in the States and other countries, such as France (Paris), Holland (Amsterdam), and our neighbor Canada (Toronto). More camps appear now, that are not necessarily about technology: look at LongTailCamp. If you’re organizing one, look for tips in FooCamp Wiki.
The materials from the camps are often published on the web in form of papers, podcasts, or video.
There is also an event being organized in Washington DC area: BarCamp DC. The date is not set yet, however, and it’s been so for a long time now. I’d like to see it happen, and I hope I will not be away when the event takes place.
It’s a rephrase of the motto found on IT Conversations, a web service that offers lots of audio recordings with talks from various tech conferences, and interviews with people leading the industry. Generally, I am not a listener, I am a reader. That’s mostly due to my being hard of hearing and being unable to effectively use all those nice gadgets that deliver sound to your ears, as they are hardly compatible with the hearing aids I have to wear. Yet I found myself hooked to these recordings. The conversations are very, very interesting, and the emotional context gives the words a whole new angle you don’t have in a transcript. Take a look around, find the area that interests you, and give it a try.
Another thing that I think should be mentioned in this context is NerdTV, a weekly one-hour online show that offers interviews with famous people from the world of technology. It’s video, not just the audio, so you have a chance to see all these people. I watch it since the first show was released, and I am not going to stop. Each show has a version with subtitles, but they’re permanent (and ugly), not your usual on-demand subtitles that come with DivX movies and can be turned on or off. There is a transcript for each show, it’s helpful for those who are not fluent in english.
Most of these conversations don’t make it to the printed media, so I can’t read them anywhere. They are lost unless they’re listened to. Listening to them can give you a new view to whatever you’re thinking of, and give you new ideas that you don’t find anywhere else.
