Ok, so it’s not like I like to ask for favors often, and hey, the competition is tight (especially against that cute dog), but y’know, when it’s your lady up at the plate, you totally want her to swing for the fences.
And hit it out of the park.
So, you know what to do.
And for those of you who have already cast your vote, thanks!
In case you consume my feed rather than simply visit my blog daily (there’s apparently around 1,000 of you, give or take, according to FeedBurner), I’ve added a once-a-day summary of my Ma.gnolia links as well as photos from my Flickr account tagged “screenshot” since I think they’re usually fairly interesting and they get no love since I’m NIPSA’d.
Let me know what you think about these change — good, bad or indifferent!
Noel has the details on a pretty ridiculous rule change on sidewalk usage and parade definition in NYC. In response, there’s been a protest called Aug 23.
At the same time, Noel’s kickin’ up dust about getting a CoworkingNYC space started up in the Big Apple. He’s proposed a meeting coming up soon, so drop him a note (noel at nonecknoel dot com) and let him know that you’re interested.
The media we use to represent ourselves has a tendency to consume us.
Or so it would, should we allow it.
Seth Godin says that The prevalance of online video, constant skype connections and the multiple threads of data we get online, combined with the enormous overhead that flying now brings might just change the [value of showing up, of being there in person, of establishing a face to face relationship with the person on the other side] for a long time to come.
Just because we’ve got all these wires and nodes and cables to keep us remotely connected offering up pixelated approximations of the real thing doesn’t mean that that basic desire to meet and to be seen and congregate shall whither. Or that the impossibility of airtravel will keep us from seeing one another in the flesh as often as we like.
Fuck that. Leila‘s right: the time has come to tap innovations, creativity and apply these to air travel and security.
…Even if that means avoiding commercial air travel altogether.
Indeed, the pilgrimages we make in the future may be fewer and further between, but that will be because we’ve built up the local ties and connections to feed our desire to connect to other — with our BarCamps, our Coworking spaces, our Citizen Spaces, across our self-run Munified networks… we will build the alternative infrastructure to support the kind of old fashioned social networking and serendipitous person-to-person reality that we’ve always craved.
The airline industry is one of the last vestiges or a foregone error that’s fought innovation at every turn to its folly. The worse it becomes for passengers, the more it exacerbates the need for something better, something more communal, something more open and distributed. Ironically, it’s easy for me to say on a blog, but I don’t think that the answer is bowing down to the threat of terror — which continually proves itself too slippery to contain… instead we need to reduce the threat and reinvest in our roots and in where we are. BarCampEarth is a celebration of our global community — proudly proving that these loosely-connected tightly-woven local communities represent more than the sum of their parts… and that our ultimate strength is found in the connections we share, no matter whoever, whenever, or wherever we are.
Last year, on August 18th, I wrote of BarCamp that:
Next year I expect to see multiple satellite Bar Camps happening the world over, loosely joined via the web, bringing distributed collaboration and culture building to a much, much wider audience. Podcasted, Flickered, wikified, videographied and blogged like mad.
I wrote that before the first BarCamp ever happened. Before 300 people showed up at Ross Mayfield’s new offices… before Flock was shown publicly for the first time… before TechCrunch had 1,000 readers… before the Wired article or BBC feature… before we thought we were in Bubble 2.0. Before snark jumped the shark and the uncreatives got uncommon.
Let’s just say, a lot has happened in the past year.
In fact, a lot of BarCamps and spin-offs have happened (or been proposed) since the original: 4Camp, ArtCamp, BarCamp Paris, BarCampWashDC, BarCampAmsterdam, BarCampAmsterdamII, BarCampAtlanta, BarCampAustin, BarCampBangalore, BarCampBerlin, BarCampBirmingham, BarCampBoston, BarCampBrussels, BarCampCapeTown, BarCampChennai, BarCampChicago, BarCampDallas, BARCampDC, BarCampDelhi, BarCampDenver, BarCampEnschede, BarCampGrandRapids, BarCampHouston, BarCampHyderabad, BarcampJacksonville, BarCampKiev, BarCampLasVegas, BarCampLondon, BarCampLosAngeles, BarCampManchester, BarCampMumbai, BarCampNYC, BarCampOttawa, BarCampPaloAlto2005, BarCampParis, BarCampPhiladelphia, BarCampPhoenix, BarCampPortland, BarCampPune, BarCampQuebec, BarCampRDU, BarCampRDU, BarCampSanAntonio, BarCampSanDiego, BarCampSanFrancisco, BarCampSeoul, BarCampTdot, BarCampUtah, BarCampVienna, BarCampZurich, BarSeder, beCamp, BrainJams30Jan2006, CesCamp, CocoaDevHouse, DCamp (Palo Alto, CA), DHX: Dev House Ten, DrupalCampNYC, DrupalCampToronto, IndieFilmCamp, MashPitDallas, MashupCamp, MicroBarCampParis, MinneBar, MooseCamp, NPTECH Bar Camp, OpenHack Night San Diego, RecentChangesCamp, SeattleMindCamp, SlamCamp, TorCamp1 aka BarCampToronto, UXCampNYC, WineCamp, WoolfCamp… with more to come in the future.
And so it’s with great pleasure and honor that I get the ball going on the one-year anniversary celebration that will be called BarCampEarth. It’s scheduled to take place the weekend of August 25-27, the same weekend as the original inspiration FOO Camp and right before Burning Man. And most importantly, it takes place on every conceivable corner of the globe — wherever anyone who’s interested, motivated and inspired to participate can — and should.
Though we’ve already signed up 20 unique locales spanning the globe, we, the members of the worldwide community of BarCamps, hereby invite everyone everywhere to attend and to participate, in whatever way possible. If you can host a *camp, by all means, do so; if you want to organize a Mash Pit, a Demo Camp, and Tequp… a gathering in your local pub or library. Do so! Or, feel free to tune into the IRC chat, into the Skype channel (ask me to add you), the Google Group, or the streaming video (which Scott of BarCampSudbury is setting up).
Most of all, this is your event to make of us what you will. The BarCamp community has grown and matured in the past year and there’s a wealth of knowledge to be tapped if you’re interested in running your own event. Now’s your chance to ask questions, to seek and build your local community, to connect and to get en-fucking-gaged.
Citizen-at-heart nonecknoel has joined up with Trellon as the dude who brings in the da business.
‘Grats Noel — everyone should be able to choose their own adventure.
You might have said it was a long time in coming, but today I moved all my shyte out of Teh Langpad and into the HorsePigCowFactory, thus bringing to close an era of debauchery and scantily clad Andyfaces.
A few select shots (there’s many more to choose from) from the period when Andy and I first moved in (only a little over two years ago! Oh, how the bubble has grown!):
Oh, and Tara totally rocks for helping me move not just today, but last month… in the midst of everything else that’s going on! Talk about all all-star girlfriend…! I would totally be living in my slobber and eating out of a can if it weren’t for her. Getting civilized, boys, it’s totally worth it. (But good luck finding one like I’ve got — they don’t come around but for once in a generation).
I’ve created the Tumblelog category to capture stream-of-conscious thoughts as they happen. In fact, I intend to start blogging more from my Crackberry. We’ll see how this goes. It’ll be different from Untitled, unfinished, incomplete as that category is reserved more for “public drafts”… stuff I never completed, had intended to, but will probably never get back to again.
You can find out more about Tumblelogs at the blog or at project.ioni.st.
Oh, and I’ll be titling all Tumblelog posts ‘—‘ (like this) … which will probably piss off you feed reader readers, but hey, I make up the rules around here. So there! :P~
I really shouldn’t post anymore before at least mentioning that BarCamp San Francisco has come and gone, offering something between a roar and a whimper. The truth is, it was such a big, multi-tiered kind of experience that I think it’ll take me awhile to unravel it.
Fortunately there’s lots of photos and even some interesting video available in the meanwhile.
Thanks again to the folks who really made it possible: especially the lead organizer and my favorite co-camper, Tara, and Tantek, Nima and the host of awesome volunteers who pitched in throughout the event. And don’t forget our extremely supportive sponsors who fed us and gave us nice things to drink all weekend. The event simply wouldn’t have been possible — or nearly as satisfyingly exhausting — if it weren’t for all the additive efforts of these folks.
Factory Joe 