Out of the way

BarCamps are an interesting exercise. Making a conference that is "self-organising" actually takes quite some organisation. But the central part, the attendees deciding to give a talk on something once they have arrived, is still one of the keys. In fact, I would like to see more of it still. BarCamps have parties, and this makes sense - it is good for people to get to know each other. And as an international visitor to most BarCamps, I think the time spent by some volunteers to lead people on a tour of their city and spend some time to get to know each other without the noise of a party is also a great thing.

But the reason for the BarCamp is the talks. And the ones I saw here (somewhat conditioned by not understanding Russian - and I checked by going to a session in Russian where I only managed to pick up some of the general themes) were good - interesting talks, interesting discussion. And interesting hallway conversation, which is the other key reason for attending any conference.

So I was presently surprised this morning when I went on the excursion. I genuinely appreciate sponsors who support BarCamps - although they are low-cost events, they are not free to run and all kinds of support is needed and appreciated. The main sponsor of BarCamp here was Delta Telecom, the people who run the national networking backbone and its connections to the rest of the world. In other words, they have a bunch of computers and a network. On top of that, it is in the outskirts of Baku, somewhere between the pretty places in an area that is nothing much to look at. But a CTO of a nationally critical resource, working on a Sunday, managed to make a tour of this facility for BarCamp Geeks into a highlight of the event. Impressive.

I have finished my formal responsibilities (I think - it is hard to tell with Barcamp so I might give another short talk if there is a slot free). A talk on new toys from Opera, and a more general update on stuff that Opera is doing now or in the near future. I attended other talks, I talked to people and learned and explained things, I went to parties and dinners and learned something about Azerbaijan. I sat in a bus full of Azeris singing (and Rashad dancing in the bus...). So far I have had a very good time, too little sleep, and learned a lot. Also, lots of people took my photo. (If you read this, and you took a nice photo of me, please send me a copy or put it on some public website I don't take photos much myself, and it is good to have a few decent ones).

So after the afternoon sessions, I have to kill a bunch of time until my 4.45 am flight - which starts a couple of days of travel that will end up in Maputo, Mozambique. For another set of learning experiences I suspect. And then it will be time to assimilate some more of this information into my brain...