BarCamp recap
August 26, 2006
Barcamp is winding down in Denver as I write this post. It’s been a fun event and I met several cool and interesting people among the attendees. I also met many people in person that I previously had only known online. Even had there been no sessions, it was worth attending for the chance to meet and interact with some great people.
But of course there were lots of great sessions. The highlights for me personally were the following moments.
Stan James did a great job of showing off Lijit.com. Following his presentation, there was a very lively discussion about trust and how trust based systems can be “gamed”. Dave Taylor and Alex King made some very interesting and constructive comments about how users might perceive Lijit. They raised questions about how trust might be compromised for the benefit of “evil corporations.” I think Lijit is a well intentioned system and has the potential to be a truly useful service. I think Stan was listening.
There was also a great discussion about viral marketing. Quickly, the discussion turned to viral videos as a marketing tool. We got to see a preview of a new video for id345’s PocketFuzz service, which I posted about previously. It was made by a new Denver firm called ViralNewMedia. The group spent some time thinking about successful viral videos like Smirnoff TeaPartay which has been viewed nearly a million times on YouTube, and trying to grock just what the factors that lead to success might actually be. Basically, it boils down to giving people something interesting to talk about, and hoping they’re bored enough to share it in hopes of being “in the know” early on something cool and different.
I also enjoyed the smaller break out sessions about the state of mobile technology and getting the latest info on JavaScript/AJAX toolkits.
Thanks to everyone who attended and contributed to the discussions. And thanks to all of the sponsors who helped make this happen. It was a good day.

Local
August 26th, 2006 at 7:59 pm
I’m thrilled my shoe and back made it into these shots! But really, be sure to keep us posted on other events. I’ll certainly be there..
August 27th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
wish we could have gotten to see your skunk work project(s)… i had a great time as well meeting some cool people and was once again very impressed w/ stan and outfoxed… i mean lijit.
thanks for coming dave.
-kevin
August 28th, 2006 at 6:15 am
Hi Devin. I figured I’d capture your best features. ;-)
Anybody who’s name doesn’t end in “evin” - feel free to comment as well.
August 28th, 2006 at 9:54 am
Thanks for the kind words Dave.
And hey, I’m working on my ping-pong game. Maybe next time I can give you more of a challenge. :)
August 28th, 2006 at 10:08 am
Stan, you were quite a bit better than Joe, I have to admit. ;-)
August 28th, 2006 at 7:30 pm
Thanks again to everyone who came. This is definitely something we need to keep doing!