Saturday, June 30, 2007

BarCamp Perth! 

I enjoyed BarCamp today, even though I'm not a tech/education type. I'm more the curious quasi-creative. Didn't have any hassles finding Central TAFE in East Perth and the smell of coffee assured me I'd come to the right place.

I especially liked Gary's presentation on the Wordpress loop but I think that's partly because his slides looked so good - readable, even, with the important bits highlighted. Met a few new people, learnt about Buzka (a social info-sharing site out of Perth), Microsoft's SilverLight and Expression Engine, a CMS that I'm now keen to try.

Bronwen handed out PerthNorg t-shirts and, along with Richard from Scouta lead a discussion on how to increase Perth's profile in the Web world.

Kathryn showed us Murdoch Uni's land in Second Life - no rabbits and no Bush Court but a total spin - and inadvertently caused me to panic about the accessibility of education in the future if for no good reason we need to fly around in a virtual world to get it. Kathryn did give equity as a reason not to require students to visit Second Life.

Constance and Kate talked about ways to introduce people to Web 2.0, with others who work in education (TAFE, ECU and Kathryn from Murdoch) contributing there experience and ideas.

Local Web designers talked about starting a Web business. I caught the second session on this and although I'm not going to start a Web business, it's interesting to hear how other people do their work and what they need to consider and accept to do it well.

Every session I attended, including the one on podcasting lead by Trevor from ECU, could be relevant to work in some way, so thanks to Myles and Co from the AWIA for organising it, and to Simone for ordering lunch, and to Microsoft for the free beer (which I could have done with the day I first used Word 2007 but I'm fine now, thanks) at the Royal afterwards.

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Comments:
Hi Dee
I wish I had see the list of people attending the BarCamp during the day as it is a long time since we caught up. You dropped in and saw me at Mandurah years ago on one of your bus trips up to Perth. I think my daughter Lucee was with me and about 6yrs old, she is now 14. I did a small bit of presentation with Sue Waters on MLeaning and had a great day. Hope we can catch up again. What a small world.
 
Wow! I heard someone say they taught Cert IV Info Tech in Mandurah during the Web 2.0 and Newbies session and I thought, hey Frances taught that, maybe they know her. I think I even heard someone say your name but I didn't make the connection. Slapping my head now. Hope your family's well - I remember wandering about the Mandurah Arts Centre with you on my visit and looking at masks! A catch up would be great. :-)
 
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