Ozonesoft codecrafter

Back from BarCamp! What a day!

Let’s get the only negative point out of the way: the wireless network was utterly unusable. I doubt a single IP packet left the building… or that any made it in!

BarCamp is an occasion to meet people. You meet people you know — I bumped into a few colleagues from previous jobs (really enjoyed seeing you again guys!) and into a large portion of the Ruby Ireland group —, and people you did not — Krishna De, Sean Foley… too many to name here!

BarCamp is also an occasion to learn. Several presentations take place at the same time. You have to make your choice! Here is a short resume of the presentation I followed:

• Conor Halpin, from LeCayla, gave an interesting and entertaining talk on SaaS. I had never seen a CEO putting on a straightjacket to explain common pricing strategies! Le clou du spectacle was Conor’s escape from the contraption while proclaiming — I paraphrase — LeCayla unlocks your SaaS pricing potential!
• Darren Barefoot gave a witty and interactive presentation about memes and social medium. Darren is the author of the famous get a first life site. When it comes to memes, he’s got the credentials! Too bad the wireless network didn’t cooperate for the live examples.
• Eoghan McCabe, another member of Patchwork passionately presented Web Usability 101. The video, tracking the eye movements of a person browsing a site, was, excuse the pun, an eye opener. (Eoghan if you’re reading, I wouldn’t mind a trick or two to improve this site… I actually just noticed my links aren’t underlined)
• Paul Campbell, yet another Patchwork member, presented an introduction to Rails. He wowed a couple of members in the audience when he improvised a hands-on demonstration of how he works with Rails!
• Uldis Bojars, from DERI, gave me a lot of food for thoughts with his presentation on the semantic web. SIOC seems full of promises. I intend to keep a close eye on this.

After a full day of presentations, most people migrated to the Lord Edward to rehydrate (hum… hum… this is BarCamp Ireland after all!). I took the opportunity to get a few lessons in blogging by Red Mum and Tom Raftery. A few more chats, a few more drinks and it was time to come home.

Thanks to Joe Drumgoole, Elly Parker, Paul Walsh, Eoghan McCabe and Paul Browne for organising BarCamp Dublin!