BarCamp Talk

[Conrad Strydom]

Hi Guys,

Only 11 days to go to BarCamp Cape Town.

Have you guys started preparing your talks yet, here are some guidelines shamelessly ripped from BarCamp Brussels

SPEAKING

• speaking slots will be 30 minutes each. So a presentation should last between 20-25 minutes. We'll probably start around 10h till 12h and again from 14h to 18h. (10 slots per room)
• speaking style can be: regular presentation (Powerpoint/Keynote style), demo (on-line or off-line), moderated discussion (topic is suggested and crowd can join in)
• everyone should do a presentation, help with someone else's presentation, do a audio/video podcast of presentations or participate in some other way
• you do not have to be the world's authority to speak about something. It can be an unusual hobby, an positive experience or just a crazy idea. If you don't like to talk, do something with videos ("Computers in 20 years of Hollywood movies"), music ("Feminism in the MTV era") or images ("Famous newspaper images you thought were real").

TOPICS

• I suggest the following 'tracks': Geeky / CMS / Blogosphere / Photography / Audio / Video / Marketing track. You can already list the topic of your presentation(s) on the wiki page.
• Just at the risk of repeating myself: not all topics are technical. No one will validate your CSS when you come in, or ask you to explain Einstein's relativity theory. If, however, you have no experience with email and have never heard of 'Google', this day might be of little interest to you.
• You will be able to indicate your presentation on a whiteboard when you arrive. If you want to have a good spot, come early.
• Topics I would like to see presented: making music with Ableton Live/Garageband - blind surfing: accessibility check-up encoding video for the iPod/PSP - original viral campaigns - statistics/history of Belgian blogosphere - Photoshop demo - theory and practice of the RAW image format - the 20 memes you should know about - psychology of the blogger - remake Cinebel/IMDB site with RubyOnRails in 15 minutes - podcast legislation in Belgium and Europe …
  There's plenty of interesting stuff we all know too little about. Join in, show us what stuff is going on in your mind and surprise us!

Seriously though, its going to pretty boring if no-one wants to saying anything so thank you for those who are already fired up, and please if you are in hiding I beg of you to consider doing something even if it is just a quick 10 minute thing.

What are you thinking about doing? I am still torn between doing something around Microformats, startup culture or "Does Web 2.0 (*eek not that term*) really matter and is that even the point". Note, a ton of you are probably letting out a collective sigh because you may be against one or more of these topics or do not drink the "cool-aid" like the rest of the world, but that is a good thing. This is an unconference and you will be able to have an equal say (actually hoping for ad-hoc counter talks :)) and get to make your point as well as to why you don't buy a particular idea or concept. I fully expect a couple nice flamewars. :)

Get those juices flowing ... mmmmkay?

--
Conrad Strydom
*Geek by day - Superhero by night*
http://geekspin.wordpress.com
http://barcamp.org/BarCampCapeTown

[Francois Loubser]

> Have you guys started preparing your talks yet?

Does one have to bring one's own pc, or will there be a pc on which to
do the presentation? Can I just bring a USB stick? What format must my
presentation be in? Will the PC support xvid, mp4, divx videos?

[Laurence Baldwin]

When do we need to let you know about topic and time slots? Or do we just pitch up and write our names on a chalk board?

[Conrad Strydom]

Hey guys,

At the moment, I am going to try and have an Ubuntu machine available possibly running windows 2k or something similar on top of VMWare.Also possibly a Mac mini.

I'll make sure that we support a broad range of codecs but if in doubt make sure to export to common formats such as MPEG or bring your own notebook or whatever. One small note, don't bank on the fact that I will have MS Powerpoint installed (unless there is a free viewer still), so if you need it please bring a copy, but I suggest using Openoffice Impress or some other slide system like S5.

In terms of topics and times, they need not be set in stone, I am just trying to get some momentum going and to get people inspired. On the day we will have whiteboard where we can work out slots on. You can pitch up with as little or as many presentations as you want, and you can even make them adhocly during the event if you feel so driven. Feel like posing questions to the audience in a sort of audience duscussion, asking questions like "what would you like from a RoR host" etc.? Cool! Thats whats different about BarCamp.

No Rules!

[Stephen]

Topics, topics, topics...

I will be doing something around Joomla!, which is my area of
expertise, but would like it to be more of an interactive discussion
than a presentation. I am especially interested to meet and hear from
the Drupal experts and hopefull have some insightfull conversation
around some of the issues faces when using open source CMS. If I feel
really un-busy and inspired in the coming days I'll post these issue
here in advance.

I appologise in advance that I won't be able to attend the whole camp -
I'll be dashing in and out as I am also on an 8 day intensive module
for a diploma (more full-hey-shu-wow than geekish). I hope to find a
happy medium between the two.

[Francois Loubser]

Are we restricted in what we are allowed to talk about? For example,
is it open source only, linux only, web & programming only?

[Laurence Baldwin]

Im keen to do a spamassassin workshop, its something Im pretty passionate about.

On 05/06/06, Francois Loubser < fdlo...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Conrad Strydom]

   Are we restricted in what we are allowed to talk about? For example,

is it open source only, linux only, web & programming only?

Absolutely not! I have deliberately left the tracks wide open. As long as it is something along the general lines of interest to a tech/geek group.

btw. no one is going to validate your CSS or check your presentations cross platform capability beforehand :) , this is supposed to be fun people.

[Conrad Strydom]

Sounds great.

I like passion.

[Freelancentral]

Hi everyone

Someone mentioned marketing... that's my forte. I'd like to give a
short talk about freelancing and how you can use Freelancentral but
rather than just plugging my business I was also thinking of
incorporating simple and effective ways to market yourself as a
freelancer/contractor. Is this the sort of thing y'all would be
interested in? Is there anything else marektingy you'd like me to
cover?

Cheers
Jo
(One of the few - only? - females on here!)

[Conrad Strydom]

Hey Jo,

Sounds like you have the right idea!

Cheers

[Christine Stander]

Hey Jo,
Sounds like a great talk, one I will def attend.
(- and there will be one more female at least ;)

I'd like to give a talk on Online Marketing with the focus on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) & benefits thereof.

Anyone else speaking on that/ similar topic?

Cheers

--
Kind regards,
Christine

[Rafiq Phillips]

> I'd like to give a talk on Online Marketing with the focus on Search Engine
> Optimisation (SEO) & benefits thereof.

>
> Anyone else speaking on that/ similar topic?

I will be to talking about this SEO theory I've been playing around with

--
A Group of Web AddiCT(s); blog at www.rafiq.za.net

[Jeremy Thurgood]

Hey peoples,

Since it seems that I'm giving a talk on digital watermarking to CLUG
next week I'd be happy to do it again at BarCamp.

I'll be focusing on tamper detection and authentication rather than drm
and copyright. (Since that's the area of my MSc research.)

--J

[Freelancentral]

Hi Conrad

My time is limited during BarCamp I'm afraid due to other
commitments... how do I go about securing a time slot to speak about
marketing? I can't seem to find any agenda anywhere (other than the
white board thing...). I'd also like to know when other people are
speaking so that I don't miss out on some great sessions.

Is there a list anywhere of who is presenting what and when? The wiki
link goes to a Brussels BarCamp...

Cheers
Jo

[Conrad Strydom]

Do you refer to the link in the email I sent out? That was just meant for inspiration.

Honestly there is no pre-prepared schedule, we sort that out on the first morning as far as possible, but it will remain pretty dynamic, I would suggest being at the event on the Friday morning at around 10 - 11 when we should see a schedule forming by that time.

I will post the schedule as accurately as possible on the wiki during the event if you want to stay informed.

Sorry I cannot be of more help, but its just the nature of the beast and we do not plan a strict schedule on purpose to help keep things dynamic.

I believe that the first few slots in the morning  will probably be the easiest to secure as most people don't want to be first. :)

If you have a time in mind I can fight for your slot on the day.

Regards

[Freelancentral]

Thanks Conrad. No problem, I will be there on Fri AM and don't mind
being one of the first at all - so if anyone's interested in the
marketing angle, make sure you're there for the Fri AM slot :-)

Apologies for trying to impose structure! :-)

Cheers
Jo

[Conrad Strydom]

Apologies for trying to impose structure! :-)

No Worries! I think BarCamp will be a bit of a culture shock for all of us, from what I understand it often resembles orchestrated chaos, but well worth it in the end!

[Adrian Rossouw]

On 12 Jun 2006, at 11:26 AM, Conrad Strydom wrote:

>
> No Worries! I think BarCamp will be a bit of a culture shock for
> all of us, from what I understand it often resembles orchestrated
> chaos, but well worth it in the end!

Well.. there has been some structure in the ones i've been to.

moosecamp having the most.

Usually there's a grid split up in time / locations where people can
add what they feel like talking about.

--
Adrian Rossouw
Drupal developer and Bryght Guy
http://drupal.org | http://bryght.com

[Conrad Strydom]

Well.. there has been some structure in the ones i've been to.

moosecamp having the most.

Usually there's a grid split up in time / locations where people can
add what they feel like talking about.

Yeah, we will have definately have the grid with 20 minute slots.
Trying to keep one location unless there is demand for a second location, in which case there are two more breakout areas we can use.
We will have to play it by ear I guess.

[Ben]

Great to see a BarCamp in the home land - food for thought for all us
expats. You'll be on our minds as we gather for BarCamp RDU in July.
Have a great weekend.