Harrisburg Barcamp

I attended Harrisburg Barcamp this week-end. A good choice: it had a lot of creative people and good discussions throughout.

Book-ending the conference (technically an un-conference) were train rides. I departed work early and took the train from Washington to Harrisburg (via Philadelphia) on Friday night, stayed over at the local Holiday Inn, and arrived at the conference refreshed. I departed the conference early Saturday evening, reversing the train trip from Harrisburg to Philadelphia and then on to Baltimore.

I find that travelling by train lets me relax and also lets me get work done. I took the opportunity to catch up on some reading. (I can read on planes, although the seats are smaller and the arrangement is cramped. Reading while driving is not recommended.)

The barcamp topic was "tech and ed"; our sessions were light on the education aspect but not overly heavy on the technical side. One session was about virtual presentations, another was on careers and networking, and a third was on preparing for the next ten years of technical change.

I held a session on "is tech changing too quickly for our own good", and it had a number of attendees with good ideas. I held it as a conversation and not a lecture, and that format worked.

I'm glad that I attended. Its good to get away from "the usual suspects" and talk with other people.

Barcamp, Balticon, and github

I made travel arrangements for Barcamp in Harrisburg. (Barcamp in Baltimore seems to be... dormant.) The Harrisburg Barcamp should be fun! At least the travel will be fun, as I can go by train.

I also registered for Balticon, the science fiction convention. (It runs just north of Baltimore every Memorial Day weekend.) Balticon has sessions for science fiction, hard science, and writers, which leads to an interesting mix of attendees. I always find clever people and interesting conversations.

This weekend I posted my first project to github. (github is a "clearinghouse" for git-based projects, allowing others to access them.) It was easier than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise. I don't know that "powerful" is the right word to describe github, but they are well-positioned for the sharing of software. I'm not sure about the word "leveraged" either. Perhaps "well-positioned" is the right phrase.