Yesterday I got to experience my first BarCamp right here in DC.
For any of you not familiar with the BarCamp movement, this was a volunteer-run tech community gathering based on the principle that every participant should actively contribute in some way to the event. Newcomers especially are encouraged to give a talk or to facilitate a discussion.
Sessions I attended (speaker/facilitator):
- To Cloud or Not? AWS, EC2, S3 (Tony Primerano)
- Business of Building a Web App (Jared Goralnick)
- Introduction to Git (Nikolas Coukouma)
- Optimizing MySQL for Web Apps (me! slides here)
- Making the Web Better and Easier (Chris Williams)
- Microcontrollers and the Magic of Hardware Hacking (HacDC)
- Beer (Chris Williams)
The Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University graciously provided the space including the central meeting room and several breakout rooms.
Many of us wandered over to McFadden’s for an afterparty, partly financed by sponsors. It was great to see many familiar faces and to meet several new people in a fun and friendly environment.