Firewallender // Cassie Wallender

Anthony Stevens did a great job liveblogging the MindCamp experience.  If you’re confused about what being at an “unconference” is like, I’d highly recommend giving it a read through for the play by play.  This was my first unconference myself, and I had no clue what to expect.  I suspected awesomeness.  I was totally right.  This is what I’ve gathered: true to the bar-camp, foo-camp, word-camp, Word-Ignite-Bar-Camp-Camp-Camp-Camp-Palooza-PDX (no, really) format, all unconferences hold to the idea that a conference would probably be just as useful if the speakers were randomly selected from the group going to the conference.  It’s an intriguing model: get space, get food, get interesting people together, and see what happens.  These are motivated folk.  A lot happens.

MindCamp is a 24 hour event (no sleep for the elite), and a good chunk of that is scheduled out by the participants suggesting session ideas and then everyone voting on which sessions we wanted.  Every hour, a new 45 minute session would start, and there were generally about six to choose from.  The schedule looked like this:

It was difficult to choose, to say the least.  I usually had about two or three I wanted to hit.  I only skipped one hour of sessions to take a break and upload photos.  Many of the sessions I did go to can only be described as fascinating brain candy, a few memorable ones were “How to be a Flickr Ninja” (lead by Stewtopia, who took the photo below), “Nerdcraft” (lead by Beth Goza), “Human Tribes and Social Media” (by the Brian Dorsey), “Portals: Making your Life an Adventure Game” (lead by Leif Hanson), a group brainstorming session on “Location Based Services” and “Political Activism and Social Media” (lead by Kathy Gill).

I also went to a session lead by Mónica Guzmán and Jason Preston in which we decided to make a “Viral Video”.  Now, I realize one cannot create a viral video, you create a video and it either goes viral or not, but we tried to make a video that had aspects which might make it popular: short, funny, something people could identify with, etc.  I wish we could have made the sound a little better in parts, but Jason did an amazing job with editing what we had.  We brainstormed the ideas and shot all the scenes in about 45 minutes, so I’m pretty happy with what came out of it:

It was a really fun and informative use of 24 hours, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone with a geeky streak. I met a lot of kindred spirits, and got to spend some time with good friends as well. A big thank you to Synapse who hosted us in their amazing office space in downtown Seattle, and Andru Edwards for organizing.

The Penny Arcade Expo this year was even better than last year, despite the crowding that has resulted from being consistently awesome. Three days of constant “epic/legendary/monumental” everything managed to actually wear me out, which is a great feat, really.

I could recap the whole thing, but I am too tired. Instead, I will just post a link to the photoset on Flickr, and some shout-outs to those who made it great: Harmony for being the best sister in the world, Mike and Jerry of course for putting it on, the Enforcers for making it work, Wil Wheaton for calling me “baby” (swoon), Tony, Cameron, Sam, and Melissa for coming out, and especially the Twitteratti that made up my “PAX Posse”: @andy_k, @bethgo, @jtswinkles. I also had the joy of running into some great folks, albeit way too briefly: Jason and Montine, Colin Henry, Wade Rockett, Scott Robinson, and a bunch of new people I got to meet at PAX. Oh, yeah, and this guy dressed as Mario’s Princess Peach…

It was great to know so many people at PAX, that was a new experience and one I’m grateful to have had, because when it comes down to it, community is what PAX is about, or any conference for that manner. You can get so much information independently online these days, that now few conference panels can provide more factual information than can be easily researched by ones’ self (or viewed online after the fact, for that matter). After attending Gnomedex one weekend and PAX the next, two very different events, I’ve found that 95% of the value quickly becomes getting a chance to share an experience with a like-minded but diverse set of individuals who have committed their time to come together as a community.

So, though I’m tired, my extrovertism remains strong as ever. I feel so lucky to know the people I do, and am amazed at the seemingly non-stop flow of wonderful people in the world. It’s encouraging to know the world can be such a friendly place.

… but long from forgotten. I need a t-shirt that says, “I went to Gnomedex 8.0 and all I got was 7 t-shirts… and about 50 amazing experiences.”

Photo by Robert Scoble, I’m near the center in pink.

Starting Wednesday night it was a mashup of meeting wonderful new people from all over the world, and spending time with some of the quality Seattleites that make me so happy to call this place home, despite the current summer downpour.

The talks were quite interesting and not exactly what I was expecting. It was more like TED than I thought it would be, and less technical. Probably my favourite talk was Eve Maler’s talk on feed-based Vendor Relationship Management (VRM). The ability to manage one’s own data in a dynamic and powerful way is something that’s certainly due, Eve had some great thoughts on how it might be accomplished.

There were many touching moments too, emphasizing the theme of “human circuitry”. Beth Kanter challenged us to use social media for good, and we raised enough money to send a Cambodian women to college in 90 minutes. Scott Maxwell, the Mars Rover Driver Team Lead, showed us the view of Earth from Mars. Turns out, Earth is tiny! But, he said, we should not look at it and say, “we’re insignificant” - we should look at it and say, “our problems are insignificant - and we have so much to explore and discover yet.”  Jon Malkin showed us innovative research on a “Vocal Joystick” that would assist those with limited motor skills by allowing them to command a computer or a robot with sounds. Seeing technology add to the human experience in such powerful ways was very moving.

And speaking of moving, another highlight was dancing on stage with Matt Harding: a truly silly but wonderful experience.

I took only about 45 pictures (one seen below), but there’s well over 1,500 up in the Flickr pool. Wow.

New friends: Steve Spalding, Duncan Riley, and Eric Rice at the Edgewater.

It makes me feel like I’m twelve years old, but I can’t help but have that magical mix of excitement for all that I’ve just experienced and the deep sadness that “camp” is over. The community was definitely the shining star of the event - everyone added to the conversation in such a genuine way. I miss my Gnomedex friends already, but at least I can say, we’ll always have Twitter. At least until the Fail Whale strikes again.

~ Cassie

P.S. Yes, there was a presentation on the history of the Lolcat. Yes, I made myself look very silly on YouTube (again) and got 10,000 views (yikes). And yes, we started that ridiculous rumor about the Adobe Yahoo acquisition. Epic.

Thanks to the awesome Mr. Chris Pirillo, who I had the pleasure of meeting at Seattle Startup Weekend, I’m going to the Gnomedex 8.0 conference here in rainy Seattle later this month.

My roommate brought a shirt to my attention that I should wear to Gnomedex (mostly because she’s convinced I’m going to a convention that’s literally all about gnomes), and we found a couple of other priceless punny tshirt gems:

“Gnomeland Security”
“To Gnome is to love me”
“Hanging with my Gnomies”

Puns aside, I’m really excited from Gnomedex. I believe I know at least two others going: Andrew Hyde and Bruce Henry, if you are attending please let me know.

Update! Marina Martin is going! Yay!