Last weekend I was for the second time in BarCamp Portugal organized by the Coimbra's WeBreakStuff. In 2007, being my first participation, I didn't thought I should review the event in this blog, though it was great for me. But this year I can compare the two editions and point out some things that went better/worse, so I'll use my word.
BarCamp Portugal was seeming to continue in its linear but surprising growth, having had no more than 50 people in 2006, 120 in 2007, and 190 in 2008. But when the time came I don't think the mark has been achieved. The number of people presenting themselves appeared to be exactly the same as last year, which is good, for the space is not that much. Probably there was people only attending one of the days.
But reviewing the event itself, I'll divide my analysis in two parts: the social and the talks.
On the talks side I must say BarCamp PT starts to be an event based on choices. The number of presentations this year was huge so, as on Sunday of last year's event, there was to be concurrent talks in different rooms. I cannot avoid myself from thinking I missed a lot, and I don't like to have this kind of feeling when going to an event like this. A fair review on the talks side as a whole can only be made when the videos of the other presentations come out so that everyone can see what missed. Nevertheless, it will always left us with a bitter taste for not being there. This is inevitable, but I thought some of the time after a dinner on the department, which I thought would maintain the people at the event, could be used for talks.
On the social side, the event was great as always. Thanks to BarCamp I could actually meet people from my university I wouldn't possibly meet otherwise. And so many great advices they gave me.
Anyway, I missed Half Baked a lot. I don't think that kind of social games should be extinguished. It didn't have to be Half Baked, but anything like it would be great (I don't know if Werewolf was actually played). Only some presentations did something like that, for example, Scrum 101 by Ricardo Mestre (great, great job!) with the Ball Point Game and Pedro Custódio with the Paper Plane game.
Before I start reviewing the talks I was able to attend, I conclude BarCamp continues to pay off, the organization was great again and invested a lot (thanks for the notebook and stickers!) and this continues to be one of the most important events in Portugal.
So, talks:
- Scrum 101: what a surprising and interesting method for team and project working. Although it was long (matched 4 other presentations of the other room) and not always I was able to be focused, it made me wanting to know more about Agile Development and Scrum itself. I recommend everyone to watch the video of it when it's available (too bad the Ball Point Game will not be included).
- Mind the Gap: Pedro Custódio definitely knows how to make a presentation. This was about usability and I think it made the point clear that what's simple for us, may not be for other person, so usability is a great concern when designing a website, and innovation has to be careful.
- Design: I was already aware of the work of Patrícia Furtado, but not until the end of her presentation I recognized her. Some great tips and useful websites given.
- Fuck you money: Bruno Pedro talked about how to live for some time collecting money to be able to achieve a dream of ours in a state where we don't care about money and just pursue what we want, and how we can survive in a state like that.
There were 2 more talks which I attended but that didn't mean much to me so I won't review them. This was all I was able to attend, so I missed 2/3 more presentations.
Of course the spirit of BarCamp is in having no passive users, just active, but it makes me wonder what it would be like if all the attendees were talkers. It couldn't be good...