Mental Pluff Mud

Today was the very first BarCamp in Charleston, the first in the state of South Carolina.  Hopefully, it was the first of many.

I wish to applaud and thank the BarCamp Charleston coordinators, sponsors, and presenters. Having never attended a BarCamp event before I did not know quite what to expect. But being the inaugural Charleston event I didn’t have any expectation that it would be “anything special”, I figured “fun in a geeky kinda way,” but nothing special.  

I am happy to say it was a wonderful event.  It was well run, fun, and informative and I am already looking forward to next year’s.

So, what the heck is a BarCamp anyway?  And no, it has nothing to do with camping out in a bar as my very non-geek husband thought when I told him last night that, “…oh, by the way, tomorrow I will be busy all day at BarCamp”.

Here is the introductory paragraph from BarCamp.org:

BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants who are the main actors of the event. 

I’m not “rabid” about it, but I am a believer in Open Source, a concept I became aware of while trying to inform myself on influenza, BarCamps are the human equivalent of Open Source coding or research.  People sharing their knowledge, expertise, and passion, freely, unpretentiously, enthusiastically, with other people seeking it.

The event was free of charge, but not free of cost.  Sponsors made the “non-knowledge” part of BarCamp Charleston happen.  Platinum sponsors were the Lowcountry Innovation Center, Collecta, and Active Modules.  A complete listing of all the great sponsors can be found here.

I would also like to give a special shout-out Thank You to the city of North Charleston, one of the sponsors.  Nurturing the community’s intellectual capital strengthens that community in ways that ripple outward in expanding and overlapping ways.  Instead of a direct economic multiplier effect – a multiplier effect of knowledge – which can easily begin a multitude of positive economic ripples, even if small, even if personal.  But the economic multiplier effect can easily mean one dollar in one individual’s pocket equals seven dollars [or more] circulating through the local community during its “economic life cycle”.

So here’s my heartfelt “thank you” to the organizers, the volunteers, the sponsors and the presenters.  There’s no way of knowing the actual impact of an event such as the one today at BarCamp Charleston, but there is impact — of that there is no doubt — to say nothing of 250 happy geeks.

Posted via web from Debi Brandon