BarCamp Philly rocked this weekend. Somewhere around 200 people piled into the University of the Arts with amazing amounts of energy to share ideas on tech and community. I met a lot of great people from the local area that I hadn’t met before. There were people from all kinds of backgrounds: development, design, community organization, marketing, and social media. The organizers, Roz Duffy and JP Toto, and all the volunteers deserve lots of credit for making the event a huge success.
Philly is an awesome place to be right now
This was my first BarCamp experience and I’m glad to have had it in Philly. This city is an awesome place to be right now. Sure there’s people interested in technology all over the country. But the really exciting thing about Philly is how excited people here are about sharing: sharing knowledge, sharing experiences, and sharing in projects that improve life for everyone.
By the people, for the people
The really powerful sessions were open discussions led without much direction or format. Judging by the Twitter chatter there were plenty of these great sessions to go around. I didn’t end up in many web development sessions, and I think that’s a good thing. It might be cool to do a more focused DevCamp some other time. But open conversations about the impact of technology on people’s lives were the best things about BarCamp. The sessions ranged from topics like using social media to bring about social change to whether the internet helps or hurts our personal lives.
Be Open
One thing that came up in a few different sessions was a general fear of openness. How open should we be with our ideas? What if someone steals my idea? How open should we be with our opinions? What if somebody disagrees with me?
Something Alex Hillman said in a session resounded with me. I’m paraphrasing here. You can probably imagine 5 to 10 negative side effects that might come from being open. Maybe somebody steals your idea. Or maybe somebody attacks your opinions on the internet. But the potential upside is infinite. Somebody might hear about your idea, reach out to you, and that connection might be the key to getting your idea off the ground. Put yourself out there for what you’re excited about. Make connections with people and your ideas will benefit in ways you never expected.
Do first, worry later
Another powerful thing that came up a few times is to take action whenever you can. If you’re stuck in a job where you feel things could be improved, make a tiny change. Sneak in an improvement. Don’t ask permission to do it. Find like-minded people and tackle the problem. Fly under the radar. Set goals and constantly chip away at them.
If you can’t fulfill yourself at your job, find some way to be creative outside your job and do it. Sort through your passions and find some way to express them. If you spend all your energy being frustrated you are guaranteed to be frustrated a year from now. Take on your frustrations and find ways to solve them. There’s no telling what you will have accomplished in a year.
The first BarCamp Philly was a blast. If you didn’t make it out to this one, make sure you can be at the next one. I’ve got a few more posts kicking around in my head from the day. But for now I’m excited to see everyone keep the energy flowing into all the other community powered projects going on around town.
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