Geek Conference Head Denies Terror List Link

As previously reported, the Dowbrigade spent the past weekend at BarCamp Boston 2, the "unconference" for tech types this time held at MIT’s Stata Center. The GQ (Geek Quotient) was off the chart, and we stood little chance of understanding most of the presentations or even the hallway chatter.

However, we have never let ignorance or lack of credentials stand in our way of making a fool of ourselves, so we donned our Cultural Anthropologists cap and set out on a field expedition to study the grooming and mating habits of the American Geek in his natural habitat.

First of all, we must say we were a bit disappointed in the interior of the polemic Stata Building itself. After the mind-bending lines and reflective surfaces of the exterior, we expected the interior to be positively Daliesque, with melting plastic drips and drabs creating a phantasmagoric work environment. Actually, aside from a few off-kilter beams and acutely angled windows, the inside is pretty normal. Or so it seemed.

As to the presentations themselves, we did a pretty good job of selecting sessions where at least the participants and presenters were using English. Amanda Watlington’s session on attracting traffic to embedded audio and video files, and Adam Weiss’s session on Podcasting stand out.

Kudos to everyone involved in organizing this gig, especially Mike Walsh, Sooz (of Exploit-Boston) and Shimon Rura, featured in the accompanying video trying to explain why he was late for his own conference. Thanks to sponsors and participants the damn thing nearly broke even. Our only complaint; we’ve been to two of these things now, and we still haven’t found the BarCamp Bar.

Bar Camp Boston Web site

Shimon Rura interview