There’s been a flame war happening around this tech “camp” vs. that tech “camp.” A guy named Ryan King tossed some good mud at the MashUp Camp crew for this or that crime of grabbing this or that idea, selling out, etc, etc. As rants go, not bad. I looked into who Ryan was: 23, grad student, intern for Technorati, standard list of every programming language on the resume (what, no Cobol?), etc, etc. Graduated from Oklahoma Baptist so that could explain the pent up anger. Kidding, just a joke, keep it light. I read through his blog to get a sense of who he is as best I could, seem smart, nice guy.
Ryan made some good points about coders hanging out and accomplishing things. I believe his post is worth reading.
Doc Searls, who was an advisor to the camp counselors (MashUp’s) responded to the ruckus with the questions you’d expect and making some valid points. Finally, Mark Evans and Matthew Ingram, conference/counselors/scout leaders for a camp/conference/toga party here in Canada both weighed in with some observations. Mark’s here and Mathew’s here.
Mathew’s smart summary:
“We’d like to find a place somewhere in that spectrum where people can get together and have some fun and maybe learn something new, and hopefully we can do that.”
Here is my view, FWIW.
If you are “a suit” looking to get a sense of where the next generation of coders, employees, teammates, interns, etc, etc, look no further then Ryan and his crowd. For years, open source got dismissed as a joke. Not anymore. For years, Comdex, CES, PC-Expo, Networld, DEMO, were the must go shows, and conferences. Not any more. And this is going to get better/worse/more intense/etc, depending on your perspective.
Ryan may think there were too many suits at MashUp camp but as “a suit”, I can tell you that I have two coders working in portfolio companies as a result of meeting them at MashUp camp. I’m helping three guys that are working on separate projects as a result of hanging out and dumping candy all over the tables. Yeah, all that snack crap was me.
I ‘sponsored’ the camp by bringing junk food and a bag of money (chocolate coins) to the party. It was different, for sure. I got just as much, or more leverage out of 600 bux of junk food then thousands of dollars of sponsorship and noise dollars spent at a more mainstream ‘conference.’
“Camps” are the norm now, not an anomaly. No longer is your target to get it ready for CES or trying to make Demo, nope. Your new objective should be get that idea into a format where you can share it and “go to camp.” Getting picked for Demo or getting Editor’s Choice of whatever is rapidly loosing the top of the mountain status and that means more opportunities for more ideas to get off the ground.
The other observation I’ll make:
There are a very limited number of truly ‘new’ ideas when it comes to the topic of getting together.
While young Ryan was still in diapers, a thing called pub crawls was going on at tech shows in the 1980s. I organized, by word of mouth (and Compuserve forums), events at Networld Dallas which amounted to 100 or so people showing up at Dick’s Last Resort in Dallas’s West End. There, coders, ‘suits’, etc, would talk about code, see demos on people’s luggables, and so on. At least 6 products I can remember were demo’d with ‘compiled while you wait’ happening. We had NO sponsors and paid for our own food and T-shirts by simply passing a basket at the end of the evening. I never made or lost a penny. I got the idea from some people who were organizing something around DECUS conferences from the 70s.
Don’t forget to bring your TEDdy bear.
Well said Rick. You got in everything but "before you were born." I find it hard to avoid that one myself. How did we miss each other back in the day? Suits provide jobs for ponytails. Maybe that is why ponytails resent them. But then suits can't prosper without ponytails. A good suit knows that and puts up with the bluster. Young Ryan seems promising, and he does make a lot of good points. I was a holy terror myself at 23.
Posted by: Adam Green | March 05, 2006 at 09:30
"what, no Cobol?"
Actually, I did learn COBOL at OBU. But why would I put it on my resume when I don't want to work with it? :D
Posted by: ryan king | March 05, 2006 at 12:37
So that was you who got us on a sugar high? Way to go!
Snacking on some (and I use the term liberally) candy after missing lunch was the closest it felt to a camp/coder experience.
Rick, you get it, and I wish more people would look past the suit/ponytail divide.
Posted by: assaf | March 06, 2006 at 21:14