BlogCampSwitzerland 2.0

I had a great time today at *BlogCampSwitzerland* in spite of the name and in spite of some physical discomfort due to a sore throat that I hope is gone by tomorrow. I saw some old faces, a few new ones and had several good conversations.

I had a little session that I announced as an interactive mashup to the title of “The Swiss Myth“. Both Claudio Notz and Sarah Genner blogged the essence of it from different prespectives. I also am looking forward to see the publication of Sarah’s recently completed work about blogs in politics in Switzerland about which she gave us a fascinating preview today.

I really had no idea as to where the discussion would go when tackling the swiss myth and mash-up politics and blogs. I did have a bit of an inquiry session and do look forward to the video that Greg Vernon made in order to study it within the context of action research methodology. I opened up by telling the story of how I came to think of the swiss myth “rich country” that I often get to hear and that inspired my last post on this blog and how that led me to think that exploring the mythology of Switzerland may lead to some interesting thinking.

It was fantastic to witness the discussion shape itself and to see that most of those present did participate.

Thanks to all who participated and or blogged. It is this kind of joint thinking and interaction that make the barcamp format a success.

updated: Sunday 21.10.2007

 

Why is it that Blogging is not about Blogging?

Greg Vernon took the initiative to video record this session and wrote a few words about it . Stephanie Booth live-blogged it while participating in the discussion during BarCampSwitzerland. Henning summarized what the discussion was all about very well in his blog.

Thanks to all!

My own thoughts as to what was guiding the live inquiry that we conducted during this session were posted here.

Review: BarCamp BlogCamp Switzerland

On Saturday I did go on this little outing to Zürich to experience my first BarCamp that the local organizers insisted on calling BlogCamp, and it was not without some mixed feelings. From this perspective, it is perhaps not surprising that I returned home with mixed feelings, and that a look at the echo on the Blogsphere leaves me once more with them feelings still mixed.

First the good news: 0. Meeting Stephanie on the train in Bern made the whole trajectory rather short. Of course we had arranged this through IM ahead of time and texted the necessary confirmations. Communication today is not what it was when my son was born 23 years ago.

1. The organization was well done, all ran smoothly. The way from the Polybahn to the lecture halls of the HG were well marked, and upon arrival I got from Corsin a number to pin somewhere on my clothes like I had not had since I was doing track and field. A simple, no nonsense solution to the problem of tagging the odd 200 bodies at the the meeting or unconference. Congratulations to the organizers. Well done!

1.extra: There were fruits, including bananas, besides croissants (that I can not eat), plenty of juice, water and coffee. I really appreciated that for such an informal meeting it was rather well catered, including the pretty smiles of the people helping out.

2. I met for the first time a few really interesting people and whom I would like to see again or somehow interact over them cables and wifi networks surrounding and connecting us. In no particular order they are Christian (link?), Stefan, Jürg, Henning, Pia, Sarah, Kobi, Peter, Greg and most likely a few whose name I neither wrote down, nor marked somewhere in my list of participants that had been handed out to me at the entrance. I had a fun time listening in and giving my two cents at Gabor‘s session and then later connected to him via Facebook although I did not get a chance to talk with him face-to-face. If I forgot you, drop me an email or comment. I am a bit chaotic, especially when I am working on a few projects at the same time, make that very chaotic.

3. It was great to see and speak, albeit briefly, with some of the same old suspects like Matthias, Leu who did quite a fun flick of those willing to brave being shot by a Nikon D70s, and of course Bruno. Unfortunately I did not get much of a chance to talk to Nicolas Berg although we do know each other from what to me seems to be another lifetime. I went to Stephanie’s session which was quite enlightening. Take home lesson, bilingual bloggers are the bridge builders across language and culture barriers.

4. I was immensely pleased with the lively and insightful discussion in my session of “Why Blogging is not about Blogging” that Stephanie not only brilliantly contributed to, but also live-blogged! How does she do it? I look forward to seeing and listening to the video that Greg recorded, and all my thanks to you Greg for taking the initiative on this one. All my thanks and admiration especially for those who dared to explore what was perhaps not an easy inquiry of what blogging might be about.

Shameless self promotion follows: If you are interested in more of the mysteries of Theoretical Man, the next installment is most likely going to be at reboot 9 in Copenhagen in just a few fast weeks at the end of May.

5. The wifi worked (most of the time).

And now for the things I really did not get… I wonder what is the value of this bit that Kobi and a few others reported on. In my view a bit sophomoric, and the kind of thing that really does not serve any constructive purpose. But it might be just me, I only have second hand information, and this is the kind of action that went by me unnoticed at the event.

Ah, Peter, that thing with “Christoph Blogger” is sort of cute, but it sort of ranks right there with blond jokes, and is forgotten before the morning after arrives. Good try!

Fooled you, did I? Overall, the positive far outweighs the negative in MNSHO.