Tokyo Barcamp 2009

May 17, 2009 admin 8 comments

Where: Held at Yoga, Tokyo, Japan

When: Saturday 16th May 2009

Karamoon and friends at Tokyo Barcamp

Tokyo Barcamp 2009 with Karamoon from Alex Brooke on Vimeo.

Barcamp Tokyo proved things that many of us thought couldn’t be done. First of all, it proved that you can find a location to hold a large event in Tokyo for free. Land is at a premium here in Tokyo and due to some high profile murders, universities have been shutting down campuses to outside events. Luckily, Sun Microsystems came through with their spectacular offices on the 27th floor overlooking the city. A big thank you to them. There were origianlly four rooms available but one was cancelled. However, three rooms seemed to be enough in the end.

Miwaza checks out Mitch Altman’s brain machine, a device that uses LEDs and audio at certain frequences to induce different brain states

It also proved that there is a community of high quality people who want to share, create and make a positive contribution to Tokyo. This is opposed to the image of Animanga weirdness Tokyo is more notorious for. Karamoon hinted at this in his opening address to the unconference as he suggested that a high quality and robust community could and should be created. From what I saw, I think this started to happen and is a big step in the right direction.

Karamoon being interviewed with Mitch Altman

The general theme of Tokyo Barcamp ended up drifting towards presentations about software and tech. Most of the attendees including myself had never been to a barcamp before so maybe we were a little too conventional in our thinking about what a convention (or unconvention) is. There is no reason why this can’t be the case as whatever emmerges from a barcamp is valid. However I predict future Tokyo Barcamps will be more adventurous and diverse in themes and presentation styles. This in turn should hopefully attract a more diverse crowd which can only be a good thing. In fact, during the end of the camp, people were starting to realise they didn’t have to simply do power point presentations as the number of Q&A sessions and open discussions began to increase. I’m really looking forward to what future Tokyo Barcamps have to offer.

One more point is I think it is important to not only let people abraod know what is happening here but also people in Tokyo so they can see what can be achived. If Sun let us use their premises for free then there is a much greater chance that other companies, educational institutions etc. will too.

Highlights

Mitch Altman did a great talk on Hacker Spaces around the world. His enthusiam was a welcome change to the generally no-can-do attitude you sometimes get here in Japan. Not only was it interesting but I think it sparked the birth of a new Hacker Space group later in the day. Mitch is responsible for the Tv-B-Gone device for turning off annoying TVs in public places and his Brain Machine which I got to check out. It uses LEDs and audio at various frequencies to induce certain brain states. Very trippy and I am definitely going to buy one.

Learning that my front door lock isn’t so secure after all during Karamoon’s security talk

Karamoon did some awesome talks, including one on security where I learned that my front door lock can be broken into easily. Great… I also enjoyed his talk questioning the strange paridigms that dictate the was we use and conceptualize tech, in other words, why are computers so crap?

The food was awesome. We got donuts, coffee, bentos and curry throughout the day provided for free. A big shout out to Fujimamas for some of that deliciousness.

There was more awesomeness but all in all it was a great day and exceeded my expectations.

Things I’d like to see at a future conference

In a way, you can’t really suggest improvements to a Barcamp since by definition, whatever emerges at one of these events is seen as valid. Having said that, here are some things I would like to see in the future. (Not all my own ideas) Feel free to discuss, adopt or shoot down these ideas.

Multiple event sites linked via video – Someone suggested having a barcamp at various locations on the same day. You could add a video conferencing system to keep track of talks and discussions going on at different places. Second life could be used to link separate sites or infact host a completely virtual barcamp.

A chill out room – How about a chill out room with music? You need a break from the learning sometimes. We could also desgnate rooms for specific themes or even specific time slots. How about doing it on a boat? A plane?

More diverse methods of learning – Barcamp Tokyo consisted mostly of presentations and discussion. That was great but are there any other methods of exchnaging information and learning? Could we have games? Quizzes? Total physical response learning techniques etc? Can we provide a platform for people who don’t want to stand up and talk in front of a big room? Can seating arrangements be re-thought out? Dancing? Using one’s body more?

More diverse group of people – It would be great if we could great a more diverse group of people, more women, more Japanese and maybe more non tech people

Movie screenings – Maybe some short movie screenings could be cool

Those are just a few thoughts for now. Hope they make sense. Feel free to leave your ideas, opinions and questions here.