it feels like home to be at barcamp again!
old faces and new
geek talk all the way!

it's like the only place in hong kong where you won't feel unique by waving your flip recorder around (see napoleon below for an example)... so instead of getting questions like what a flip is, people will just ask:

"why didn't you bring yours?"

here's what i think people will remember barcamphk 2009 for:

• hot food from microsoft! lol...

• hot (stuffy) rooms too... but only because we had a record-breaking attendance this year!

• "hot" organizers as usual :P

for me, i'll always remember what it feels like to have forgotten to bring my own name cards and to turn my back to people whenever they ask for my contact:

above: the one and only android tee designed by yours truly!

side note #1: i originally wanted to print a QR code in my chest but decided against it for obvious reasons... i also learnt that a QR code cannot be decoded if it's in white :(

side note #2: i'm a loyal fan of dookaz and usually print my tees with them, but i chose not to this time because they don't offer green lady tees.... sorry, ed =)

see it in action!

photo credit: billibala

that's me with my htc hero android phone, in total sync with cyrus's green google developer tee (which also has cool logos like the chrome printed on)!

my hero was a big hit, haha... coz it's not available for sale in hk yet.  i'm happy to see iphone fanatics interested in an android phone.  if only more hk developers write apps for android.......

anyway, i've achieved the effect i wanted - to stand out in my android tee! haha...see me below?

photo credit: victor issac cheung

in 2007, there were only 7 females out of 98 attendees (7%)...small minority

in 2008, there were 12 out of 220 (5.5%)...not too bad

this year? at least 23 out of 304 (7.6%)...best turnout so far!!!

what i love most about barcamp is still the people.  the spirit of sharing what one's passionate about.  here are some interesting people i met in no particular order:

• a local web developer named richard who works for NGOs - who actually knows about the opensource CivicSpace CMS that's never been used by any hong kong NGOs! i only learnt about it 2 weeks ago at the OLPC party and found it an amazing tool for NGOs to keep track of donations and to increase the overall transparency of their organizations...

• 2 engineers who work for the Octopus Card company - interesting discussion on privacy concerns - their company's focus is now on developing overseas mkts

• an intern at turner (winnie) - collects evidence of IP infringement! for big brands! watches videos and screen captures infringing content... even writes to infringers.....hmmm competes with what i do at my law firm!

• compared augmented reality apps used on iphone & android phones =)

• richard cohen - thanking him in person for writing me an applist.apk to extract a list of all apps installed on my android phone!

• Preetam who flew all the way from singapore just to attend this barcamp! liked his presentations on the pokens & other barcamps in south-east asia (great tips on how to travel 2.0 style too).  the thailand barcamp for instance has an attendance of over 700! people talk about pretty much everything, from how to make ice-cream to how to chase a japanese girl.  whereas cambodians would use paper cards to do mash-up demos when there are not enough computers around.  verrrry interesting i think :-)

• spoke to a teacher at the CityU school of creative media about her frustrations (a fixed curriculum, no way she could add new ideas she learnt from MIT) and her patented works of "visual representation"

• saw a live google wave demo!!! aaron, napoleon and leon ho all have developer accounts... enjoyed the demo by aaron despite having watched the 60+min long online preview already :) aaron's protocols diagram is also immensely helpful for non-hardcore programmers like me!

• a Janet from PwC, told me that their management is quite open to new ways of doing things so she's here to get some inspiration

• wife & husband running a website business together

• a Thomas working for NTT.  told me his main job is to review and buy "toys"... soft(ware) toys to be exact :P his gf also came and she's is a litigation solicitor!

• another Thomas who introduced me his new web app - good luck dude :) i'll be happy to be your tester!

• a "medical practitioner" who works at a local hospital and responsible for making the hospital's website

• alan B ho - who wore this threadless tee i almost bought for myself! an early bird of twestival and likes his funky professor at CMU :P thanks again for car pooling us girls & giving me a lift home :P

• dr winnie tang on GIS & kenny chien on a business model for QR codes... lots to think about

• outblaze employees - amazed by my knowledge of their company history and what they do XD

• douglas white of Prosperity Research, the guy behind the langham video... a chat on SEO

• henry oh of hk startups association - so happy for them for securing a HK$100,000 grant for cc/open source-related projects!

• wendy & cliff - thanks for coming to barcamp upon my recommendation :D hope you guys enjoyed

• quite a few never heard of cc - felt good sharing some of my cc stories

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more pics! my full set is on flickr - mouseover to see descriptions:

best part of the day was actually the dinner - not sure how i got mixed with this circle of apple crazy fans >_<

twestival - went for a while... happy to have finally met caphun of yelotofu in person!

overall a very fruitful day!!! thanks to the barcamp organizers belle, napoleon, ben and henry!!! edit: and aaron too!!!

some suggestions for next year:

• please bring back the tee-throwing >_< the one who almost got killed last year was me, but i wasn't killed :) it was fun! it's a great way to wake people up at 10am on a saturday morning!

• things i also miss from the previous years: naming rooms as dim sums, and using a "dong dong" bell to say time's up :) these things may seem trivial but they're very Chinese, very local

• is it possible for sessions to start 30min earlier (at 10:30am)? tee-throwing may start at 9:45am.  this way we can at least fit in one more time slot!

• what about a best costume award??? hahahahha. should let people vote!!!

thanks again and looking forward to seeing all of you at barcamphk 2010!!!!!