Fun at Foo Camp

This past weekend I was invited to participate at the ‘Foo Camp’ at O’Reilly’s campus in Sebastopol, California. 225 hackers, writers, inventors and idea-makers were invited to this exclusive camp embodying remix and fusion in action. People working on web services, search, open source software development, hardware, security, mapping and much more had all gathered to form this ‘wiki-in-person’.

Creative Thinking

The format of the camp was very creative — starting with each person introducing themselves with three keywords, pitching tents on the campus grounds and apple orchards, and spontaneously identifying talks on cool ideas to warm one’s imagination. The list of talks were created on-the-fly and all talks vied with each other for neat titles and interesting topics. It was hard to decide what to skip.

Cool Talks

Topics ranged from Open Source Java, Open Source Telephony, RFID Physics, Identity 2.0, High Speed Flash Photography to Leadership Hacks, Creating Passionate Users, State of the Blogosphere and Women in OSS. On public demand, my talk on ‘Open Source in India’ turned into a great interactive session on how open source is starting to play an important role in the Indian technology services industry and developer pool.

“Eternal vigilance is the price of success.”

A session on ‘Money, Power and Open Source projects’ by Mitchell Baker of Mozilla, Ted Leung of Apache and Geir Magnusson of Harmony centered on the delicate balancing act needed to avoid open source projects being taken over by corporations as they contribute code and resources. The fear is that once a project is adopted by special interests it will no longer remain open. It’s a daily struggle for projects like Apache to maintain a level playing field in its community when so much code and money comes in from special interests. Another variation of the same problem is PostgreSQL. This project is unable to absorb the continuous and rapid enhancements requested from commercial companies and constantly faces the threat of forking. Eternal vigilance is the price of success. One suggestion was to increase communication across open source projects to join forces against a common threat.

The conference also examined making money with open source startups. The reality faced by many open source projects is that services on top of a commoditized software application does not result in quick profit. There is a steep OSS adoption curve in most markets. Customers are hesitant and nobody is being able to sell open source solutions as fast as they would like. FUD factors and piracy add friction. The conference urged startups to figure out solutions before they run out of venture capital.

Fun Activities

From early morning to late evenings, not one person wanted to waste a single precious moment. There were even toys for everyone to try. The motorized Segways were all the rage with almost everyone trying to learn how to ride them. Breakfast, Talks, Demos, Lunch, Talks, Panels, Huddles, Frisbee, Dinner, Gaming contests, Ping Pong, Conversations, Segways, More Conversations, Brewing Fests … 24 hours felt too short for a day.

“A Foo Camp is a ‘wiki-in-person’.”

Foo Campers used the ‘Foo Wiki’ to introduce their interests and ideas for talks. The wiki was the online-heartbeat of the camp as it progressed. Campers posted ideas for sessions, things to do, quotable quotes and more.

Why Foo?

Foo camp remixed brainstorming amongst peers. Focused yet relaxed discussions over a couple of days resulted in ideas and solutions, strengthened social networks and crystalized thoughts into next steps for all. It was a stimulating way to grow a community and scout for new ideas.