As I've related to some folks who've asked already, I thought BarCamp went really well. My entire morning was packed with very interesting conversation : talk of a Canadian mobile users advocacy group (to help instigate change in our wireless data rates, followed by an excellent discussion about Mozilla with Mike Beltzner, and then a pretty killer debate/discussion about the new Facebook developer platform. Perhaps it was just me, but I was pretty well spent by lunch so the afternoon seemed a little less jam packed. I did lead a session on OpenID which spurred some interesting questions and discussion, but after that I kinda just hung out.
Yesterday, I spent the day at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference down at the Metro Convention Centre. While sometimes referred to as "enterprise camp", this was nobody's unconference. Despite some scheduling snafus (we ended up having to hold both tracks in one room and things ended up over an hour off schedule), I think it went well. Of course, I was there doing my OpenID song and dance again (to a slightly different crowd). There was more interest in OpenID than I had guessed there would be amongst "enterprise" folks. I also learned that a very large insurance company here in Toronto implemented a very openid-like identity system in house a few years ago, and are considering migrating it to an openid-based solution. Very cool!</a>.
Sadly, however, I think that about wraps my participation in tech week. No, for those who keep asking, I will not be attending Mesh today and tomorrow. Maybe next year...
]]>To me, however, the best part of last night's event was the general feeling or realization that there is actually a strong community here. Personally, as someone who can't make it out to all the events, I have found the "Always on Unconference" that we've started lately in the torcamp skype room as a great way to keep in touch, follow up, etc. However, as a relentless advocate for free software and open protocols and standards, I urge the community go pop in to either the #torcamp irc channel or the xmpp group chat - you can find me in both :) Looking forward to the next event!
]]>BarcampToronto (and the related events such as DemoCamp won for "best do-it-yourself conference".
Wireless toronto won "Best WiFi spot" for their location at Yonge and Dundas square.
Congrats to all the people involved in both groups, thanks for making toronto just a little bit cooler :)
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