Barcamp Auckland 2008
On Saturday ( 11th July ) I went to Barcamp Auckland 2 over at Botany Downs. Like last year ( which I seem not to have blogged about) it was a 1 day “web technology” orientated unconference organised by Ludwig Wendzich and a group of helpers.
Once again the venue ( Botany Downs Secondary College ) was great although this time around the weather was nasty so things were a bit cold. I also had a headache and queasy stomach so most of the time I felt like this ( although at one point I felt like this , I think the pills had just kicked in ). So my concentration skills weren’t on their best.
So here is a list of stuff I went to, the programme doesn’t seem to be online anywhere so things are a little spares wrt names, titles and the like. Most of the talks were fairly informal with a lot of audience participation. I have an idea for a website so I went along to a couple of the more commercial talks.
Productivity
A talk from Ben Young followed by a bit of a round table about productivity. The usual stuff like only checking your email now and then and otherwise trying to avoid interruptions plus a few other ideas about.
Suggested Tools: GoTo Meeting , Kayako , OTRS
Advertising
A great overview by Regan from throng ( NZ TV website) about their experiences with advertising and making money from their site. He discussed the various text ads, textlink ads, Video Ads ( recommended Unruly Media ) and affiliate programmes.
Good discussion from others in the room including one guy who is getting 20% clickthoughs on google ads(!). There was also some discussion about getting New Zealand ads onto smaller sites. It sounds like some people are talking about an ad network for independent publishers.
Frontend Performance, Yslow etc
I organised a little session ( with a 5 minute’s notice) about the Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site stuff that has been big for the last year or so and experiences people had had. I can’t say it was a very good session. I didn’t prepare or know the topic backwards so I was pretty disorganised. There was some round table discussion about people’s expediences but I can’t say I was very happy with how it went.
Windows, IE
One of the guys from Microsoft talked about the problem of getting people off IE6 and up to the latest XP service packs. Some 25% of the population are still on IE6 ( another 25% Firefox and around 50% IE7). The idea is to get these people upgraded to secure systems and using standards compliant browsers.
There was also a bit of talk about IE8 and how a good percentage of of sites with “IE hacks” didn’t render nicely anymore because IE8 was now more standards compliant.
SEO
Another session from Ben Young with some general advice of Search Engine optimisation. Lots of good general advice on setting goals, monitoring progress and different areas plus some special sauce on building links in a non-spammy way.
iphone seller
A talk from a guy from Mob about how:
- Fly to the US
- Buy 15 iphones
- Attending technical conference
- Fly back to NZ
- Unlock and sell iphones
- Profit!
- Goto 1
Turned into a real business.
Careers
A session of 20 people giving Ludwig Wendzich ( 17 year old main organiser) career advice. More interesting than it sounds.
Other
There was a bunch of other stuff:
- Ran into the usual suspects and couple of people from back at Telecom
- Saw Rock Band game.
- Didn’t see the 5 minute coding competition due to crowd
- Lunch plus two breaks worth of food served
- Cute little online app to synchronise stuff, book rooms and see what was happening
- Around 40 people didn’t show up when others got turned away
Other Write ups
- Official Bebrief from Ludwig Wendzich
- Simon Gianoutsos
- Ben Young
- Some guy without his name on his blog
END
