Good barcamp edition again, thanks to CraHan. The support aspects were spotless: he location (IBBT) was great, the technical support was above average, the food was tasty.
The location was interesting for me in more than one way, as i’m going to start work there on tuesday.
Presentations I attended:
- Werner Ramaekers about broadcasters using the internet. BBC seems to be a reference, in offering streams of real-time news in different compression formats for different devices (which they do with a sizeable cluster of computers).
- Bruno Lowagie explained how he was forced into starting a company. He wanted to write his software in peace and donate it to the world, but reality came and butted in. The government wanted tax off him, and businesses using iText wanted bona fide licenses. This, added to an illness in the family, does not make him a happy man at the moment. May things improve for him and his family.
- Filip Borloo talked and initiated a discussion about different www-related subjects, like the bypassing of URLs with search, the overflowing of the www onto the physical world (barcodes) and the use of smart devices, ad-hoc networks of distributed devices (OpenSpime), the use of semantic information in social networks.
- Then the lead developer of the website of the Vooruit (Gent) talked about his experience in developing their website.
- Frank Louwers of OpenMinds made an inspiring presentation about a Rails project in Malawi : baobabhealth. The Rails app is used as a simple expert system to allot drugs to cancer patients, since there are too few doctors. How cheap technology, applied well, can make a life-and-death difference.
- Serge Van Ginderachter gave a small presentation about the viability to use Open Source in small businesses. According to him there’s positive evolutions in the open source world, but commercial solutions still carry the day for this market.
- Wikifonia founder Thomas Bonte made a hands-on presentation of Amazon Web Services. Very practical and to the point.
- Tom Adriaenssen (alias inferis) explained Silverlight for newbies (combined with Ruby). I’ve never been into .Net land, but it’s good to know what’s out there.
It’s rumoured that Luc Van Braekel and Maarten Schenk shot films, so if you want to see a few of the presentations, it might be available.
Most of us, and some more geeks, regrouped at the nice roomy Netlash offices for a Girl+ITPro geek dinner (organized by Clo and Serge).
It was not the usual formula, as everyone floated about sipping drinks or eating fries, played on the weeWii, talked around the standing tables, sat on the cube-like seats. A very relaxed and pleasant atmosphere, thanks to the soft (and colourful) lighting and the lounge music.
A good ending to a full (and slightly saturating) day.
Woa, woa, backup for a second
‘The location was twice as interesting, as i’m going to start work there on tuesday.’
Where exactly are you going to work?
I rephrased that, since it wasn’t very clear. But yes, i start to work on a contract for VRT medialab
Oh wow, that’s great news! I guess I’ll be seeing you soon then.