maupuia calling

We had an egovernment BarCamp yesterday. It may be the first egovernment BarCamp worldwide? It certainly was the 2nd BarCamp in New Zealand. egovernment BarCamp, New Zealand’s second-best BarCamp :)

It rocked! I can’t imagine anywhere else in the world having something quite like this. There were influential government people there who totally get this stuff. There were vendors large and small, designers and geeks-at-large who I sit there in awe of at what they know.

I had in my mind that this was sort of like the un-Knowledge Wave conference. That is, it might actually be the start of something that makes a difference. It seems to me that this grass-roots stuff, combined with the “geeks do stuff” knowledge of people who were there, plus the “awesome power of social media” might just mean there’s a chance of small things talked about and decided upon developing into larger things that do make a difference. I went away with a feeling of community and hope. And that was before the first wine of the evening!

Some random-y thoughts. SSC is well-served by people like Mike Pearson, Jason Ryan and Hugh McPhail, and the public service benefits from people like Che Tibby, Pete McVicar, Jo McLeod et al. Wellington does community. Seeing so many erstwhile “competitors” not really giving a shit about that and just sharing, talking and connecting was awesome - by growing the pie together, everyone benefits. People are really excited about Webstock :) There are really smart people around.

It has been a tiring weekend though. I can’t believe I’m still awake at 11pm writing this. Deb and I took Nat out for dinner on Friday and talked about most everything. And then Nat and Tash come here on Saturday night after post BarCamp drinks and we talked about most everything else. And this afternoon we had a Webstock meeting and talked about publicity and Webstock Minis and speakers.

Still, with all that, a lazy morning today with kids and watching Dr Who together tonight is hard to beat.

So, finally, we launched!

I love the site. I love the lineup of speakers we have. I love all involved in making Webstock happen. As they say in “The Castle”, it’s all about “the vibe”, and I think we have that for Webstock. People seem genuinely excited about it.

My one regret? I wanted the tagline for Webstock to be - “Webstock. 4th best in New Zealand”, but they wouldn’t let me. And yeah, you either get the reference or you don’t!