Barcamp 5 London: Spillover

What happens when you put 20 computer geeks, WiFi access, truck loads of coffee and a projector?

You get an unconference. While the concept of having an unstructured geek-meet isnt new, barcamps always tend to offer a peek into some of the most interesting things that people are doing with computing, the web and almost anything that they can get their hands on. The Barcamp 5: spillover wasnt an exception.

Thanks to delayed tubes, the start of the weekend and most people having gone to the barcamp (instead of the spillover), this particular meet brought together smaller but more enthusiastic groups. (Hey, if you make your way even if most of the city is sleeping or paralysed, you got to be enthusiastic right?) As a result the talks on Hansard, Drupal and 'understanding how to understand user requirements' (yes this the best way to make you understand what was said), brought together speakers who were prepared to volley and parry any jargon-laden query that was shot at them.

So what does all this mean? This means that if youre a geek and you thing you have cred, walk into the next barcamp and prove your mettle.

Here is some of the list of people who spoke (and write well too!)
•Cher Devey, spoke on how most web application developers are forgetting the human aspect before coding new features and software.


•Conard Taylor, Spoke on how to gauge what user's want before you create a knowledge aggregating web app, he did this through a possible game like scenario.


•Ishriya Paireepairit, spoke on Drupal.


•'The geek lawyer', whose real name now eludes me, spoke on how you stop the british government from asking you to give up your digital signature, thereby granting them access to all your private files.


•Robert Brook, spoke about Hansard and the various simple but monumental tasks that need to be done in with it.

(Thank you Harry for organising this brilliant event!)

The pictures that I have used here have been taken by Ishriya.
The event was held at the British Computer Society, which is at:


The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA. (see map below)

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