On a gloriously sunny Saturday I headed down to Bournemouth University to take part in my first barcamp experience. When walking into the event a whole mixture of feelings were rolling around inside of me. I was excited at being around like-minded people, curious at what to expect, and also nervous knowing that I'll be doing my first bit of proper public speaking later in the day.
The whole concept of an un-conference was new to me so I really had no idea what to expect. How many people would be there? Are they all going to be professional industry folk? Will there be any other students? My past experience has been with much bigger and more organised conferences like dConstruct. Most definitely the biggest difference is that absolutely anyone can walk up to the schedule and add their 45 minute presentation or activity. The cool thing about this is that everyone is free to have a say and talk about what they want. On the flip-side, however, there is a clear element of competition between speakers about positioning of their talks so they don't clash with other potentially popular talks. I wasn't too worried about this myself, seeing as it was my first talk, but I know that there is a certain unconscious aspect that a bigger audience equals a more popular talk.
My nerves and excitement hit fever-pitch at 3:15pm when it was my turn to present. I'd been preparing my talk on HTML5 canvas for the last few days and hadn't practised it. Luckily, after some initial technical difficulties, the talk went well and even encouraged a few questions at the end. The highlight of my talk was when a young fellow in the front row fell asleep. I now know why they call it the graveyard shift. If you're interested in seeing why I believe HTML5 canvas is the future of graphics on the Web, then have a flick through my slides which I've included below.
HTML5 Canvas: The Future of Graphics on the Web
Still, the day was great fun and I enjoyed all the talks that I attended. Here is a quick overview of my favourites:
- Angela Barnard's plea to recognise the importance of content strategy. I found this particularly interesting as I'm currently battling with the content for Rawkes and how to organise and approach it in future versions.
- David Burton's humorous and thought-provoking overview of creativity and his 10 tips for better brainstorming. He also highlighted how different people have different traits when it comes to being creative. Personally I see myself as a fact-finder with a little bit of organising thrown in for good measure.
- Damian Proctor's beautiful presentation on design principles. It included a wide variety of examples which highlighted his points perfectly.
I've no idea if they would but I'd definitely like to see all three do their presentations again in front of my course at university. Not only were the presentations amazing, but the fact they come from people involved in the industry will inspire a lot of the students.
Overall, it was a fun day and I'll definitely be attending any future barcamp events in the area. I would advise anyone else who wants to get involved in the industry to do the same.
Transmissions Received
JohnONolan
Excellent overview Rob - I’ve been wanting to attend a Barcamp myself for some time now! I think I’ll have to do so now :D
Rob Hawkes
You’d love it John, it’s less about how famous you are and more about the real skills, knowledge and passion that makes this industry so unique and addictive. If you find one going on near Woking I’ll take a trip home and come visit with you.
Damian Proctor
I can’t speak for the others but I would be happy to present again.
Ruth
So proud of you for what your doing Rob! Slideshow had some great stuff in it [I learnt some things!] - you have me more intrigued in the new web standards.
Wish I lived closer! would have came an watched, an poked the sleepy guy :p
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It was great you could join us Rob, and well done on your talk. I’d be happy to help and do mine again anytime
Rob Hawkes
Damian & David: Thanks for offering some of your time to us lowly students. I’ll get in touch with my lecturers but they aren’t the most reliable bunch. Perhaps something a little more relaxed and self-organised would be better. Students are allowed to book out lecture theatres and stuff at uni so it’s a possibility.
Ruth: That means a lot to me, thank you! You should definitely be intrigued about the new technologies coming, they are bringing with them some exciting opportunity. Let me know if you ever wanna chat about it or need any help.
Ken Hanson
Wowee. First, love the blog. Got pointed to this site from one of our designers at http://www.HotStudio.com and am really impressed.
We’re neck deep in html5 / css3 for mobile development and the designers are funneling me with links to see if they can start designing things similar (they take the stance of “well, heres a post, someones doing it, why can’t you!?” haha).
I’m thoroughly impressed with your site. That globe jazz is sick (the lack of flash for that is even better), and I love the design! Also, all the subtle pieces of detail you’ve put in are fantastic (button click animations, rounded corners with great borders on these forms, the focus animations, those break-apart hovers, etc).
REALLY nice man! I know what it takes to create this stuff, and just keeping the presence of mind for the design aesthetics plus the tedium of actually pulling it off just impresses the hell outta me haha.
And finally, killer slides! MUCH better illustrated than the docs I’ve been reading about Canvas. Your Canvas Experimentation stuff is amazing as well.
Well done sir! All around!
-Ken
Rob Hawkes
@Ken: Blimey, thanks for the kind words! It means a lot to see someone appreciate the time and effort that went into the design for Rawkes, particularly in the tiny details. Not many people notice them, which is a good thing I suppose.
Also, I’m glad you found the HTML5 canvas slides useful, they were a bit rushed so I hope I got everything across OK. Let me know if you want to know anything further about it all, I’m more than happy to chat about it.
Rob Crowther
Nice intro to the canvas element, however you seem to have a missed a trick on slide 6 - SVG is part of HTML5:
http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/the-map-element.html#svg-0
Rob Hawkes
Thanks for the heads-up Rob, it looks like you’re right! I had to admit I assumed SVG was a bit of a relic from the past, not something new with HTML5. Nice to know I’m wrong and that it’s safely tucked into the spec though. Hopefully its future is going to be a little more rosy than I first thought!