As enthused as I was, I only reached the SAT, on Boulevard St-Laurent, at around 12.30, and one of the first persons I saw was my friend Laurent Maisonnave, who was taking a last video, probably for his blog. We caught up with each other’s lives. He recently interviewed Lyne Bouchard of TechnoMontreal for YULbuzz.
He was leaving as I arrived, so that means you can expect some coverage of the first half-day of BarCampMontreal2 on his blog and some coverage of the second-half here at YashLabs. There are others who are only now waking up to the necessity of covering these events so that you can expect additional coverage from them too.
Fred was being interviewed by a lady in a corner, while I was meeting with the ever-smiling David Fugère from Code Genome. David looks like a rock-star – you would have thought he’s a singer in a band or something (who knows, maybe he is). He’s using Ruby and Ruby on Rails for Code Genome, and my theory is that this is why he is happy and smiling all the time.
I ate some of the food and it was welcome and talked a bit with Heri.
Co-Working and co-operative spaces
All this time, Patrick had convened a discussion about the Co-Working space which has as project to gather people working in Tech or with Tech in Montreal under one roof. It’s a good idea to foster cross-functional collaboration, but it’s so good that it should really be funded by the organizations whose mission is to promote and develop all things Tech in Montreal or Montreal as a Tech hub. Globally I’m for the idea but there’s already a co-working space at La Bande Passante, which can probably be used for less than the advertised fees for the Co-working space.
This said, it’s a great thing that BarCampMontreal2 itself has willing sponsors – it’s a kind of co-working or co-operative space, isn’t it? Gratitude is necessary here, and is extended to the sponsors: Garage Technology Ventures Canada, Standout Jobs (Austin Hill, Fred Ngo, Ben Yoskovitz), Akoha (Austin Hill – he’s everywhere – except at BarCampMontreal2. He’s resting in Mexico, he needs it. See you soon in full form back in Montreal, Austin), and of course, our very generous host, the SAT (kudos to René Barsalo, the SAT Director and some of the staff who were present on a Saturday to make this event a reality, including a really nice, smiling lady who came and also filmed the event for the SAT and for her vlog. What’s her name, Fred, and where’s her vlog?).
Asia and Kung-Fu
Then, I took a seat in the big room and tried to connect via wi-fi but it wouldn’t work. In the meantime, I was exploring a few of my text files on AI. A lady, MAJ, who was going to present later, sat in front of me and she seemed to have no trouble getting connected.
Marc Chriqui and I talked about technology and development, mainly about Microsoft’s development tools and also Ruby on Rails. I mentioned to him how Ruby on Rails output AJAX natively.
After a while, Fred came over to say hi, and we chatted a bit about his new startup, Standout Jobs. Fred has been really taken up with the project, together with the other team members, Ben and Austin. Austin couldn’t be present this time at BarCamp as he’s on a much-needed vacation in Mexico.
Fred and I talked a bit about Hong Kong and Toronto. I myself went on a month-long trip to Asia in 1988 and visited Singapore (ah, the Omni Planetarium with its 20,000 Watts of sonic power and hemispheric screen…and Sentosa Island), Thailand (Bangkok, the Indra Regent Hotel, and the temples with reclining Golden Buddhas), Taiwan (er… expensive apples?) and Hong Kong. I remember the phenomenal Ocean Park in Hong Kong, and the Skyscrapers, while we were hosted by my father’s long-time best friend, Ah-Liat Lam Lan Yu. Ah-Liat has always been like a father to me. He’s the one who introduced me to “Game and Watch” and gave me an Atari VCS 2600, my first ever game console. Fond memories indeed.
I thought I saw Francis doing some Wushu on the left. Was that you, Francis? Was that some form of Wushu? I’ve done some Bajiquan myself so maybe we should have talked about this – next time.
Afternoon presentations
Angelo Anduaga (hey, on your cards it’s written “Angel” so that’s what I was using up to now) was readying his presentation with the help of some other attendants. So finally, he would have the opportunity of presenting PodTattoo, his startup, probably even without having spoken to anyone.
Mike spoke about his experience in China and the Intellectual Property laws there – and the phenomenon of brand copying or brand piracy if you will. It was a short but interesting presentation.
Simon took the microphone to introduce Alok Mohindra who presented FonoMe, an online system to get calls through standard VOIP protocols. Alok emphasized his appreciation of Google’s technology for Google Talk. He mentioned Asterisk, SIP, Jabber and also Jingle. The technology was demonstrated on the spot with two people, including Simon, calling Alok’s test phone number. It worked! Applause.
In between two 5-minutes presentations, Fred decided to practice his BarCamp T-shirt throwing skills. Yes, since not all the original BarCamp attendants claimed their T-Shirts, they were giving them away. There was no small T-shirt for me which means I need to buff up again soon, ideally before summertime here. [In front of me is MAJ, on my left is the very cool Philippe Chrun of Mycarpoolstation.com and behind me are Vero.b, and Martine Pagé whom I talked to briefly at a YULblog and who's also a scenarist for "A vos marques, Party!"]
David Fugère also got five minutes to present Code Genome’s online project management or project tracking system and it looked sleek. Easy Drag and Drop functionality for tasks re-organization thanks to AJAX and… Ruby on Rails of course. David said that SoftImage were already using his system among other companies testing the beta. Good for you, David. Code Genome’s system will be able to migrate your data from BaseCamp to their own so that you can benefit from additional features.
more in part 2
