Tokyo BarCamp: Location And Date Confirmed!

I'm exceedingly pleased to announce that Sun Microsystems will be hosting Tokyo BarCamp on Saturday, 16th May. Places are very limited so please sign up here: Tokyo BarCamp When you sign up please include a link so we can contact you directly. Alternatively you can email me daac2000(at)yahoo(dot)com

Many thanks to Jim Grisanzio and Shoji Haraguchi who will be our hosts are Sun. Also thanks to all our other sponsors who are helping to make Tokyo BarCamp 2009 a reality.

Tokyo Barcamp 2009: As We May Think

The theme for Tokyo Barcamp is "As We May Think". Participate in Tokyo BarCamp, exploring the future of technology and how we might use it to augment every aspect of our lives.

"As We May Think" is a seminal essay by Vannevar Bush written in 1945. You can read it here: As We May Think I strongly suggest you do. Here are some more resources:

Videos you probably ought to watch
The Web That Wasn't Google Tech Talk by Alex Wright
Hyperland 1990 BBC programme by Douglas Adams about emerging Internet
The Demo The mother of all demos by Doug Engelbart
Transclusion: Fixing Electronic Literature Google Tech Talk by Ted Nelson
Starfire 1994 Sun Mircrosystems concept video.
Douglas Engelbart Doug Engelbart interviewed at Google.
The Politics of Internet Software Ted Nelson talk at the Oxford Internet Institute

Books you probably ought to read:
Geeks Bearing Gifts by Ted Nelson
Tools For Thought by Howard Reingold
Literary Machines by Ted Nelson
Virtual Communities by Howard Reingold
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy
Glut: The Deep History of Information Science by Alex Wright
From Memex to Hypertext: Vannevar Bush and the Mind's Machine by James M. Nyce and Paul Kahn

Tokyo Barcamp Brain Dump

Some wikipedia articles that you should read in order to understand the concept of BarCamp:
BarCamp
Unconference
Foo Camp
Open Space Technology
Self-organization
Emergence
Temporary Autonomous Zone

The Four Principles and The One Law

Are you still struggling to understand the concept of Barcamp? Maybe understanding Open Space Technology will help:

The four principles of Open Space Technology:

1. Whoever comes is the right people: this alerts the participants that attendees of a session class as "right" simply because they care to attend
2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have: this tells the attendees to pay attention to events of the moment, instead of worrying about what could possibly happen
3. Whenever it starts is the right time: clarifies the lack of any given schedule or structure and emphasizes creativity and innovation
4. When it's over, it's over: encourages the participants not to waste time, but to move on to something else when the fruitful discussion ends

The one law:
If at any time during our time together you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet. Go to some other place where you may learn and contribute.

Bar Camp Tokyo 2009

I've decided to organize a Bar Camp in Tokyo for late May. (See the entry Wikipedia for background on Bar Camp).

Please sign up here if you want to attend: Tokyo BarCamp

You can follow Tokyo Barcamp on Twatter: www.twitter.com/tokyobarcamp

Bar Camp differs from other tech conferences in that everyone must participate. There are no presentations/workshops/discussions scheduled in advance, instead attendees sign up to do events on the day, usually by writing their events on huge pieces of paper on the walls. Also, Bar Camp is free.

At Tokyo Bar Camp expect presentations/workshops/discussions on blogging, podcasting, Perl, AJAX, the theory of hypertext, web spidering, smart mobs, wiki, Ruby-On-Rails, wearable computers, augmented reality, startups, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Web 4.0, the maker revolution and maybe even teledildonics.

Akihabara Massacre

There was a massacre this afternoon in Akihabara, the tech and anime area of Tokyo. Some guy drove a truck through a crowd of people, he then got out of the truck and started stabbing people. Seven people have died so far.

Akihabara is not a place I often go to because it's the opposite side of Tokyo to me, and nowadays it's far more sleazy than it used to be. When I fist came to Japan in 2001, Akihabara was a tech paradise. During the years I was away from Japan, it's changed to a scummy place full of maid-cafes, porn shops and other unpleasant places.

Like many parts of the modern world, Japan is sick. We should therefore not be in the least surprised when sick things like this happen. It is, of course, tragic when people are killed in this way, but it also highlights the many social problems here. Japan has the highest child-suicide rate in the world, something that nobody here seems to give a fuck about. Prostitution is endemic here. The yakuza control many aspects of life here, and nobody tries to stop them. There is an HIV timebomb here, but nobody talks about it. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

The Japanese here are hoping that the guy who committed the massacre was on drugs, or was mentally ill, or was a gangster. If he is, then every one will sleep soundly, knowing that Japan really is perfect, and that their are just a few rotten apples here.

Going To Ginza

Attended the Apple User's Group meeting in Ginza. There was a talk on podcasting again. It was pretty good although the guy got carried away a bit. There was also a great talk on basic network hacking which I enjoyed greatly.

After the Apple meeting I hung out with Scott Lockman, which is always time well spent.

The Quake Is Coming

Friends came over for a meal. It was my first chance to do some real cooking. The food turned out well, and the conversation was fantastic. You know the company is good when the topic of conversation moves effortlessly from high protein diets to marathon running to earthquakes to offshore bank accounts to gold.

It's strange to think that one day Tokyo will be completely destroyed by an earthquake, which will cause the collapse of capitalism. It's not a case of if, but when. The big quake is 30 years late already...

Tokyo 2600

This evening I attended the first meeting of the new Tokyo 2600 group. In attendance were myself and one other person. We talked for several hours on topics ranging from hacking to cracking. Not a great start, but not a complete failure.

Tokyo Calling

A couple of days ago I started listening to a podcast called Tokyo Calling by Scott Lockman. It's very different to any other podcast I've heard, and I recommend it highly, particularly to people who, like me, feel podcasting sucks.
It's a very natural podcast. In one episode, for example, Scott's wife shouts up to him, asking if he's running a bath. He just answers that he's doing a podcast. Scott's three daughters frequently appear in the podcast, and "It's pretty remarkable to see the young ones being young. It's such a special time. I'm grateful to have the chance to be part of it". Very touching at times.

Had dinner at The Thai Dragon with an old school friend called Richard. It was great to catch up, and we shared many happy memories of a camping trip in France we went on together when we were around 18 years old. The Thai restaurant was, as it always is, perfect. Snow had been falling while we were in the restaurant so we had to walk back on slippery pavements. When I got home I listened to the second Dengue Fever album, "Escape From Dragon House" which arrived today. Will comment on it soon.

Memories Of Japan

I've been thinking a lot about my time in Japan. Many memories have filled my head, some things that I did for the first time, some things that were simple but had infinite beauty, and some things which can only be described as mind-blowing, such as training with Hatsumi-soke in Noda. Here is a random selection:

My first night of sleeping on a futon. Waking up in the morning to the scent of tatami mats.

My first Japanese earthquake. I was lying in bed, having a dream about watching a woman have a violent fit. I woke up to find the room shaking, and for some reason I thought the best course of action was to deal with death by going to sleep.

Managing to order food for the first time. I went into a place and asked for a random Japanese dish. I didn't know that I was in a Yoshinoya, a chain which pretty much sells just one dish, gyudon, which consists of marinated beef on rice. I managed to get a bowl of gyudon, and it tasted fucking amazing.

Eating at a Kaiten Zushi place. Plates of sushi were floating around on boats in a miniature river. Surreal and awesome.

One day realising that I was speaking Japanese. People told me that this would happen to me, but I couldn't see how it would be possible. Yet, one day, I was speaking Japanese.

Playing with Japanese hand held hanabi(fireworks) in Odaiba.

Going for a Hanami(cherry blossom viewing) picnic with some friends. There were hundreds of people in the park, and some were old. There was a group of old people sitting near my friends, passing a karaoke machine around, singing old Japanese pop songs. I hate old people. I particularly hate Japanese old people. Fortunately I had a ghetto blaster, a cassette tape of The Teaches Of Peaches, and a samurai sword. It was a winning combination. I was able to play loud, semi-pornographic music, without anyone daring to look in my direction...