Category Archive

The debate over whether there should be more women speakers in our industry was reignited by Eric Meyer’s recent post where he said “as a conference organizer, I don’t care about diversity.” This set off what is apparently called a blogostorm, with lots of passionate reactions.

I would need to know a lot more about the diversity within the field, and the relative talent available, before I could offer a useful opinion, but the dynamics of the whole thing seemed very familiar. Then I realized: it’s the same dynamic as a high school dance.

If you’ve since blocked these experiences out, let me take you back there a moment. The DJ’s spinning “White Lines,” you’re goofing around in a circle with your friends, showing off that you know all the words (though you have only the most abstract idea of what they might mean). Then “Careless Whisper” comes on. Some people are secretly excited, because it’s an excuse to get closer to what (or whom) they were after all along. Other people dread these moments, because of the ball of nerves and fear that strikes the pit of their stomach, but feel they ought to take part anyway. Whatever their reaction, the code of conduct is the same. Girls are meant to make themselves as appealing as possible, and wait to be asked. Boys are meant to ask, and if they are turned down, keeping asking around until someone says ‘yes’.

Tantek comments, “One of the biggest complaints I hear/read is, why aren’t people inviting me to speak?..But the biggest response to those that are waiting for invites is - why are you being so passive?”. For me, at least, it’s because I didn’t know we were meant to keep asking until someone said yes! Isn’t it pushy or rude or inappropriate or something? Apparently it isn’t, but if you didn’t know what the code of conduct was, I think your assumption might be influenced by the way you were expected to behave in those socially formative years.

I never made it to prom. I figured out that living rooms were much more fun to have dance sessions in, because you chose the tunes, you could jump on the couch, and you didn’t have to wear stupid shoes. If conference rosters are the new homecoming courts, Meri’s and Tara’s parties are looking like a lot more fun!

We geeks are social. Ideas are everything, and we love to share them, riff on them, bounce them off the ceiling until we can make out that crack that we can just jimmy it through. And there’s nothing more deflating than explaining an idea you’re really excited about and being met with a blank face and the comment, “You’re so weird.”

We’re better together, and we’re becoming more aware of this.

We are also independent. We make enough money that we don’t need to be anyone’s slave. We have less respect for boundaries, virtual or geographical. We know that our limits are in our minds, so we make a habit of pushing these. Some of us have figured out the value of a change of context to spur a crucial change in perspective.

Coworking

Coworking aims to create a collaborative environment for freelancers and independents. The idea is to provide a place for like-minded people to be in an atmosphere specifically designed to be conducive to productivity and creativity. Coworking spaces are springing up all over, mostly in cities with thriving techie communities.

Geek nomadism

The geek nomad idea is based on the twin observations that a change of scenery can be great for the brain, and that there are plenty of places in the world that are beautiful, cheap, and well-connected (to the internet, anyway). If you are working on a mid- to long-term project, or building that app for your start-up, why not go off somewhere beautiful and cheap to do it? You’d need to have established a good relationship with your client or be working for yourself, but with skype and a fast connection, why not?

What they have to offer each other

Coworking and geek nomadism have a lot to offer each other:

Coworking is a great idea, but not always cost-effective. It can cost you hundreds of dollars or pounds a month. For that same money, you can live like a king somewhere exotic and beautiful, and still get your work done.

Geek nomadism is adventurous, but it would take quite a lot of discipline to impose enough structure on yourself to be as productive as you would in an office in your city of normal residence. And what if everyone you’re surrounded by is in holiday or gap year mode? Or what if you’re completely on your own, with no one to bounce ideas off of or help you stay focussed or get unstuck?

Knowing you can spend your time in a collaborative environment devoted to productivity definitely increases your chances of making geek nomadism work.

Other potential benefits

One great feature of geek nomadism for freelancers is its tax advantages. If you’re not resident in any country for more than 6 months, then you can see real savings. (Sorry, but I can’t do more than generalize here because it is such a broad topic.) This is especially good if you’re trying to keep expenses down so that you don’t need to look for VC money. In fact, if you let out (lease) your house or flat, you could be making money.

American businesses are notoriously stingy with vacation time, but working from home is becoming more accepted. Working from the Caribbean would be a bit easier to get your boss to accept if you can guarantee him that you’ll be working in a semi-conventional office, not some dodgy internet café. This way, you could still get your sun and your change of scenery, even if you don’t have the vacation time available. This would be ideal for those projects where you need to hide away from your coworkers’ interruptions anyway.

Coworking spaces can function as a local hub, full of people who have been there a month or two and really know the area. This knowledge can be passed on as people leave and new people come in. You won’t need to be spending time figuring out the logistics of the place, like where to sleep, drink, or skype. You can spend the time instead on your work, and know that you’ll still be able to find someone interesting to hang out with once it’s playtime.

Part of the idea behind coworking is the incubator effect. How much would this be magnified in a tropical environment?

This is still a new idea, sparked by Simon’s comment on my geek clustering post and his post on the incubator effect.

I’d love to know what you guys think of coworking abroad!

Technorati tags: barcamplondon2, geek nomad

If you haven’t come across the term before, barCamp is “an international network of unconferences“. The idea is that getting a group of interesting and interested people together in a relaxed and open environment will spur great ideas and good fun.

I went to barCampLondon2 last weekend to meet interesting people, and to be inspired. Here are a few highlights.

I met:

• A mechanical engineer, who is a genius at putting together LED arrangements to function as both input and output devices. He came to hear ideas about what people would like to see built, and how to best enable programmers to have ways of making his LED toys do more cool stuff.
• A white-haired Belgian doctor, who is looking for the best open source platform to get his project on virtual health care off the ground.
• A geek nomad, who has given up his permanent residence for the last few years to live in places that are beautiful and cheap, and have good connectivity. He encourages other people to consider doing the same, because as long as you’re online, does it matter that much where you are? He’s thinking about developing a site to let geeks know where other geeks are clustered, since we’ve all gotten a bit social lately, haven’t we?
• My first bona fide conference junkie. He was very entertaining.

I saw:

• Tom Coates speak on social software. I’m a bit burnt out on this topic at the moment, but his speaking style was so inspiring that immediately afterwards, I went downstairs and rewrote my presentation.
• An absolutely hilarious game called delicious salted, which is a variant of Pecha Kucha that involves a quick jaunt through your last 20 delicious links. Each site that you’ve bookmarked comes on screen for 20 seconds, and you have to explain why you chose to bookmark that site. Try it yourself - it’s very revealing!

I wish I hadn’t missed:

• A very clever way of using web applications like gMail, Google calendar, and flickr offline.
• The best-named mash-up ever - Flashr.
• An easy way of skipping over those annoying sign up forms (OpenID).

I hid:

• In the back of the improv workshop given by James Aylett. This, of course, means I’m going to have to sign myself up for an improv class now.

I presented:

• A process to get yourself into the Zone at work. I’m thinking of rewriting this as a blog post, because it’s kind of annoying to have to click through it! I was terrified at the time, having never done anything like that before. But fortunately it was a meaty presentation, so despite a complete lack of style in my delivery, I got a fairly positive response.

I noticed:

• A whole lotta ladies were there, for a geek gathering. We even had a queue in the loo!

All in all, it was a great weekend. If I go next time, I’ll be sure to do my presentation on Saturday, so that I can stay up all night playing Werewolf!