Fun at FOO

The last time I camped on a lawn was when I was 9. My best friend and I slept in a tent in our back yard and my mom even hooked us up with an extension cord, popcorn and a small television set. In some ways FOO wasn't so different. It was "camping" but there were lots of people laptopping or on cell phones or projecting presentations on with overheads in conference rooms at O'Reilly. It was cool, though. I talked to a man who said he invented a laptop powered by bike pedals, which is now being used in developing countries; a very cool guy (who was there with his wife and two month old baby) who does really interesting things with fire; and somehow convinced a total stranger to help me put up my impossible tent. I developed a mini-crush on the guys from Digg and went to both their presentations because I'm into the whole democratization of news thing…and because I dugg them. Unfortunately I missed out on getting a Chumby.

I also (as usual), learned a lot from danah boyd who is constantly researching teens and technology for an academic book on the subject. I chimed in during a session on Teenage Misbehaving where some interesting stuff was said — like I didn't realize teens in Seattle use Microsoft's IM instead of AIM, which is the IM of choice for teens everywhere else.

Packing for Hawaii…Back after Labor Day.

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