Opera on iCamp-2008. Results
From July 31 to August 4, the iCamp-2008 non - conference took place in the Moscow region, and more precisely, 150 kilometers from the capital, in the Kaluga region, in which representatives of Opera Software, including David Storey, Alexey Feldgendler and Ilya Shpankov, took part (ie - me) The general impression can be expressed in one word - SUPER !!!, but first of all, a few explanations of what iCamp is and why it is needed.
So, iCamp is the first informal meeting of well-known, little-known and completely unknown representatives of Runet, founders of unusual start-ups and bloggers, organizers of new projects and just people who want to discuss certain issues concerning the future of the Internet. The name of the event reflects its format - BarCamp . The founder of this now very fashionable format of communication in the world of representatives of the Internet community is Tim O'Reilly, who proposed holding informal meetings in 2005 (the so-called “non-conferences”) according to this scheme: no pre-approved program, all participants organize discussions during the meeting discussions, as well as take on various technical and domestic issues. In other words - each makes a feasible contribution to the overall organization, while still having time to debate on topics of interest. The organizers of iCamp did not completely copy this format, putting some of the maintenance concerns on the sponsors, providing organized catering and entertainment, and the participants were able to pay more attention to the meetings and presentations themselves.
This very interesting event took place in the cultural and educational center Etnomir , which can be said about. A miniature replica of our world is built on an area of ​​several hectares, where all nations are represented by dwellings typical of different cultures. At the moment, the Russian Compound and Siberian Village have already been built, installed with a couple of dozen yurts and about a dozen Native American tipis. The remaining buildings are still in the plans - this center exists only a couple of years. But now Ethnomir is of particular interest to tourists: where else can the opportunity to live in real Indian dwellings or yurts of Central Asia? However, planning this trip and considering that David Storey will be with us, who is not accustomed to Russian exotic (this is his first visit to Russia), we decided to limit ourselves to the Siberian house — after all, this is at least a little closer to the standard housing. In actual fact, everything turned out to be even better: the “typical” Siberian houses turned out to be absolutely atypical octagonal log houses, equipped with a euro-bathroom (including a bath) which is quite atypical for a Siberian village and one window instead of the cut off top of this multifaceted pyramid.
')
However, livability in the midst of a clean field is not the main thing, the iCamp atmosphere created by the organizers and participants of the event is much more important. And this atmosphere, it should be noted, simply charges with energy and positive emotions for a very long time. In this case, in my opinion, there were three main components that turned iCamp into a truly unique and inimitable event. And the first (perhaps the main) of them is the organizers themselves. The first Russian iCamp was conceived and implemented by the Social Design Corporation with the organizational support of the Directorate of the innovative educational program of MGIMO (U) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and the Center for Internet Policy of MGIMO. However, these names almost do not speak about anything: in fact, it is easier to say that the organizers of this non-conference are amazing people who managed to gather almost the entire color of the runet in a limited space, provide technical and domestic amenities, and create a unique atmosphere of friendly and subtle IT humor.
By the way, it’s worth mentioning the technical side. Imagine a clean middle field in which each platform for performances is equipped with presentation equipment, supplied with drinking water, sound equipment, while almost the entire area of ​​the camp is covered by a wireless WiFi network with Internet access via satellite. Against this techno-abundance, the dining room's menu and possible weather disasters simply lose their relevance: when satellite Internet is available in every yurt or tent, the life of IT people boils under any external conditions. Add to this nightly fresh draft beer and you can understand that the organizers of iCamp managed to build a real paradise for IT people in real life. However, all this well-being would not have lasted even an hour, if not for the second component of success - the Help Team.
Without these people, some of whom were from among the organizers, and some from voluntary assistants, iCamp would have collapsed on the very first day. To describe the power of these people, one example is enough: Alexei Komarov (among aikempers - Lech, and, by the way, a fan of Opera) came to Etnomir to participate in the Help Team from Krasnogorsk ... on a bicycle! One can guess that for such people there are no impossible tasks. It seems, even if it was necessary to find water on Mars - they would have done it in an hour. Maximum - for one and a half. A spoon with cooled porridge in one hand and a red-hot walkie-talkie in the other, sleep three hours a day, kilometers of hiking routes through the camp every day, an almost instant solution of dozens of ordinary and hundreds of unforeseen problems arising during the life of iCamp, and at the same time iron composure, friendliness and respectful communication with ikemperi of any condition is a real portrait of the representative of the Help Team. However, much better about the conditions of their work is the fact that almost from the first day of iCamp the name of the team was transformed into an unofficial “Hell Team”, which more closely corresponded to the amount of hellish work performed daily by all the “helpers”.
And the third component of iCamp success is the participants themselves. By chance or due to a wise decision, in principle, it does not matter, the organizers chose a site quite distant from the capital, thanks to which only those who really knew why he needed it and what he would do here came to the conference. There was no trace of a traditional conference ballast - only the best representatives of Runet, the organizers of startups and famous bloggers. It is not difficult to guess that extraordinary personalities gathered in one place at one time will generate a nontrivial atmosphere that cannot be achieved at any other events. And by combining all three components, we will get a rough idea of ​​what was happening on iCamp and how cool it was. Approximate - because without personal presence and direct participation it is impossible to feel that unique spirit of ikemperstvo, which turned the non-conference into a significant event for the whole RuNet (by the way, though everything ended, new visitors continue to register on the iCamp website every day iCamp-2009).
Now it's time to tell what we, the operts, did on iCamp. The day of our arrival in Ethnomir is July 31, but the actual transfer from Moscow to the place of deployment took place towards the evening: in the morning we had other events planned. After breakfast, Alexey and David went to buy more prizes for the competition held by Opera Software within the framework of iCamp, and I stayed at the hotel to eliminate the consequences of the work of my crooked handles: after installing the Opera browser on the device purchased the day before and trying to clean up the traces of their activities (damn, how many I said to myself: do not hurt - do not touch!) The operating system refused to boot. All these manipulations were done at night, upon returning from a meeting with Opera users (see previous article), so I found it most prudent to leave the solution to the problem for the morning (Russian proverbs are a wise thing). In the time it took my colleagues to purchase the missing prize in the morning of the 31st, I managed to restore the system, therefore, with a happy mood, having learned about the existence of the evening bus to Etnomir, we went to show David Moscow: after all, it was his first visit to Russia and we could not deprive him of the opportunity to personally inspect at least Red Square.
As usual, Opera representatives do not have a large supply of free time, so the entire cultural program often comes down to a walk through Red Square and a visit to St. Basil’s Cathedral - a similar route was chosen for David. After a cursory examination of the main Russian sights, we rushed to the hotel at a gallop, because time was running out. However, taking the things and getting to the bus stop, we found that we still have twenty minutes left, for which we managed to buy in the nearest “Yolkah-Palki” pies and kvass on the track. Everything, so to speak, in purely Russian traditions. Finally, everything was settled and we went to our destination.
Two hours later, we were unloaded at the edge of the field near the building of the ethnomir’s canteen. And only then I realized that I had to. The fact is that by the time I arrived at iCamp, my luggage was already a figure of about 50 kg, and looking around the neighborhood, I realized that it would take a long time to drag the whole economy. In total, our “Siberian house” needed to go 200-300 meters along the boardwalk. My thirty-five-kilogram suitcase, full of opera t-shirts, was equipped with wheels, but Chinese designers didn’t assume that this bulky plastic case would have to be rolled on boards, not always tightly adjacent to each other. Plus, completely finished off the step transitions between the platforms. In general, being in front of the door of the house I was already completely inoperative. However, the bad is forgotten quickly, and the “Benevolent Party”, arranged by the organizers for the already arrived aikempers, made the memory of all the memories of hardships and deprivations pass away from my head. There was only a vigorous thought that I was not taking a single T-shirt back - the second great transition could be the last.
August 1 began the first day of work iCamp. On this day, we planned the first event - a story about what Opera Software is doing in terms of developing new technologies for the Internet of the future. Everything went quite well: there were many questions, especially after the demonstration of real examples of use, for example, SVG instead of Flash or Silverlight. Also of great interest was the story of Dragonfly - the possibility of developing web applications for mobile devices seemed tempting to many. During the distribution of T-shirts, one interesting point came to light: it turned out that female models are in higher demand than I thought at first. As a result, I had to make an extra trip to the house for the next portion of T-shirts for the ladies.
On the second day, we did not conduct our own events, being content to participate in the work of other sections. Particularly useful was the discussion with representatives of the Russian Livejournal - after a brief dialogue, they recognized that there were some deficiencies in LiveJournal, thanks to which Opera users cannot use all the functions of this popular blog service. They promised to fix it - we will wait. In the remaining half a day, two interesting things happened: firstly, in one of the rooms, a piano was discovered that caused our evening gatherings in this particular place for vocal exercises (David, by the way, invited me to their musical group, organized in the company. I I agree, but the group is in Norway, and I am in E-Burg. Nestykovochka ...), and secondly, David realized a long-standing dream and rode a dog sled: several cute blue-eyed creatures live under the common name in Ethnomir "Huskies" - they drove to borudovannyh wheels sleigh guest from sunny Norway on the Russian off-road.
On the third day, we had another event planned to tell about those who did not get in for the first time, and we also intended to give long-awaited prizes to the participants of the competition. As already experienced aykempers, we selected for ourselves the best platform in advance, and ... received in full for our “military trick”. After lunch, the rehearsal of the musical groups that came to the final concert began, and the stage was right in front of our platform, and therefore we had to shout down the decibels of the speakers for an hour. We must again pay tribute to the Help Team: they helped to quickly move the continuation of the meeting to another platform. Ironically, it was from that time that the rehearsal of the musicians ceased.
Anyway, the prizes were awarded. I will not go into the technical details of the submitted work - I think a little later, Alexey will more professionally announce the winners' work, and I can only say that all the applicants were present at the meeting personally, and a new Nokia smartphone (third place) acted as prizes, Unusual children's XO laptop from the OLPC project and the ASUS EeePC subnotebook with the operating system preinstalled from the Russian branch of Mandriva.ru. Naturally, Opera has already been installed on all devices. In general, the prizes are quite successful, which was confirmed by their undisguised joy all awarded.
In this, in fact, the active part of iCamp was completed: in the evening, farewell events and a grandiose concert of the very musicians who interfered in the afternoon were held. Having listened to their compositions in a different setting, we had to forget the old grievances: the guys played just great, for which they thank you so much. The next day we made our way back across the field to the bus stop, but the empty suitcase did not cause any “personal dislike” and even somehow cheerfully got the wheels on the boards, not between them. In fact, it was sad to say goodbye to the already made good friends of ikemps: the amazing atmosphere created over the course of three days gradually melted away, because each aikemper took her part with him. It only remains to hope that we will be able to save these pieces until next year, when the next iCamp-2009 time comes, then we will be able to recreate the atmosphere of non-conference again by combining our pieces with each other.
Photo Albums
Photo album of the official iCamp photographer
David Story Photo Album
My photo album
Videos
Anthem iCamp (Live)
Compilation of videos from iCamp-2008
News source
So, iCamp is the first informal meeting of well-known, little-known and completely unknown representatives of Runet, founders of unusual start-ups and bloggers, organizers of new projects and just people who want to discuss certain issues concerning the future of the Internet. The name of the event reflects its format - BarCamp . The founder of this now very fashionable format of communication in the world of representatives of the Internet community is Tim O'Reilly, who proposed holding informal meetings in 2005 (the so-called “non-conferences”) according to this scheme: no pre-approved program, all participants organize discussions during the meeting discussions, as well as take on various technical and domestic issues. In other words - each makes a feasible contribution to the overall organization, while still having time to debate on topics of interest. The organizers of iCamp did not completely copy this format, putting some of the maintenance concerns on the sponsors, providing organized catering and entertainment, and the participants were able to pay more attention to the meetings and presentations themselves.
This very interesting event took place in the cultural and educational center Etnomir , which can be said about. A miniature replica of our world is built on an area of ​​several hectares, where all nations are represented by dwellings typical of different cultures. At the moment, the Russian Compound and Siberian Village have already been built, installed with a couple of dozen yurts and about a dozen Native American tipis. The remaining buildings are still in the plans - this center exists only a couple of years. But now Ethnomir is of particular interest to tourists: where else can the opportunity to live in real Indian dwellings or yurts of Central Asia? However, planning this trip and considering that David Storey will be with us, who is not accustomed to Russian exotic (this is his first visit to Russia), we decided to limit ourselves to the Siberian house — after all, this is at least a little closer to the standard housing. In actual fact, everything turned out to be even better: the “typical” Siberian houses turned out to be absolutely atypical octagonal log houses, equipped with a euro-bathroom (including a bath) which is quite atypical for a Siberian village and one window instead of the cut off top of this multifaceted pyramid.
')
However, livability in the midst of a clean field is not the main thing, the iCamp atmosphere created by the organizers and participants of the event is much more important. And this atmosphere, it should be noted, simply charges with energy and positive emotions for a very long time. In this case, in my opinion, there were three main components that turned iCamp into a truly unique and inimitable event. And the first (perhaps the main) of them is the organizers themselves. The first Russian iCamp was conceived and implemented by the Social Design Corporation with the organizational support of the Directorate of the innovative educational program of MGIMO (U) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and the Center for Internet Policy of MGIMO. However, these names almost do not speak about anything: in fact, it is easier to say that the organizers of this non-conference are amazing people who managed to gather almost the entire color of the runet in a limited space, provide technical and domestic amenities, and create a unique atmosphere of friendly and subtle IT humor.
By the way, it’s worth mentioning the technical side. Imagine a clean middle field in which each platform for performances is equipped with presentation equipment, supplied with drinking water, sound equipment, while almost the entire area of ​​the camp is covered by a wireless WiFi network with Internet access via satellite. Against this techno-abundance, the dining room's menu and possible weather disasters simply lose their relevance: when satellite Internet is available in every yurt or tent, the life of IT people boils under any external conditions. Add to this nightly fresh draft beer and you can understand that the organizers of iCamp managed to build a real paradise for IT people in real life. However, all this well-being would not have lasted even an hour, if not for the second component of success - the Help Team.
Without these people, some of whom were from among the organizers, and some from voluntary assistants, iCamp would have collapsed on the very first day. To describe the power of these people, one example is enough: Alexei Komarov (among aikempers - Lech, and, by the way, a fan of Opera) came to Etnomir to participate in the Help Team from Krasnogorsk ... on a bicycle! One can guess that for such people there are no impossible tasks. It seems, even if it was necessary to find water on Mars - they would have done it in an hour. Maximum - for one and a half. A spoon with cooled porridge in one hand and a red-hot walkie-talkie in the other, sleep three hours a day, kilometers of hiking routes through the camp every day, an almost instant solution of dozens of ordinary and hundreds of unforeseen problems arising during the life of iCamp, and at the same time iron composure, friendliness and respectful communication with ikemperi of any condition is a real portrait of the representative of the Help Team. However, much better about the conditions of their work is the fact that almost from the first day of iCamp the name of the team was transformed into an unofficial “Hell Team”, which more closely corresponded to the amount of hellish work performed daily by all the “helpers”.
And the third component of iCamp success is the participants themselves. By chance or due to a wise decision, in principle, it does not matter, the organizers chose a site quite distant from the capital, thanks to which only those who really knew why he needed it and what he would do here came to the conference. There was no trace of a traditional conference ballast - only the best representatives of Runet, the organizers of startups and famous bloggers. It is not difficult to guess that extraordinary personalities gathered in one place at one time will generate a nontrivial atmosphere that cannot be achieved at any other events. And by combining all three components, we will get a rough idea of ​​what was happening on iCamp and how cool it was. Approximate - because without personal presence and direct participation it is impossible to feel that unique spirit of ikemperstvo, which turned the non-conference into a significant event for the whole RuNet (by the way, though everything ended, new visitors continue to register on the iCamp website every day iCamp-2009).
Now it's time to tell what we, the operts, did on iCamp. The day of our arrival in Ethnomir is July 31, but the actual transfer from Moscow to the place of deployment took place towards the evening: in the morning we had other events planned. After breakfast, Alexey and David went to buy more prizes for the competition held by Opera Software within the framework of iCamp, and I stayed at the hotel to eliminate the consequences of the work of my crooked handles: after installing the Opera browser on the device purchased the day before and trying to clean up the traces of their activities (damn, how many I said to myself: do not hurt - do not touch!) The operating system refused to boot. All these manipulations were done at night, upon returning from a meeting with Opera users (see previous article), so I found it most prudent to leave the solution to the problem for the morning (Russian proverbs are a wise thing). In the time it took my colleagues to purchase the missing prize in the morning of the 31st, I managed to restore the system, therefore, with a happy mood, having learned about the existence of the evening bus to Etnomir, we went to show David Moscow: after all, it was his first visit to Russia and we could not deprive him of the opportunity to personally inspect at least Red Square.
As usual, Opera representatives do not have a large supply of free time, so the entire cultural program often comes down to a walk through Red Square and a visit to St. Basil’s Cathedral - a similar route was chosen for David. After a cursory examination of the main Russian sights, we rushed to the hotel at a gallop, because time was running out. However, taking the things and getting to the bus stop, we found that we still have twenty minutes left, for which we managed to buy in the nearest “Yolkah-Palki” pies and kvass on the track. Everything, so to speak, in purely Russian traditions. Finally, everything was settled and we went to our destination.
Two hours later, we were unloaded at the edge of the field near the building of the ethnomir’s canteen. And only then I realized that I had to. The fact is that by the time I arrived at iCamp, my luggage was already a figure of about 50 kg, and looking around the neighborhood, I realized that it would take a long time to drag the whole economy. In total, our “Siberian house” needed to go 200-300 meters along the boardwalk. My thirty-five-kilogram suitcase, full of opera t-shirts, was equipped with wheels, but Chinese designers didn’t assume that this bulky plastic case would have to be rolled on boards, not always tightly adjacent to each other. Plus, completely finished off the step transitions between the platforms. In general, being in front of the door of the house I was already completely inoperative. However, the bad is forgotten quickly, and the “Benevolent Party”, arranged by the organizers for the already arrived aikempers, made the memory of all the memories of hardships and deprivations pass away from my head. There was only a vigorous thought that I was not taking a single T-shirt back - the second great transition could be the last.
August 1 began the first day of work iCamp. On this day, we planned the first event - a story about what Opera Software is doing in terms of developing new technologies for the Internet of the future. Everything went quite well: there were many questions, especially after the demonstration of real examples of use, for example, SVG instead of Flash or Silverlight. Also of great interest was the story of Dragonfly - the possibility of developing web applications for mobile devices seemed tempting to many. During the distribution of T-shirts, one interesting point came to light: it turned out that female models are in higher demand than I thought at first. As a result, I had to make an extra trip to the house for the next portion of T-shirts for the ladies.
On the second day, we did not conduct our own events, being content to participate in the work of other sections. Particularly useful was the discussion with representatives of the Russian Livejournal - after a brief dialogue, they recognized that there were some deficiencies in LiveJournal, thanks to which Opera users cannot use all the functions of this popular blog service. They promised to fix it - we will wait. In the remaining half a day, two interesting things happened: firstly, in one of the rooms, a piano was discovered that caused our evening gatherings in this particular place for vocal exercises (David, by the way, invited me to their musical group, organized in the company. I I agree, but the group is in Norway, and I am in E-Burg. Nestykovochka ...), and secondly, David realized a long-standing dream and rode a dog sled: several cute blue-eyed creatures live under the common name in Ethnomir "Huskies" - they drove to borudovannyh wheels sleigh guest from sunny Norway on the Russian off-road.
On the third day, we had another event planned to tell about those who did not get in for the first time, and we also intended to give long-awaited prizes to the participants of the competition. As already experienced aykempers, we selected for ourselves the best platform in advance, and ... received in full for our “military trick”. After lunch, the rehearsal of the musical groups that came to the final concert began, and the stage was right in front of our platform, and therefore we had to shout down the decibels of the speakers for an hour. We must again pay tribute to the Help Team: they helped to quickly move the continuation of the meeting to another platform. Ironically, it was from that time that the rehearsal of the musicians ceased.
Anyway, the prizes were awarded. I will not go into the technical details of the submitted work - I think a little later, Alexey will more professionally announce the winners' work, and I can only say that all the applicants were present at the meeting personally, and a new Nokia smartphone (third place) acted as prizes, Unusual children's XO laptop from the OLPC project and the ASUS EeePC subnotebook with the operating system preinstalled from the Russian branch of Mandriva.ru. Naturally, Opera has already been installed on all devices. In general, the prizes are quite successful, which was confirmed by their undisguised joy all awarded.
In this, in fact, the active part of iCamp was completed: in the evening, farewell events and a grandiose concert of the very musicians who interfered in the afternoon were held. Having listened to their compositions in a different setting, we had to forget the old grievances: the guys played just great, for which they thank you so much. The next day we made our way back across the field to the bus stop, but the empty suitcase did not cause any “personal dislike” and even somehow cheerfully got the wheels on the boards, not between them. In fact, it was sad to say goodbye to the already made good friends of ikemps: the amazing atmosphere created over the course of three days gradually melted away, because each aikemper took her part with him. It only remains to hope that we will be able to save these pieces until next year, when the next iCamp-2009 time comes, then we will be able to recreate the atmosphere of non-conference again by combining our pieces with each other.
Photo Albums
Photo album of the official iCamp photographer
David Story Photo Album
My photo album
Videos
Anthem iCamp (Live)
Compilation of videos from iCamp-2008
News source
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/30800/
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