I attended this weekend the first time at a BarCamp and I was really impressed by the top organization of the BarCamp Senza Confini 08 in Klagenfurt . Even there were just a few session-slots booked before the conference started, almost every slot got filled with content at the end of the day. I was surprised how easy the interaction between the organizers and the participants worked out and how fast this process developed during the morning sessions.

It seems that the Austrian bloggers are very focused on making money with their blogs. Blogs are not only used for authentic communication but also to a very high level as information filters like traditional media. At the sessions where I had been almost everyone was a semi-professional blogger and already had some kind of sponsoring deal or revenue source. When it comes to motivation it looked like that the bloggers are more driven by the opportunity to make money then intrinsic motives.

My conclusion is that BarCamps are a cool and easy to set up conference format. But I don’t think I will attend at another Web2.0 BarCamp – always the same topics, companies and stories. The second thing is that austrian bloggers would probably do everything for money and so it should be quite easy and cheap for agencies and companies to buy clicks, attention, content or whatever you are looking for.

Finally I will participate tomorrow at the Barcamp Senza Confini in Klagenfurt. I’m curious about this conference format and the topics of technology, web 2.0 and social media. Let’s see what’s up in Austria, because I got the feeling that up till now there wasn’t a lot going on. The list of participants is loaded and I’m motivated so let’s see what happens tomorrow.

See you in Klagenfurt

Like in the last 2 years the lift conference (challenges and opportunities of technology in society) takes place in Geneva (Switzerland) from the 6.-8. of February 2008. I’m a bit angry at myself that I was to lazy to apply for the GRS Fellowship, anyway congratulations to Bernhard Schindlholzer who got one fellowship.

In my opinion the concept of the conference looks really interesting with a mix of barcamp, networking and conference. The presentations about user experience of Genevieve Bell, Younghee Jung and Paul Dourish sound really interesting and I would like know if Holme Friebe has something new to add about cooperation and collaborative work?

Let’s see, maybe I will take some days off and go the Geneva.

On the 15th of May 2008 the Interactive Agency SinnerSchrader will host the Next08 Conference again in Hamburg (Germany). The topic of the conference is “get realtime: communication and interaction between brands and customers are getting faster and faster, especially in the web.” I think it’s real interesting how time is passing by so fast nowadays. For example two years ago almost nobody in Europe was on Facebook and when they launched their commercial services some weeks ago, I signed up as a fan of PSFK within 24 hours! But why? Users are consuming information faster and faster but the really innovative brands are also delivering content in that same speed. I had become a fan because I like PSFK and they gave me the chance to participate, even before I have really realized that this opportunity exists.

Next08 already announced some of their speakers for the next year, you can take a look at their blog.I was really impressed when I checked out some of the videos of Next07 on Sevenload.de and iTunes, in my opinion they had a really good speaker list last year. One of my favorites was Martin Oetting, which I could meet some weeks ago at a Haslinger,Keck Event in Linz (Austria).

Link: sevenload.com

So let’s see who else will come next may and how much they charge for tix? Maybe see you in May in Hamburg. If you are looking for more details about Next08 join the Facebook Group.