Exhaling: Barcamp LA 2 - Too much data!

Barcamp LA 2 is over.

I'm having a nice long exhale because I spent most of the day in a steel-boned corset, as part of my "presentation" as "Mistress Chi Chi, Organizational Dominatrix."

Points for Participation:
Beset by Tech Difficulties, Jillian and I perservere!

I presented - or "re-presented" the keynote slideshow I did at Barcamp LA 1 - as part of my evangelical duty to tell the peoples about David Allen's Gettting Things Done, aka GTD.  Unfortunately, there was no mini dv - vga dongle for my 12" Powerbook to connect to the projector.  In the scramble, I led the audience in a short visualization to bring their full attention to the present, and then guided them through the visualization of a completed and successful goal.  From there, we visualized the next physical actions from today that would help move them toward that visualized goal. 

Still no dongle.  I started to just hold my laptop and present without my slides, until of course, the geek logic set in - to simply convert my Keynote to a Powerpoint, download it to a USB flash drive - thanks to Rizwan Kassim for that! - then upload it to Jillian Tate's Toshiba laptop, which she successfully connected to the projector.  She played my slideshow from her machine and the show moved on.

My ever-vigilant colleague, Heathervescent, who deserves heaps of kudos and praises for all the energy she put into organizing and hosting Barcamp LA (as well as the Geek Dinners), interjected from behind the audience, and was the third point in a magical GTD triangle engaging everyone's attention, esp. away from the technical glitches.

I am basically an unpaid evangelist for GTD - and if you even get me started on how my life, or your life, can improve and benefit from it's implementation, I will get flushed, start talking fast, and something in me will just light up - because I LOVE IT.  Productivity is my PASSION.  But I will confess, I'm into productivity sprints, with periods of relaxed recuperation time - so even Mistress Chi Chi is not always at Inbox = zero - but when it's time to sprint, I run fast. GTD helps me to eliminate any drag coefficients.

Jillian Tate, also corset-clad, presented her Google Notebook hack for GTD.  In the audience there was some talk of what task management applications were out there, which were good, etc.
I've been looking for the best GTD task app since 2001!  "Back in the day" I used Outlook and my Sharp Zaurus PDA to run my tasks.  Until my Zaurus died.  And I was so very sad, as ridiculously sad as a person could be mourning a piece of beloved hardware.  I actually called the Zaurus "My Precious" and ran tasks from a simple to-do application which allowed me to create the context lists I needed. No, I did not sync My Precious.  That was my bad.

Since then I've been running GTD analog - which serves my fetish for beautiful blank unlined books.  I buy a new book, insert self-adhesive tabs for all the contexts along the sides, and use the book, and an appointment book to keep my GTD in order.  Sometimes I use index cards to capture info. 

I've tried so many of the task mgmt softwares - like Omni Outliner Pro with the Kinkless GTD hack, using the David Allen white paper to configure Outlook, as well as Entourage, I've tried Backpackit, Inbox by Midnight Beep, Hiveminder, etc.  I was really excited about the GTDGmail Plug-in, but sadly, that too, was cumbersome to implement and maintain. 

The notebook is the way to go. Or a simple PDA to-do list + Calendar. FOR NOW.  UNTIL! 

Jillian applied the David Allen white paper for configuring Outlook to the new GTD notebook - which is currently still in beta.  By signing in to Google, you can access your Google Calendar, Notebook, and Email - albeit not all on one page (soon, soon!).  The Notebook works just like it would if it were a paper notebook, but cooler, and web-based.  I like! I think I'm going to give it a try, even though I don't think you can SMS the Notebook (you can SMS data to your Calendar though, and of course, send yourself an email and then move it over to the Notebook contexts) - that's one of the things I liked about Hiveminder. 

Unfortunately, the wi-fi kept flaking out during Jillian's segment, so we couldn't see everything she wanted to present, but it still sparked a lively discussion.

Quality Convo-Cull

Mack Reed covered the entire event on LAVOICE.org - liveblogging the entire time.

DJ Steveboy and I had a great conversation about podcasting, and other shared interests.  He gave me one of his awesome Podrunner exercise-music CDs and I look forward to using it when I work out.  Steve is shaping up to be a pioneer on the frontiers of podcasting+3rd party music licensing.  Which is both cool, but also potentially vibekilling for anyone who makes money off of a podcast that has other people's music on it.

Lucas Gonze and I had a few companionable chats before he presented on the next general of Digital Album art - the way he proposes to package an album, with lots of cool stuff like album art, lyrics, guitar chords, outbound links to the artist's website, and the .mp3 of the music all in one digital package, like a .zip or an .hta is pretty cool.  I think I grokked it right?

Douglas Welch and I met at one of the Geek Dinners - and he took a lot of photos and presented on Podcasting.  Although I didn't attend his presentation, we did have a great conversation that inspired me to re-upload all of my podcasts and record more of them.  Douglas is one of the LA Podcasters, and has a kickass garden podcast enjoyed by green thumbs everywhere.  Thanks for the inspiration and the "small town" vibe, Douglas!

Tony Adam needs his Google-employed friend to fund their short films.  C'mon man.  Don't let the dream die!

Jennifer Fader - How funny, Jennifer works for my friend Michael Terpin, at Terpin Communications.  She also invented and runs the Terpin-sponsored Social Media Hour once a month, in Marina del Rey.  I hadn't met her until today! I liked her immediately, and can sense that her energy would be a welcome and valued addition to the invite-only "Board Meetings" held at Natura Day Spa.

Sponge Nebson - attended the GTD workshop and subsequently we chatted about Howard Bloom's book, The Lucifer Principle, the racism inherent in yellow and red sponges, GTD and Raelians.

Pete Mauro - is a self professed GTD-ninja!  We had a *moment* together expressing our shared desire for an elegant GTD app that would allow Calendar-sharing and Calendar-SMS as well as task-info sharing.  Someday. It's out there, Pete. Don't lose hope. I don't.

Kareem Mayan - always looks so relaxed and at home in himself.  No matter what hairstyle he's sporting. 

Jimmy Brayl - Not only did Jimmy take me for a hayride in one of the electric Zap-cars, we had some lovely chats both days, which really felt human, funny, ego-less and totally genuine.  His vision (and Dave's) for Little Radio Row is something I fully support and have no doubt they will accomplish. 

Jason Cosper - floated about, performing "hostly" duties. Mr. Preshrunk/Onosendai/Dreamhost set up the Barcamp LA Blog. Thanks, Jason. I miss the t-shirts.

Dave Bullock - took portraits of everyone, which can be seen on Flickr or on his site's photogallery.  I didn't get to stick around for his slideshow, but I'm sure it was a great contribution to wrapping up the evening.

Penelope Bullock is simply a gorgeous lady, and I enjoyed my chat with her about weddings, her current nursing program, marriage and life in general.  A truly gracious woman, and belated congratulations to her and Dave on their July wedding.  I can't wait to see those pics!

Red Bull Bonnie - Kudos for choosing Barcamp and knowing that Red Bull was definitely needed at the event. As it turns out, we're both SF > LA transplants, once again marvelling at the one-node-away connections.  Thanks for helping me lace up my corset so beautifully. 

In sum, a good weekend, and a successful knowledge-sharing info-orgy amongst the LA geekerati. 

BarCampLA

Comments

[Lucas]

Nicely said, Carmen.

I can't believe you Got That Done already.

[Douglas E. Welch]

Thanks for the kind words, Carmen! It was great talking and hanging out at BarCamp.

Be well! -- Douglas

[Jennifer Fader]

The feeling is entirely mutual and I'm looking forward to an upcoming mindmeld. Shay (my other half) and I are dazzled in the halo of meeting fellow thinkers at barcamp and the geek dinners. Hooray!

[Sponge Nebson]

Hey, thanks for introducing me to GTD! I recently headed on over to "flickr", searched for "GTD" and found THIS FLOWCHART
After gazing at it for a few minutes, I was struck by something. IT HANDLES EVERYTHING! It ALL goes IN, and gets PROCESSED. It actually made me feel relaxed and happy, just looking at it. I downloaded the Audiobook from Audible.com and am in the process of listening to it. My house has a large empty room next to my office. I now call this room "IN." I'm in the process of going through my house and putting everything that needs to be dealt with in that one room. Also, whenever I have a thought about something I need to do, I write it down on a sheet of paper and put it in a box, which then goes in my "IN" room. I'll be finished collecting soon, and hopefully by then I'll have finished listening to the audiobook as well. This is exciting! Thanks again!