Last week the blogosphere was alive with taking about who was going to Foocamp and who had been invited and who had not and who was entitled to go because they are oh so special and how could Tim O'Reilly just not see that.
The post that struck me most was Robert Scoble's post describing that while he was envious of those who got to go, he was glad that he had gotten to attend in previous years and wished the best for this year's attendees. This was a thoughtful, mature, and honest response. Subscribed!(1)
Fear, not, Scoble. You are not alone. I, too, was not invited to Foocamp this year.
Now who am I and why should I be invited to Foocamp, my readership of none thinks. Ahem, that is, well, that's the problem. It's not like I don't do interesting things. I work for one of those hip(2) Web 2.0 startups that build shiny little things on everyone's favorite Ruby on Rails framework, with oodles of tags, full of ajaxian love and goodness, brimming with more Web services and RSS feeds than you can shake a stick at.
What I haven't been as good at is becoming known outside of my little circle of coworkers, being involved with the community, giving back ideas and sharing experiences, helping others better themselves.
And so, although I haven't been Foocamp before and there's a good chance that I might never be invited (there are just so many talented people out there), I would like to try to spend the next year, as Scoble might say, "living the Foocamp life". That is, I would like to try to become the kind of person who would fit in well at a gathering like that.
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(1) "Subscribed!" is apparently what you are supposed to write when you want a blogger to know that you were so impressed by an entry that you added the blog to the ever growing list of blogs that you follow. Not yet being a big believer in RSS, however, I didn't have a good feed reader handy at the time. Yes, Firefox and Safari both have built in RSS support but the interface seems clumsy to me. Anyway, the point is I had to download a feed reader first and then subscribe. It's about time I got into RSS a little more seriously. After all, all the cool kids are doing it these days, so why shouldn't I?
(2) Daniel would tell me that the correct term is "hep". Now, Daniel is a bona fide rock star and a much cooler cat than I could ever hope to be, so I guess I believe him. Still, it sounds more like some sort of social disease to me. Oh, and I don't usually refer to people as "cats", but this weekend VH1 Classic had Woodstock movies on constant rotation which left me in a bit of a mood.
