This months SuperMondays was a deviation from the usual format; rather than speaker followed by Q&A the event was run in a similar format to Barcamp. This meant that there were several simultaneous conversations ongoing at any one time with attendees floating between discussions and chipping in as appropriate.
For my part the first talk I attended was on cloud computing, which regular readers will know is something I’ve spent some time looking at recently. General consensus was that cloud may be the future, but no one was willing to place their critical data in the cloud just yet.
Second up was a discussion on encryption. This discussion started slowly, whilst there were several people present, most had some interest in encryption and had wanted to learn more from those more knowledgeable. Basic outcome: encryption is something you want to be doing for critical data.
Third and final discussion I got to was a comparison of open vs closed source development. In all honesty I was expecting an argument, with plenty of MS bashing all around. The discussion was remarkably calm and impartial, with a general consensus of ‘both have their place depending on circumstances’.
Some of the other talks included web development frameworks, a demo of Google Wave and a discussion of requirements for new start-ups.
Overall I think the event worked well with some interesting discussions but I do think I prefer the more traditional format. At least from the talks I attended I don’t think those new to a topic would have walked away with any usable information, likewise the ‘knowledgeable’ attendees likely didn’t hear anything to change their opinions or beliefs.
There were some interesting announcements, including that which can’t be discussed (hint: if you want the inside scoop, some stuff gets announce at SuperMondays events before getting released in public domain, shhh!).
- SuperChristmas has now been organised in partnership with other local networking groups, December 17th for all those in need of additional festivities.
- North East Blog Directory: as part of SuperMondays the group is compiling a list of local technical blogs.
- SuperMondays Google Groups: The Google Groups section for SuperMondays is starting to pick up pace. If you want to keep upto date with the group, suggest a topic of generally discuss the event sign up and join in.
That’s all for this month, as usual thanks for a good night and see you all at the next one.
— Andrew Waite