As a blogger, I had registered for BarCamp3, which is today and tomorrow (31st March and 1st April) at IIM-B, on Bannerghatta Road; but I chickened out at the last minute at the thought of meeting a lot of Zorba the Geeks with whom I would have nothing in common, and who would look down their software noses at me.

However, when a friend said he was going at nearly closing time, I decided to have a look, and took a ride with him to the venue.

Security personnel stopped us at the gate, but as usual, all it takes to gain entry is a confident statement of purpose. The guard asked us to stop and make an entry in the logbook, but did not even check if my name was actually in the register or not (it was, btw) or whether I was just making a pretence of ticking something and walking in. I suppose it was understandable, given that it was the end of the day.

In one of the rooms that the discussions was taking place in, I found a winding-down session happening with almost as much gusto as the day’s discussions must have generated. I watched, fascinated, at the small gathering of predominantly young people give their feedback on the day’s session, and suggestions about what should happen tomorrow, and how it could be made to happen. I found several very sensible suggestions being made (eg. if people would give some of their interests, it would help a delegate focus on whom he wanted to meet and network with)…and of course a few frivolous ones.

But one sentence written on the board intrigued me…”Energy missing”. Was that really what some of them felt? And if they felt free to express that, wasn’t the meet a success in spite of the missing energy? The theme that I saw put up was, “The Internet, Mobiles and Society”…..certainly I might not have had the tech knowledge but the topic was one that I was interested in, too.

Finally the day’s session was declared closed and people adjourned to the nearby “Guru Garden” for a litle liquid lubircation; I walked back home, and that walk was a revelation in itself, and I will be posting to my blog about it!

I would suggest that if you have, like me, registered and felt that there might be too much geekery for the layperson, I would suggest that you still go and attend and see for yourself what it is like. I found just half an hour very interesting indeed! There was actually one suggestion that BarCamp4 should happen in a mango/coconut grove…

For photographs and several useful links, visit

and…decide for yourself, after looking at the Wiki!