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GnomeDex 3.0
HackerStickers writes "The Fellowship of the Geeks - Aka Gnomedex 3.0 is the geeks conference of the year. This weekend-long geek-a-thon has had upwards and over 500 attendees all having the common love of technology. Des Moines, Iowa is where the Geeks will tromp July 25th & 26th both in business and pleasure. The lockergnome crew will be there and the list of speakers keeps growing with great topics by Jim Louderback, your very own slashdot man - Rob Malda, Tim O'Reilly, and not-so-decided topics by both MS and Google."
I find the use of the word "Geek" derogatory. Why do such
people find it necessary to define themselves by their group?
Or even to bind themselves to a group or character in the
first place. Is it not sufficient to leave yourself undefined
and be responsive to your environment in your own right.
Calling oneself a "geek" wreaks of embracing oppression as a
means to feel liberated. This is insane.
The most talented programmers and technical people I know
don't call themselves anything at all.
The best thing about this conference is it is run by small business "net geeks". The whole total amount of this is $99 and instead of being either on the West Coast or the east cost, they are smack dab in the middle of the country. What more can you ask for in a great conference?
:)
Hawaii. Hot polynesian or west coast chicks wearing next to nothing. A place with a decent night life. A nice resort hotel, rather than the "Des Moines Motel 6". Other than that, not much.
On the plus side, I've heard that Des Moines has casinos.
My journal has hot
The lockergnome himself, Chris Parillo grew up in De Moines. Then he went to SF and joined tech tv, then got let go last month. Now he's back in Iowa.
Go hawkeyes?
Um. Because all humans do?
My answer comes in three points.
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Though Geekdom isn't a religion for me, religion is one of the best examples of these things. My little town has a eight little churches, and not a day goes by that you can't go to some kind of church event at one of them.
I've talked to a large number of the folk that attend these gatherings. Their knowledge of the history surrounding the church and the flaws/merits of the different belief systems is rarely a match for mine. What it seems to come down to more often than not is that the congregation at their church has people whose company they enjoy and a preacher/minister/priest whose sermons speak to them at a personal level. Subsets of those same crowds gather based on enthusiasm for various sports, from the standard: football, baseball, soccer to the less so: curling, hopscotch, and rugby.
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Geeks play or spectate on the Technology Sport. It truly is a game. It has big teams like HP, Apple, and IBM, and little ones like
/., and MandrakeSoft. It has whole teams of ear-biters [we know who they are], and heated but friendly arguments over MVPs like Bruce, Eric, and Richard.
-
Every group of fans/players need an identifying group or logo to ease the job of finding like minded folks with which to congregate. If you want to talk sports with someone they can say they are a Chargers, Red Sox, and Brumbies fan. If you want to talk religion, they can say they are a formerly Jewish, briefly Catholic, Buddist. As in any other label these don't define all there is to a human, but like modem negotiation tones, they really do help you sync up in the beginning. This leaves those who fit the geek category with the task of picking a descriptive term. Technologist sounds too religious. HP fan, doesn't quite catch it. Hollywood has stomped on the more obvious terms with such generes as Revenge of the Nerds (I-MCLXII), and movies like "Hackers." So what is left to us?
In summary, people like fellowship, technology is a sport, people who seek fellowship with fans of the Technology sport need a name. In my RandomHouse unabridged, the second definition of Geek is simply, 2. person, fellow.P.S. Iowa, in late July? How about we put the next one in scenic Barrow, AK in December?