Image: Silverisdead

We've invited about 150 Friends Of O'Reilly (aka Foo), people who're doing interesting works around social networking, the social graph, and technologies for data portability. We'll have some planned activities, but much of the agenda will be determined by you. We'll provide space, electricity, a wireless network, and a wiki. You bring your ideas, enthusiasms, and projects. We all get to know each other better, and hopefully come up with some cool ideas about how to change the world. - from the Social Web Foo Wiki

When I was in high school I attended a summer camp that changed my life.

Governor's School

In order to go to Governor's School you had to first be nominated by a teacher. Then you had to pass a series of tests. It was a bit like The Mysterious Benedict Society. With a dash of Harry Potter thrown in. (Minus the British winters.) You just weren't sure what you were getting yourself into. But you knew whatever it was, it would be good.

And it was.

This isn't an understatement. That summer changed my life. Many of the friendships I made persist to this day. That summer I learned to do one thing seriously: think.

Many Governor's School attendees go on to do big things. Others of us... start blogs.

By that point in my life I had already been to band camp, music camp, science camp, church camp, ROTC camp, jazz hands camp, you name it. I was a camp-a-holic. In the same way I love attending conferences (and hopefully am not a total asshat at networking), I loved camps. Where else do you find people to play light as a feather, stiff as a board with you all hours of the night? 

Well, we're all grown up now. And we go to conferences and workshops instead of camps.

And I've been to more than my fair share in the past three years.

Foo Camp

But this April I was invited to something a little different. A camp. Getting the email was akin to finding the golden ticket in my chocolate bar. Something was happening in Sebastopol, California. On the O'Reilly campus. Turns out we have graduated from light as a feather - we're now on to Werewolf. The games lasted late into the night.

But it was the sessions and the people in them during the days that got me thinking. The list of the attendees read like Web 2.0 come to life. Aardvark, BBC, Delicious, Dropio, Facebook, Flickr, Google, Gowalla, LinkedIn, Obama Administration, Twitter - in the building. Or in a tent outside. All of us there to learn and share.

I had the opportunity to watch "We Live in Public" a film that rocked me to the core and prompted one of the sessions I led, "Dude, Where's My Humanity?" (the other session I led was Laptop Yoga - the programming is created entirely by the participants - typical of an unconference. Turns out a few folks even went home to give yoga a go). 

Like Governor's School, I felt I could be myself at Foo Camp. I spoke my mind about identity issues on the web. I jumped into conversations about the future of social entrepreneurship. I joined an ongoing conversation that will help shape the path for where technology goes next.

With deep gratitude to Dave Morin, Sara Winge and Dave Recordon for organizing. You all did a fantastic job.

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Admin, Giveaway, Art

Tomorrow (December 7) I'll update the blog with information about the winner of an original piece of art work by Bryce Widom. If you wrote on the three prompts from Friday through Sunday (details here) you're eligible to win.

Side note: my favorite painting by Bryce is actually a chalk (and I own a print of it). "The Iron Goddess of Mercy." First seen in the ladies room (could not believe it was in a bathroom and not front and center of the cafe) of Pekoe Sip House in Boulder, Colorado. This is how I imagine I look when I'm drinking my morning tea. 

This is post #6 of 31 for The Best of 2009 Blog Challenge - Get Started Now.