The Boys of barCamp

For me, it started with a comment on Pandemia. Luca Conti (one of Italy’s most influential bloggers) reported the quizzical complaint of Marina Bellini: why were there practically no females signed up for barCamp Rome?

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Luca Mascaro, Federico, Diego Bianchi, Luca Conti

I’d been reading more and more Italian blogs lately, especially since I met some Italian bloggers at a conference in Torino back in December. Luca had endeared himself to me by telling me, as soon as we met, that he had liked my piece on Bormio. And I’d gotten to know Lele Dainesi since he began doing PR consulting for TVBLOB (although, dazzled by the charms of my boss Lisa, he rather ignored me until I established my geek street cred by showing him my own site/blog).

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The week after we hung out together in Torino, Lele, Luca, and many other Italian bloggers were at LeWeb3 in Paris (to my intense jealousy – I wanted to meet social networking researcher/goddess danah boyd – but my big boss wouldn’t pay for me to go). Amidst the controversy over how that conference was run, Lele amused himself by posting a Flickr photostream of “the women of LeWeb3.”

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^ Lele

So, in answer to the question “Why are women so under-represented at tech conferences?”, I commented that it might be because we hadn’t been invited, and that, fond as I am of Lele, initiatives like his LeWeb photos make us uncomfortable: “We like to feel appreciated for our brains before our tette.”

Lele jokingly replied that he simply loves beautiful women and, if they have brains as well as breasts, so much the better.

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^ Tony Siino, Vittorio Pasteris

(I was irritated by a similar posting of photos of The Babes of CES – really, guys, you can stop asking yourselves why women don’t come to tech conferences. As I commented on Thomas Hawk’s blog, it’s probably because we’re tired of trying to have conversations with your bald spots.)

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^ Diego Bianchi aka Zoro

Another commenter pointed out that I didn’t need an invitation to come to a barCamp: anyone is welcome to attend and to speak. Then I received email from Amanda, a British woman (married to an Italian) living in Rome and working in tech (Excite), wanting to know if I was coming to barCamp, as she would like to meet me. Turns out she works with Diego, whom I knew from vlogEurope, who would also be at barCamp, along with others I knew, or wanted to meet.

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^ Mystery Man C, Luca Lorenzetti, Andrea Martines, Mystery Woman 0, Mystery Man F

So I bought a train ticket on Thursday (100 euros – ouch!) and arrived Friday evening at Rome’s Stazione Termini. From there I would take the metro to the end of the line, near the home of our friends Serena and Sandro. As I looked around me in the metro station, I reflected that, the further south you go in Italy, the more good-looking the men. Not that they’re ugly up where we live, but I’m often astonished at the sheer beauty of Roman men (I admit to prejudice: my husband was born in Rome, though that doesn’t make him a Roman). But no one’s allowed to take photos in the metro, so I couldn’t document the ones who particularly caught my attention that evening. (What you see on this page are men who attended barCamp.)

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Simone Onofri

Serena picked me up at the metro station and brought me home to have dinner (and lots of wine) with the family. Sandro went over my Italian slang pages, making additions and corrections; eventually I want to get him on video demonstrating and explaining Roman slang. (I do have some video from that evening, finally edited and posted.)

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Tommaso Sorchiotti

Saturday morning Serena dropped me at the bus stop to begin an hour-long odyssey across Rome. The day was beautiful and the ride fun; I had to change bus lines once and ask directions several times (I was delighted at the friendliness and helpfulness of the Romans). I found my way to the Linux Club in via Libetta by around 9:45, for an event that was scheduled to start at 10.

stefanto

This being Rome, we actually got started around 11:30, with the first speakers starting to talk while some of us were still registering for our badges and t-shirts. I stood in line with Amanda and Antonio (above), a winsome Sicilian philosopher who works for a company that makes adver-games (cool!).

barCamps are informal, and this one utterly chaotic: I had a hard time figuring out what was going on where and when, so I didn’t make it to any of the talks I thought I’d like to hear. But the ones I did end up listening to were interesting, and designed to provoke conversation rather than dispense wisdom in only one direction. Me being me, I got more than a few words in edgewise.

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^ behind: Davide Salerno, in front: Cristian Conti

blondedoor^ Federica Fabbiani, Andrea Cuius, Mystery Woman 2, Mystery Man J

During one such intervento, I pointed out that the Italian blogging community ignores the many foreigners blogging in and about Italy, whose perspective is different and potentially useful. Some people pitched in enthusiastically that they had recently discovered some of these blogs, and in the hallway afterwards several told me that they’d specifically discovered mine (thanks to a recent link from Lele), and enjoyed it – always good to hear!

dooragain^ Mystery Man K, Marco Rosella, Luca Alagna, Mystery Men N (background), O

When I wasn’t listening to “formal” presentations, there were plenty of other interesting conversations going on. Elisabetta, whom I met at vlogEurope, had come down from Milan to conduct live online interviews during dolMedia‘s coverage of the barCamp. She interviewed me about my 25 years online (a topic I had considered speaking on, but there were too many speakers already) and about TVBLOB.

A haphazard lunch was served, of Rome’s excellent casereccio bread with slices of roast pork, mortadella (aka bologna), olive paté, and various other goodies provided by San-Lorenzo.com. It was a scramble to get everybody fed, but, after years of boarding school, I am a champion at scrounging food – I didn’t go hungry (though I remained desperate for coffee for a long time).

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^ Mystery Men K, O, Luca L. (again), Diego Magnani

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^ Mystery Woman 3, Leo Sorge,and Palmasco (foreground)

I realized that Robin Good, whose blog I’ve been reading for years, was present – and the photo on his site does not nearly do him justice robingood(nor does mine, unfortunately). I had not been able to locate his talk on Come pagare l’affitto con il sito (“how to pay the rent with your site”), but he was happy to give me individual advice. He, too, had followed Lele’s link to my site recently, so had some truly useful things to say. (I’m now mulling over what I’ll actually carry out.)

Robin is Italian, but writes his site in at least three languages (English, Italian, and Spanish, that I know of – and he may be adding more), and does a nice job of explaining all sorts of high tech stuff even to non-techies – I recommend it if you’re interested in understanding what we nerds are up to.

I spent a lot of the day talking with Amanda, who’s trying to set up a Girl Geeks Dinner in Italy – we need to find a woman who works at a high level in IT in Italy to be our inspirational speaker. I also talked a lot with Diego, about everything possible, and lots of other people. By the end of the day I was exhausted from talking.

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Mystery Man T, Stefigno, Mystery Man V, Gaspar and Fabrizio

Around 8:30 pm, 40 of us moved a few blocks down to a restaurant for a group dinner. Pastarito is part of a chain in Italy, almost American in its approach and menu styling. It wouldn’t have been my first choice for a meal, but it was nearby and could seat 40 people, so probably the best we could do in the circumstances. The food was okay, though nowhere near the level of the dinner I organized for vlogEurope (said she modestly).

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^ Matteo Marchelli (red sleeves)

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^ waiter who looks like Shaggy from Scooby Doo, Fabrizio Ulisse

The dinner in any case was mostly about (more) conversation, though we were all running out of steam by the time we broke up at 11 pm. Diego dropped me and Luca at a metro stop, but the Roman metro closes for (ongoing) repairs every night at 9, and we couldn’t figure out where to catch the substitute bus. So we walked to a taxi stand, and finally found a taxi. Which cost a LOT less, for the distance, than it would have in Milan. I collapsed at Serena and Sandro’s around midnight.

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^ Andrea Beggi, Mystery Man X, Pino (who shared an excellent dish of mussels at dinner)

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Many thanks to Fabio Masetti (above) who organized it all, very well.

As for Les Boys: if all tech conferences were stocked with this many good-looking men, more women would probably go to them! (Sorry my photos aren’t so great – I really must get a better camera.)

I’ll leave it to the public to decide who is il piu’ figo (the hottest). If you’ve got better photos you’d like me to post or can provide links to (and names for – thanks to Luca for those already fixed), please do! Some photos I’ve already found are Luca’s.
emanuelestef

Emanuele Quintarelli and Stefano (Aghenor) Vitta

21 comments

  1. Well, I would have gone if I hadn’t been taken up with something else, although I can see great looking men also in Umbria. Tell them that if they’ll strip we likely will come.
    It is funny that they don’t get that the prevailing attitude AND the low pay many women get might keep them away!
    Meantime, I have a blog called Men, http://www.allkindsofmen.blogspot.com that appreciates men, maybe objectifies them a teensy bit, and I do find that in starting with the pretty ones, most are Italian.

  2. Wow!

    I’m the most figo..be sure.

    Probably I’m the youngest and that one that has the baddest english!

    You wrote an excellent cronichle of the day and you are a really intresting woman.
    When you said about the english investor, you mobilized more than 10 men!

    The idea of the Geek woman Camp is really good, but I imagine that I must remain at home!

    Can I see the video please?!

    See you soon

  3. this is the best post on barcamp. thank oyu very much for your kind words.
    Great also the pictures execpt the mine. don’t worry for youe camera It is the subject that gone wild with its look.
    i need a great make up.
    Please women let an advice.

    bye bye

    Fabio

  4. Marco, il nome del tuo blog combacia perfettamente con quel tuo sguardo sospettoso nella foto!

    Grazie a tutti per aver “giocato”.

    I forgot to say in the original post: all of the guys (and gals) were incredibly nice and very interesting, and I look forward to seeing everybody again soon!

  5. Ciao, I loved the post.
    I was sitting on the stairs outside when you were talking to Robin Good, noticed your eye glasses (very cool…), but never got a chance to meet you.
    Ok, hopefully that will be next time, ciao

  6. I hope that your post will be a starter for building something like “blogher” in Italy..stimulate the female partecipation, finding more viewpoints and female voices can be one of next barcamp themes.

    Your words at the end of Vittorio Pasteris’s talk seemed to point to a lack of comunication to foreign bloggers in Italy. Another point for future discussions.
    Trying to open our barcamps to foreign bloggers and hosts will be an hard match but, like said Lele Dainesi, we need to open to the outside and trying to partecipate to other barcamps outside italy as well.

    See you, next time.
    Cristian

  7. eheheh so funny!
    I saw you around at RomeCamp and now I’ve found your nice blog…

    p.s. anyway I’m the (blurry) Mistery Man M (wow 3M man)

  8. Deirdré, thumbs up to your post which is probably the most brilliant of the whole bunch out there (including mine in the bunch), I daresay.

    Seems like I’ve been one of the few lucky ones who got the chance for a brief and impromptu chit chat with you: didn’t know you were such a celebrity around here! 😉

    Anyway it was very nice for me to meet you and I look forward to seeing you again (and thanks again for sending me the picture!).

    Cheers,
    Diego

  9. (Damn! I need to install that threaded comments widget…)

    In order:

    Andreas – you didn’t need to wait for an introduction!

    Antonio – men are allowed at Girl Geek dinners, but they have to come with a woman – see the rules on http://londongirlgeekdinner.pbwiki.com/

    Smeerch – if I can get a photo of you, I’ll add it to the page – got one?

    Samuele – lovely photos of the camera woman, but don’t betray her trust by publishing the one she asked you not to. Otherwise every woman who ever sees you at an event in future will work hard to get a really bad picture of you to post on Flickr. ; )

    Sean – next time, you can come along and choose in person!

    Palmasco – I noticed you because you remind me of an actor, but I’m not sure which one. My glasses are from Grotesque frames (Austrian company, but I bought them in Milan). I wear glasses every waking minute of my life, so it’s one of the few fashion items I spend a lot of money on.

    Cristian – good idea. Several of us women who were there are keenly interested in meeting more of Italy’s geek women, so we’re working on it.

    Mr. Diego – Thanks! I didn’t know I was a celebrity, either. Mostly I just talk a lot.

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