Unconferenz Is About Passion

Plain and simple, what can I say but the Unconferenz gatherings are about passion. It’s passion that brought together individuals with different backgrounds and interests to discuss their different backgrounds and interests at Unconferenz 2011. This past weekend at Windward Community College, you could have joined other passionate people to talk about topics like:

• productivity tips
• design
• innovation
• travel
• Hackerspace (coming soon)
• food
• personal informatics
• outsourcing your cooking and cleaning
• virtual assistants
• gadgets

My Takeaways

Innovation in any business is needed but is very difficult to grasp and hence foster. Need to check out Innovation Hawaii.

Mac OS X Spaces and virtual desktops. Several vouched for virtual desktops (Spaces in Mac OS X) to boost productivity. The main key is to assign apps to specific spaces to segment your work and mind set.

PogoPlug. Yeah, I got one but there’s so much this tiny server can do. Thanks to @ryankanno for the show and tell of his hacked PogoPlug.

The Android Nook. You can mod the Barnes and Noble Nook Color into a low cost Android-based tablet.

Yubico and YubiKey. Ryan Kanno provided a strong case when describing the YubiKey security key and Yubico password management system. For around $40, this security system is worth the hassles of dealing with bogus online charges and purchases. My YubiKey is on order.

Parrot AR Drone. Possibly the coolest toy ever. This “helicopter” is remote controlled by the accelerometer in the iPad and iPhone.

And just a few pics of the passion at Unconferenz 2011.

Thanks again to Burt Lum for a great event!