Geeks of London, first meet

Last week I went along to the Geeks of London meetup that I happened across on Twitter. As it turned out, it was the first such meet, and as such it was very successful. Melinda and Christian organised the whole thing, with help from others and a clearly generous donation from Nokia Ovi who not only put money behind the bar for drinks and some nibbles, but also offered a prize of a new phone which was given away during the evening.

The format seemed to work well, with general mixing around the downstairs bar area, and a couple of slightly more formal talks. There were projected slides for the one, but the microphone failed, unfortunately. The theme of the night was gadgets and attendees were encouraged to bring along gadgets to show off and discuss, and they ranged from Terrance Eden's videocamera glasses to my first ever experience of an in-the-flesh slide rule.

I have a couple of video clips to upload at some point as my own gadget for discussion was the non-glasses version of the videocamera sold cheaply online as a "spycam" - a fantastic gadget at a very low price. The quality isn't fantastic but what can you expect for the cost? I'm thinking of getting hold of some of the glasses style versions to modify and turn into kit for larp events at some point.

Meanwhile, I particularly enjoyed Melinda's talk in which she addressed the question of what defines a gadget. Portability? Novelty? Tech? She skirted around all these possibilities, pointing out that it's almost indefinable, you know it when you see it. Although she didn't mention it during her own talk, she did prompt me to recognise that one of the features of a gadget is that it is unnecessary. It might be nice, it's probably a talking point but it's not something anybody needs as such. An iPad is a gadget, while a laptop is less so, particularly in the realm of work. A freezer isn't a gadget, it's seen as a home necessity, but for previous generations perhaps it was. Definitely food for thought.

I will be going along again, some of the faces were familiar from barcamp style events I'd been to and I got talking to a few more people from all over, despite ducking out early due to my stupidly early starts on my daily commute these days.

The next event is to be movie based, probably a couple of meetups, one to watch and one to discuss a film. Look out for them, coming soon.

More info can be found on the website: http://www.geeksoflondon.com