This Friday we will be having a blogwalk in Amsterdam (the eleventh such edition) and I am happy to be participating.

Now I don’t know what a blogwalk is exactly, but it looks like an unconference-like gathering of interesting people centered around a topic. This is usually a recipe for a very pleasant and educational way to spend your time. One of the organizers, Ton, I have been following for a while now and I respect his opinions and the way he practices knowledge+web in the Netherlands.

The people attending are an interesting mix, some of whom I already know and some of them I would like to get to know better.

The focus of this edition seems to be the Digital Bohemian, quote from the wakka:

Digital Bohemiens are (relatively) young people, fully adapted to the digital lifestyle. They see a city as their home, and are connected in European and global networks. They flock to conferences as their meeting places.

Young, check. Digital, check. City, check. Conferences, check.

Bohemian is something of a strange word defined as: “a person living an unconventional life usually in a colony with others”. Given that definition we digital natives who walk the conference trail and are in close contact with our ilk wherever they may be do certainly fit that bill.

We are going to try to answer some fundamental questions about ourselves and how we relate to society which should definitely yield some interesting results. I’m especially curious about the organizational and business models that fit us because I don’t see that many.

I will post back results here after the event.

Sidenote

I just read Visionary in Residence by Bruce Sterling and in one of the stories the post-digital Sillicon Valley is inhabited by cyberslackers wandering from bubble to bubble. The concept of digital bohemian reminded me of that a bit. I hope Sterling’s vision of the future is not where we are headed.

Update: The event was a very nice meeting of the minds and a lot of interesting stuff was discussed. Though in general the concept of digital bohemian was too vague to be able to draw any conclusions. In the plenary discussion everybody would interpret it in their own way.
Whether digital bohemianism does or does not mean travelling a lot, or having no money or security or whether it is just a state of mind, most participants subscribed to some part of it.

I met a lot of cool people and had interesting conversations. A lot of smart people; lots of consultants but als a lot of people who are doing things sometimes for the money of it but often moreso for the love of doing stuff they like.

Thanks James, Tijs, Mark, Riina, Ton, Elmine, Sebastian, Lilia, Anna and all you others.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 at 14:44 and is filed under Amsterdam, BlogWalk BlogWalkAmsterdam, Meeting, creativity, event, independent, productivity, social, work.