I spent the last couple of days at DWeb Camp in Berlin.
It was my first time attending a DWeb camp and definitely was a unique experience.
This first edition here will feature some of the most significant things I encountered or took away from it.

1. It's feels very nice to be surrounded by people that share your interests
   The last couple of years I have been working remotely and ended up missing the social moments in onsite working environments. The people of the camp shared a lot of my interests which felt super nice. Not having to introduce/explain and area of interest that you want to talk about is very refreshing. Learning about new project and ideas is just lovely. And it's so much more "efficient" when the baseline understanding is so high as I experienced it in the camp. Humans are awesome!

2. A major pain-point for people self-hosting software is a social one
   I attended a session where people shared some experiences they made while self-hosting software for family & friends or whole local communities. A thing that was often mentioned was people getting too stressed doing it, since their users start relying on it. That is a positive thing, but bares the risk that people rely on volunteers for critical services in their everyday life and find out what that means when they have an issue at 3AM.
   "Pay for software if you expect reliability" - that is at least my default slogan. That's BTW also why I pay for most of the software that I personally use.

3. Blockathon: Help people in suppressive regimes to connect to the world
   This hackerthon format will put you in an environment mimicking the one found in Iran, China or other authoritarian regimes. Break out of it, record your steps to reproduce it and save lives.
   Amazing format, hope it becomes popular!

   Blockathon - the SplinterCon hackathon for breaking out of isolated networks

   blockathon - the splintercon hackathon for breaking out of isolated networks

   splintercon.net

   

4. vngle
   Is a platform for capturing real-time data to validate the effect of civil projects.
   Haven't tried it, but looks very interesting.

   Vngle | Powering the Civic Pulse of Society

   Vngle is a civic insights company capturing the civic pulse of cities. We bring real-time, verified news and grassroots reporting from communities across America.

   vngle.com