Cheryl Goh the inconsistent blogger

Thank you for making BarCampJB a huge success!

Thank you to our sponsors for contributing generously to an effort which has such a positive and profound effect on the community without expecting anything in return. We hope that you will continue to support BarCamp and similar endeavors with the graciousness you have shown at BarCampJB.

Thank you to all the volunteers especially those from Johor who contributed your time and effort to make this event possible without ever experiencing what a BarCamp is like. Your faith in this community effort is a starting point for many more great things to come in JB and I am sure you will glow with self satisfaction knowing that YOU made this all possible.

Thank you to our speakers who came to share with NO personal agenda. This is the very heart of every BarCamp and we thank you for sharing and not selling to us. Thank you for taking time off your weekend, thank you for travelling from KL, Singapore and Vietnam to share with us, and thank you for engaging the participants in open discussion. Please continue to share and encourage others to do the same with the same generous spirit you have shown us.

Thank you to the participants for coming and being part of the entire experience. Please remember that there are no tourists at BarCamp – you came to participate and I am sure most of you grew by doing so. Please help spread the word, volunteer for our upcoming events and stand up and speak.

We are already talking about the next BarCampJB so please join our facebook group and volunteer. I promise that the experience is worth all.

Please visit the links below for more blogs and coverage on BarCampJB

http://huyenchip.com/barcampjb (Our friend from Vietnam)

http://sgblogs.com/entry/live-from-barcampjb/254002 (Our friend from accross the Causeway)

http://www.friedbeef.com/tag/barcampjb/ (winner of iPhone 3g)

http://blog.aizatto.com/tag/barcampjb/ (very good summary of BarCampJB with links to photo albums on Facebook)

http://odysseydave.blogspot.com/ (Dean’s superb coverage of BarCampJB which would have made him a serious on contender for the iPhone – if only he knew how to tag and be found

http://blog.flavert.com/2008/12/08/barcamp-jb-rocks/ (nice round up of Day one with some slides and photos)

Tags: barcampjb

Pictures of the BarCampJB Iphone 3g

So you must have heard by now about that FREE Iphone 3g which we will be giving away to one lucky blogger who provides the best coverage of BarCampJB. Do note that points are also given to any pre BarCampJB promotions to attract more people to the event so start blogging now!

I decided to take some pictures of the phone. This pre loved, white, 16gb, US (locked) version Iphone 3g is in great condition and was purchased directly from the US. You will need to use Turbo Sim to unlock the US version Iphone 3g. You should be able to get a turbo sim by browsing the lowyat.net forums

There are some scratches on the Apple logo, which is common.

There are no visible dents or scratches on the four corners.

The phone comes in its original box with a US charger and is given as is.

Disclaimer:
By taking part in this competition you must agree not to hold anyone liable if the Iphone 3g fails to work as expected or is not compatible with your cellular network and no return or exchange of this or any other prize will be entertained.

People who are blogging about BarCampJB:

http://www.cherylgoh.com/2008/11/29/win-a-iphone-3g-at-barcampjb/
http://www.e27.sg/2008/11/27/just-a-short-causeway-hop-to-1st-ever-barcamp-johor/
http://sysstream.blogspot.com/2008/11/were-starting-revolution-at-barcampjb.html
http://www.bytebot.net/blog/archives/2008/11/13/startupcampkl-barcampjb
http://www.1futurestradingtips.com/2008/11/fcpo-tips_723.html
http://sicksand.net/post/59753351/barcampjb-is-now-open-for-registration
http://www.entrepreneurs.my/highlights-from-the-upcoming-barcampjb/

Tags: barcampjb

Win a Iphone 3g at BarCampJB

I got my Iphone 3G about a month ago and since then on a daily basis someone will ask me about the phone – questions range from “how much is it?”, “does the GPS work in Malaysia?” to “does the phone work on all cellular networks?”.

I would recommend the phone to everyone because of its wonderful interface, its superb touch screen and the hundreds of apps which you can install unto the phone. I am in love with my Iphone 3G because it keeps me occupied in so many ways and I cannot imagine using any other phone. I love it so much I have 2 Iphone 3gs, NOT!

Actually the extra Iphone 3g I hold in my hand has been generously donated by Ganesh Kumar Bangah and will be given to the best blogger of BarCampJB. As some of you may know I won the Nokia E90 Communicator sponsored by Nokia at the last BarCamp Malaysia and it was not as hard as some would imagine and took only several hours of effort in total.

So if you’ve been eyeing the Iphone 3g, this is could be your chance to snag one for zero cost!
Dam, I so wish I could take part but I’ll be judging this time around…. Sob…sob…sob.

So here are the contest mechanics.

1. Participants need to Blog and Twitter about BarCampJB

2. Scoring will be based on a number of criteria:

• Amount of Post 30%, (divided into 15% pre event, so start blogging now and 15% during event)
• Quality of Post 30%,
• Creativity (using pictures and video (20%)
• Using Twitter.com (microblogging) 20%
•
3. Whenever you blog please link back to www.barcamp.my/blog

4. You must include barcampJB logo in one of the post

5. You must include barcamp badge in your blog (we will b making this available very soon)

6. Your blogpost and pictures must be tagged barcampjb

7. Twitter must be tagged #barcampjb

8. The judges will be following your post via http://blogsearch.google.com/ and http://search.twitter.com/search?q=barcampjb

Judges : Me (boo hoo), Eugene and Daniel CerVentus

Contest Starts NOW and ends 2.00 pm BarCampJB time, 7th December 2008.

More details will be uploaded in www.barcamp.my/blog

I’ll be blogging about the Iphone 3g we’ll be giving away in the next post – stay tuned

Disclaimer:
By taking part in this competition you must agree not to hold anyone liable if the Iphone 3g fails to work as expected or is not compatible with your cellular network and no return or exchange of this or any other prize will be entertained.

Tags: barcampjb

ChinaJoy – Of long lines, unbearable humidity and booth babes

I was recently in Shanghai for ChinaJoy, arguable Asia’s biggest gaming conference and exhibition. It is an extremely vibrant event and showcases China’s imminent dominance in the online game developing arena even more so with China surpassing the US as the world’s largest internet market.

If you plan on attending the event next year make sure you turn up on industry day, which is typically the first day of China Joy. Otherwise you’ll have to queue up along side everyone else in a line which stretched for hundreds of meters, no joke.

At China Joy not only do you have to queue up to buy the tickets, you also will need to queue up for a security check before rejoining the queue to enter the dam venue. Once you’re inside the expo, be prepared to queue to buy water and food, to dispose of water (toilet), to take pictures with the booth babes and to collect premiums from exhibitors.

Be prepared for the heat – 38 degrees is hot even for Malaysian standards, so wear light clothing and bring along a hat and a portable fan. Bring EAR PLUGS unless you used to take E in your hay days in which case you should do okay.

The exhibitors at ChinaJoy all seem to employ the similar marketing tactics to woo the crowd:

- 1) Huge colorful booth structures – true to Chinese values – the larger the booth, the more “face” an exhibitor is perceived to have. It is a symbol of a publisher’s success in the industry and probably explains why Tian City is rumored to have spent close to 1 million RMB on their booth structure.

- 2) Exciting stage performance accompanied by ear shattering music.

- 3) Cute and sometimes scary looking Mascots to help with brand identity, perhaps?

- 4) Babes. Perhaps the most important and most over used marketing strategy for a Chinese game developer is to employ girls to create positive and sticky brand association.

Some pictures of girls dressed up a game characters

Babes posing with exhibitor’s product – I am sure many would remember the girls but how many would remember the brand?

Booth babes posing for excited onlookers armed with cameras

Unlike our snobbish Malaysian booth babes, the girls here are very obliging and would often change their pose to entertain the cameramen.

After an exciting, hot and tiring day at the expo be prepared for another long and unruly queue at the taxi stand. I was so glad I made the right choice of wearing my reliable Nikes.

Tags: booth babes, china, china joy, chinajoy, shanghai, show girls

Trying on leather shoes without socks – the China way

I accompanied my friend Steve to a shoe shop in Shanghai several weeks ago. He was looking to buy a pair of leather work shoes and soon spotted one which he liked. He got the sales assistant to bring him a pair in his size and sat down to try them on.

The sales assistant gave a disapproving look as she immediately noticed he was wearing flip flops and therefore had no socks on.

Now there are two very good reasons why shoe shops should provide socks for customer who wish to try on covered up shoes:

1 People with broad feet tend to have difficulty slipping on NEW leather shoes without socks on and boy did Steve has broad feet, and

2 From the store’s point of view, socks helps reduce the shoe’s wear and tear from the sweat and stretch of people trying it on.

The sale assistant asked Steve to wait while she ran behind to get what we both presume would be a pair of socks. Instead she returned with two transparent plastic bags.

It seems that in China, you get plastic bags (which are reused – I assume for environmental reasons) instead of socks when trying on shoes.

Although the sensation of having plastic instead of fabric wrapped around your foot was pretty awkward, not to mention it looked ridiculous – Steve left the shop with a new pair of shoes in hand.

BarcampMalaysia Day 2 Round Up

I started the second day of BarCamp by attending Saha’s session on digital photography.
He gave out various tips on how to take better pictures like focusing on contrasting colors and using doors to frame images, and is the official photographer for Barcamp.

While I think the dude captures excellent pictures, I ain’t ever hiring this guy as my wedding photographer. He captured possibility some of the ugliest, most unflattering pictures of myself at the event which have since spurred me to sign up for 30 sessions of personal training at Fitness First starting tonight.

Breathe Cheryl, breathe!

Moving on… I also attended Vyasa’s Journey of a startup – Silicon Valley Style where he shared his experience searching for investors for his Microchip start up. He and his partner Sara started the business fresh out of school and spoke to more than 200 VCs before securing RM3.5 from a private investor and a further 4 million from grants. Eventually the business failed last year due to lack of cash flow but Vyasa shared with us his believe that “For every door closes that closes, there is a new one which opens”.

Read Friedbeef’s more detailed post.

Lunch was Subway, generously sponsored by Zoecity. We love our sponsors!

Daniel and Vico’s session on recruitment and social networking reminds us all that what we put on our facebook, friendster, and blogs are being monitored and mined by recruitment consultants and potential employers.

They both however felt that we should not modify or adjust our online personas as it is our individualism which makes us unique and a good recruitment consultant like Daniel (plug) would be able to match not just your qualifications but your personality with the right employer.

Lastly I walked into Lighting Talks where everyone has a chance to share about anything for 5 minutes.

It was very informal and people where really just chilling out, talking and sharing stuff which interest them. Some of the topics ranged from hardware hacking, open source, individuals sharing their experience of Barcamp, and a call for hackers and developers to assist and educate social workers on the use of IT in promoting their cause. I was also put on the spot and babbled something about winning the Nokia E90 Communicator.

The day ended for me with some group photos – after which many volunteers stayed back to clean up the mess. Once again, thank you itrain for generously allowing us to use the venue.

Tags: barcampmalaysia

BarCamp Malaysia in 6 pictures

6 pictures to sum what Barcamp is all about.

[caption id="attachment_82" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Is it about participating - even from behind a glass window"][/caption]
Tags: barcampmalaysia

Clips from BarcampMalaysia-Entrepreneurs Going Global

Some random clips from the Barcamp Malaysia session on Entrepreneurs Going Global.

Panel talks about “ideas”.

Ganesh talks about his company MOL AccessPortal Berhad, how it began, how it has evolved and his philosophies on partners and relationships.

Vishen also talks about his business partner Mike – how they meet.

Member of the audience asks the panel for their opinion with regards to the importance of a co-founder and how an entrepreneur from a technical background can find a co-founder who can complement him on sales and marketing.

Vishen talks about how Entrepreneurs can make money by being an internet merchant versus someone trying to build the next big web 2.0 company.

He also notices that per capital there are more small business owners in Malaysia and Singapore than there are in the US and wonders if there is a higher tendency for entrepreneur s in Malaysia to build quick businesses which make money rapidly because of the Asian mentality.

Shares his success on chasing the small dream with precise execution and marketing and sales.

Tags: barcampmalaysia

Day 1 at BarcampMalaysia: The ladies of Barcamp

Chicks? At BarCamp?!

Yup, the first ever Malaysian Barcamp received a decent turn out of female participants – most of which turned up alone, without a friend/bf or husband in tow.

While the girls at Barcamp did not look like this:

Or dress like this:

Or posed like this:

Today, everywhere I turned I saw a member of the fairer sex and felt inclined to take a picture and then share it here to bust the stereotype that ladies don’t attend events like BarCamp.

Wait a minute….Something looks fishy…

Tags: barcampmalaysia

Day 1 at BarcampMalaysia: The food

What’s a camp fire with no food and at Barcamp the food is abundant, tasty and most importantly FREE!

3 meals were providers for on the first day – breakfast, lunch and tea.

I was expecting 1 ringgit nasi lemak for breakfast, some mee goring for lunch and nothing for tea. But boy, I was so wrong…..

We started the day with two choices of sandwich and really yummy curry puffs with tea and coffee.

Lunch was a feast with a wide array of local food to suit anyone’s palate.

In a very un-Malaysian move, the ladies were given priority of eat before the guys.

Daniel Cerventus eating lunch with Daniel security dude, who is hopefully watching over my projector and 3 others as we speak…Daniel and Iris the security patrol are probably the nicest and most helpful people I’ve meet in a while.

Men in black

Thumbs up for the food!

Representatives from Nokia and Yahoo (I think)

Although banana cakes and some local sesame seed kuih was served for tea, my camera was running low on ammo and I decided to save my battery for more important pictures.

Thanks to all the sponsors for not letting us go hungry and for giving us 50 feet worth of Subway Sandwiches for lunch tomorrow.

We love:
Advertlets, Daniel Yst, Dr Sivapalan, Exabytes, Getting Personal, HongKiat, JomCode, Logistics Consulting Asia, Malaysiakini, MOL.com, Roslan Bakri Zakaria, Slashes & Dots Sdn. Bhd ,SMM, UrekaLabs, xTrain, Yahoo! And ZoeCity

Tags: barcampmalaysia