We are not super human, the web industry is like any other, we undergo long hours of work with the odd all nighter. However recently with the renewed interest in the web, we have at least in the last 12-18 months, been having a bit of a boom. This is great everyone is extremely busy, business is good. Work is thick on the ground and easy to find. But with all this comes increased deadlines, increased pressures and ultimately increased stress. We all get stressed in one form or another, yes even the Web Rock Gods get stressed, even if some of us do try and deny it from time to time.

It really makes me laugh that the mainstream media seems to be so far behind what is really happening in the Web Industry and its related communities. Case in point, how long did it take them to realise that Kevin Rose and company at Digg existed, 12 months, report on Second Life , 2 years. And now they have just discover the success story of 37 Signals. Come on give me a break. How long has 37 Signals been going, and only now does Time suddenly realised that its news worthly. Me thinks that maybe the media are a little behind on what is happening, like by about six months.

It was a little amazing last night (WST-AU) Twitter had been a little flaky, but at least it was operational. Then “it” started, someone was talking about alternatives to Twitter. Slowly but surely people went and checked out Jaiku, signed up, collected their friends, of course this meant more of their friends signed up as well. The wave of Jaiku signup spam started to lap my email inbox. Within 12 hours my lonely old Jaiku account had gone from 5 odd contacts on Jaiku to a modest 40 odd. It was just amazing to see the power of the peer group. People not wanting to be left out, not wanting to be out of the loop, just in case people did migrate to Jaiku. Often the Jaiku sign up was followed by the statement:

After a few false starts, Perth gets to have its first BarCamp. BarCampPerth is being organised by the Australian Web Industry Association, for the 30 June 2007, 9am to 5pm at Central TAFE, 140 Royal St, East Perth WA.

If you are not familiar with a BarCamp, it is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants. The key is everyone shares in the setup, presentations and support for the facilitation of the sessions. So you don’t have to present of facilitate, but you have to participate, its about sharing the knowledge.