Aaron Huslage and I were talking about our experience at foocamp this year, and we both agreed that it was nearly religious. Everyone there, in one way or another, has helped shaped the past and current face of anything Internet related, and being able to talk face to face with pioneers and phenoms back to back was a unique and much savored experience.

The highlight of the trip, without a doubt, was playing Werewolf. It had been described to me prior to the trip, and I thought it sounded a bit silly, and not worth trying, but my opinion swayed rapidly. The first night I played, I still hadn’t met a lot of people and didn’t really know people by face, so I found myself unabashedly calling digg‘s CEO Jay Adelson “a shifty looking sort of guy, smug in his shiftiness.” In another game, I double crossed David Hornik. At first it was bitter sweet, as David’s a pretty nice guy, but I was a werewolf, which meant it was my job to secretly kill people off. David was next to me, convinced I wasn’t the werewolf. The second I got a chance, I killed him off, and felt a bit bad about it until I’d later found out that he was planning on getting me killed the next round anyways.

Playing werewolf with people I have massive respect for was great, but just being at the event at all was something I’ll always be thankful for. I learned a ton in a single weekend, made some great connections, and strengthened some of the ideas I’ve been carrying around for a while (ideas of which I’ll beging to unfold here as time goes on).

Knowing that my “good deeds” throughout the next year might help get me another invite makes for serious motivation, and I’m getting started now.

Thanks Tim! (and whoever nominated me to come this year!)