27 January 2008
Yesterday was a great success at the Barcamp (http://www.barcampbangkok.org). It was all in all a great day, starting with a very pleasant half hour walk in the morning cool along Sukhumvit Road to the restaurant where the event was held. It’s quite a place, a large, expensive Indian restaurant (lunch was great, by the way). You can see pictures of it at http://www.indusbangkok.com/.
There were about 150 people there, of which about 15 were Indian, European, and American, with the rest Thais. Presentations were about a half hour each. I presented “Unix Command Line Productivity Tips”. We wrote our prospective subjects on papers which we affixed to the wall, and then voted on them. As you can see, each subject posted specified which language would be spoken in that session.
I also chaired a discussion on “Software Development in Thailand”, not to offer any information, but to learn and facilitate discussion. At the Barcamp I attended in Charlottesville, a similar discussion had been one of my favorites. It was a fascinating exchange between the Thai and foreign business owners/managers/consultants and the Thai software developers, most of whom had been out of school for only a few years and were junior in the field.
There are problems here. An American pointed out that after three years of programming, an employee is promoted into management, guaranteeing that the programming labor base is inexperienced. Another problem is that most of the work here is grunt work sent here for low cost maintenance by western countries. Employees don’t grow in their skills, and the brightest get bored. One enthusiastic Thai developer explained how this led him to leave his job and start his own consulting company. Given the fact that most Thais live at home before marriage, they are in a very convenient situation, able to endure low incomes while they grow their careers.
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Trivia Point: Reuters, the British news service, is the largest IT employer in Thailand. They do software developement, much of which is sent here by other countries. The news service comprises only 20% of their business in Thailand.
We were in sessions until 6:00, when we left for dinner at a very inexpensive but pleasant patio restaurant. The mosquitos enjoyed it too — I mentioned this to an expat, and he said that although he was used to it, I could ask the waiter for some deet spray. I did, and the problem disappeared.This was a fantastic way to get to know some of the very interesting folks in this community, some of whom have lots of experience traveling and living all over Asia. One told me he only spent a month visiting Vietnam because he was “in a rush”. These expat guys, from the U.S., Europe, and India have an interesting perspective on life and culture here in Thailand and in the world. Many of them have Thai wives, have been here for several years, and know the Thai system (culture, language, government, business) quite well. Although realistic and reasonably critical about the problems here, they seemed to share a fondness for the Thai people, wanting to do their part to help the nation overcome its problems and succeed in the world.
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I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before; I still had jet lag, having arrived one and a half days before the day started. So at 10:00 I reluctantly left the restaurant. This time I took the Skytrain home. I took a much needed shower and walked down the block for my first massage since arriving. The prices have gone up since my last visit — $14 for one hour. (Note: Three weeks later I am paying only $7-10 nearby.) I love Thailand.
