• How the Message Path Works. Since messages may be passed or acted upon and then passed up through the application, you have so much flexibility in deciding where you put your scripts.
• What You Can do with the Message Box. It is so very extremely easy to create a new object in Revolution – “new button” in the message box gives you a new button. It is easy to forget that the Revolution engine is interactive.
• Groups as Backgrounds. Groups are powerful, but they are confusing if you futz about with them when all you need is a repeated object or background that appears on all cards in a particular stack or sub-stack.
• Custom Properties. It is easy to forget that if a property doesn’t already exist, you aren’t stuck.
• It Probably Does What You Want Already. I had a lot of questions about FTP and other internet protocols, all of which I know Revolution supports, and probably not all that less advanced than those RIAs.

What fascinated me about BarCamp is that its an ongoing, social learning conversation. While someone may present an idea or a budding technology, the expectation is that its a participatory event – groups are small enough that its possible to do just that. This wasn’t just a geekfest for the twenty something set; there was an even mix of ages and experience. I truly felt I left the unconference carrying with me more useful new relationships and technology information than I had from the last few conventions I have attended.

There were quite a few who were happy to learn about Valentina and that we even offer a free version of Valentina Server on Linux to tinker with or utilize in academic settings. I didn’t go to this event with sales in mind; it wasn’t that type of event anyway. Yet in the course of the sessions, some products (of the free and open source variety and others of the proprietary type) naturally suggested themselves as solutions or stepping stones towards achieving some goal.