bBox team's impressions about CeBIT

Wednesday, 2nd of March 2011, was a day to remember.

The bBox team went to CeBIT, the largest computer expo in the world, with more than 330,000 people attending in 2010. There we could see many interesting things and also new stuff. It was a day that started really early, with the train in which the team's programmers left departing from Karlsruhe at 5:58 in the morning, and when the completely packed train arrived in Hannover, the first thing to impress us was the Skywalk, a footbridge that takes from the train station to the fairground. The flow of people was really impressive, not only in the Skywalk, but all over the place.

                          "Skywalk", the way from the train station to the fair

Once in, we could see things that impress only those that are admittedly geeks, and also things that impress everyone. There were really huge screens everywhere, some of them with 3D technologies, both requiring special glasses or not. We could also see sattelites from navigation companies, cars that can park without a driver, many different robots, from ones that act to others that play football without human intervention.

Also, there were glimpses of the future, with many still unreleased models of different types of hardware, including cell phones and tablets, with a highlight for Xoom, a tablet by Motorola powered by Android 3.0, that I could try with my own hands and have my own impressions.

                           We could see even satellites from navigation companies

                                         Really big screens were also everywhere

Robotics was also included. This robot could play Hamlet or Star Wars, and repeat the movements and voice of a person

Telekom employee talking about Motorola's Xoom, a tablet running Android 3.0 still to be released

There were buildings only dedicated to games and to health (sometimes they can go together :), and there we could have a lot of fun with immersive games, playing sometimes for prizes, but also just for amusement. There was also a lot of music, both being played by hired bands and by attendants, and this included electronic drum kits, entertaining especially in my case.

                                       One could have a lot of fun, even with electronic drumkits

  Also there were plenty of games, and Pipe and Aldo got a really good time with that

Claudia, Pipe and Stan having fun in a Formula-1 simulator

Another pleasant thing was to meet Jon "Maddog" Hall, whom I had met some years ago in Brazil and could now have lunch with. I also attended to one of his talks in the conference, in the Open Source Forum.

bBox team with Jon "Maddog" Hall, from Linux International, and a friend of mine

Yet another interesthing fact was that we were using T-shirts with LED displays with texts about the project and a QR code that redirected to this blog. This actually attracted a lot of attention, with people taking pictures of the QR code to go to the blog, taking pictures with us for the blinking T-shirts or just asking where they could get a similar piece of clothing =]

This was an amazing experience, from which we could seek both amusement and inspiration for our next steps, and that certainly changed the way we see a lot of things. I could see the astonishment in the technical members of the team, for obvious reason, but also in the non-technical members, because it is a different way to perceive technological evolution, with the coolest stuff available and just some footsteps away. I'll definitely try to put CeBIT in my calendar in the years to come!

For your entertainment: