BarCamps

From the Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp

"BarCamp is an international network of unconferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies and social protocols."

Description

Andrew Lih [1]:

"Typically how Barcamp works is folks arrive ready to discuss, present or demonstrate something. You write your idea on a yellow PostIt note, and stick it on the board. After all interested folks have put up their proposals, they are either voted on or just organized by the conveners into 30 minute time slots throughout the day. At Barcamp Beijing there were slightly fewer proposals than slots, so each one got a slot.

In reality, many presentations are really just an excuse to get conversation going as the most useful learning happens in the hallways and side discussions." (http://www.andrewlih.com/blog/2007/09/03/barcamp-beijing-2007/)

History

"Publisher Tim O’Reilly has an exclusive “Foo Camp” for Friends Of O’Reilly in Northern California each year, where he invites a select techno elite to meet and create a conference agenda on the spot and hang out. He calls it the “wiki of conferences.” After the second year of FOO Camp, some tech folks were annoyed that it was so closed a group. Even invitees from one year were not always invited the next year’s event, which caused some angst. So geeks in the San Francisco area decided to have an alternative “Barcamp” at the same time where anyone could come and have an unconference of their own. The idea became viral, and now there are Barcamps around the world, as an adhoc gathering of techies with the common interest of sharing knowhow and ideas." (http://www.andrewlih.com/blog/2007/09/03/barcamp-beijing-2007/)

More Information

See our entries on Open Space Technology and Unconferences