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I’ve tried to get an iSight photobooth set up at previous BarCamps only to run into technical challenges or lack of interest. It was also probably not the best idea to leave a personal laptop lying around in the middle of an event open to the public when really your only goal is to capture photos of attendees primarily for posterity.
At BarCampBlock I renewed my determination and decided to lug down the Citizen Space Mac Mini, our 21″ Cinema Display, a keyboard, mouse and an old skool iSight to make it happen. You can check out our simple setup in the photo above.
Getting the system setup wasn’t that hard, especially with the reliable mesh network the folks from Meraki had setup for us. I used an app called Flickrbooth (written by Tristan O’Tierney in response to a lazyweb request I had put out in January of 2006) to upload the photos directly to the BarCamp Flickr account.
I then took a photo of myself to demonstrate what people should do (hold their name tag up next to their face so we could read their name and tag them later) and then opened that photo in Preview on the desktop so people would get the idea.
After awhile, I decide to open up the barcampattendee tag page on the BarCamp user so people could also see that these photos were being uploaded as they were being taken. I also installed Twitterrific and set it up to post to the BarCampBlock account; it turned out that not a lot of folks ended up posting to the account but they could still watch what people who were subscribed to BarCampBlock were saying.
Finally, the photobooth was located adjacent to the registration table and as people completed registration, they were ushered offer to have their photo and their badge memorialized quickly before heading off to the main event. Just a few examples:
Beth Goza just pointed out our little BarCampMixer at Mix:
A crew of MIX07 attendees are putting together a BarCamp on Monday night. Join in the fun by helping decide on a time, the venue, and other important considerations such as “who is bringing the StompBox” over at the Barcamp Wiki. I’ll be there!
Marshall Kirkpatrick (now at Splashcast) put together a sweet video channel highlighting the many videos that have been produced about BarCamp around the world:
If you’ve spent much time watching panel discussions at traditional conferences, you can understand why there’s a strong desire to at least try something different. How’s it working out? Now we can tour the world by video and get the answer right from the horses’ mouths. Displayed here are the RSS feeds from YouTube of video from and about BarCamps all around the world. Like what you see? Visit http://barcamp.org to find out when and where the BarCamp closest to you will be held - or learn how you can organize one yourself.
This content that appears in this player will update automatically, as new videos are uploaded to YouTube and tagged with the words BarCamp and location names. You can put this live player on your page (or your wiki!) using the embed code available in the player. If you live in one of these locations and want to have the player default to your group of videos - just grab the embed code while that set of videos is playing.
I’ve now added this to our fledgling video page on the wiki and encourage you to add yours!
Thanks Marshall!
Gregoire Japiot has announced WineCampFrance, happening at Lake Geneva (Saint-Paul-en-Chablais), France, from June 15 to the 17th. Here are the details here sent out:
What is WineCamp?
WineCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference, set in the country. It is born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment.
Everyone is encouraged to participate at WineCamp: everyone sets the agenda, presents, leads or gets involved in discussions and creates together.
Where is WineCamp France?
WineCamp France will take place WineCamp France website.
Visit the Wiki and sign yourself up - and volunteer to do something!
(Translators needed early and often!).Sign up on the WineCamp email list.
We had an amazing time at the first WineCamp and can’t wait to see this event happen!
I ran across an interesting post by Sunshine in the follow up coverage to BarCampKenya — a humble beginning for the Eastern African BarCamp community — the signs of yet another seed beginning to take root abroad.
Sunshine writes:
I wanted to work in a cybercafe once, and the owner thought I was pretty enough to make a good receptionist, or possibly a great personal assistant. I remember using Opera in its formative stages and chided for ignorance when a failed page popped up as a result of a bug in the version at a cybercafe computer. Beauty is no curse, nor can I neglect to mention that Opera has improved considerably since then, but I digress for that disclaimer. After discovering more about the power of the entrepreneurs especially in developing markets, I now want to own a series of cybercafes, nee, become a premier ISP provider in the style of Africaonline.
I foresee a time when the fastest medium of connectivity in Africa will mature and we realise the incredible potential of this mobile phone age, in a country where there are over five million mobile subscribers and less than 100,000 active landlines (approximately), we have walked into a time of innovation and must work to find solutions to the social networking needs of these customers.
On a more positive note, I learned of the first Bar Camp in Kenya, where there was a gathering of intellectuals and techies interested in sharing ideas, networking, blogging and as well as exploring new technology in general. While we celebrate this inaugural event, and I plan to attend a similar future event, I still searched the presenter roster for a lady speaker. Whereas I I know several women personally who were trained in computer science at home in Kenya and abroad, we were missing in action. One cannot fail to notice the dearth in the blogosphere as well, for African women in ICT blogging or otherwise sharing about their work. Kudos to the team behind the Kenyan Bloggers Webring and African Women Blogs, for their efforts to reverse the downward trend and having support teams and bloggers who have expanded in number considerably.
I have no doubt that there is set to be a dramatic rise in the number of podcasts, blogs and writings that emerge from African women and Kenyan women in particular. Before that happens, more little girls have to have computer lessons, realise that this arena of computing, information technology and web 2.0 is theirs too, and pursue studies in computing to their highest potential. I hope to find examples of Kenyan tech blogging that highlight the few, the strong and the proud. Viva la techie femme!
I’m thrilled at the description of this vision and hope that the BarCamp community both continues to inspire, connect and provide social capital with which individuals can pursue such important goals, especially in the context of proactive inclusivity and the need for increasing diversity in the technology field.
I personally support Sunshine’s ambition to become “a premier ISP in Africa”. And I hope that somehow, the BarCamp community can reach out and bear witness to the realization of the goals of all who dare to dream so boldly.
Jay Fichialos and whurley have set up a pre-summit dinner tonight March 14, 7:00 PM CST Dinner at Sullivan’s Steak House (300 Colorado St at W 3rd St in Austin).
This is totally last minute notice, but we’ve been talking about it for some time, and, well, we’ve finally got a venue for tonight! We’ve got a private room for dinner for a lively discussion to discuss plans for tomorrow and to catch up, and then after, there’s a jazz bar attached for those interested in drinks and music.
For tomorrow’s Planners Summit, we’ll be at The Driskill Hotel at E 6th St and Brazas starting at 10am and going throughout the day.
Whatever comes out of this will of course be documented and shared on the wiki.
I hadn’t heard about this effort before I was twitter-messaged about it and David Crow blogged about it, but it appears that there’s an effort to capture the experience of our community and others on a bunch of mushed up dead trees.
Unconference the Book was formally launched yesterday at WikiCamp in India by none other than Jimmy Wales himself.
Various folks have been pinged to help co-author the book and, without knowing more about the project, I would encourage anyone to write up a few pages of content to add to the mix. In fact, an “unbook” from the “unconference” community would be a very appropriate demonstration of the social technology we’ve been developing over the past year and a half. Being able to fold in chapters and essays like an open source project would be a logical progression of the community and a nice way to capture the work coming out of the BarCamp Planners Summit at SXSW.
Now if only they’d add OpenID to the wiki….
Classic: three words to describe the Roots Camp experience… spreading the Spirit of BarCamp!
TechnoPoliticsCamp arose out of a BarCamp at Stanford in August 2006, with the intent to explore possibilities of expanded collaboration among organizations working at the intersection of politics and information/communication technology.
Early participants signed up on the wiki include members of CPSR (the sponsoring organization), League of Technical Voters, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Privaterra, Stanford
Center for Internet and Society, CivicSpace, CivicEvolution, Berkeley International Computer Science Institute, Community Technology Foundation of California, etc.
The general goal is to create stronger and more coherent coalitions devoted to democratic technology, freedom, social justice, and sustainability. Possible topics of specific focus that have been suggested for discussion include:
- DOPA follow-up
- 2006 mid-term elections follow-up
- Use of telephony, Skype/VoIP especially, in the 06 and 08 election cycles
- Net neutrality
- Open spectrum
- Tools for activism
- Online deliberation
- Digital divides
- Community computing
- Software patents and free software
- Domestic wiretapping and privacy
- Voting technology and security
As with any BarCamp event, the agenda is set ultimately by those who show up, with breakout groups according to what people want to talk about. The event is being held at the Open Source Applications Foundation in San Francisco, Sunday December 17, 2006, from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm.
Misha’s posted the notes for CopyCamp to the wiki… some very interesting and useful retrospective perspective on this hybrid event (attendance was for pay, though to help subsidize and diversify the attendee list). He comments:
It went really well.
We had something like 125 people there over the course of the event. It was two and a half days and it was intense, and fun, and well-received, and, I hope, really useful for the people who were there.
I’m putting some notes up here, so others can learn from what we’ve done. I hope to flesh these out in the next couple of weeks.
To coincide with World Usability Day on November 14, the folks in Toronto (home of DemoCamp, CaseCamp, CopyCamp and TorCamp) are holding UsabilityCamp featuring evening presentions from Sapient, Umbra, ConceptShare, Autodesk and Habitat New Media Lab.
Doesn’t look like a typical ad-hoc camp event, but the content is certainly compelling, as is the price tag ($0 CAN). Unfortunately the event is already oversold, but you can signup on the waitlist.
Official details:
Join us in Toronto on World Usability Day, Tuesday November 14th to LEARN, SHARE and MEET with others interested in usability and user experience at UsabilityCamp!
What is UsabilityCamp, you ask? It’s an open and free event for anyone interested in usability – whether it’s product, technology or web user experience. We think bringing together designing minds from different worlds is a great idea. It’s a chance for you to listen to, mingle with and generally enjoy the company of your peers in the usability/user experience, design and business communities.
This is all happening as part of World Usability Day (WUD) – local activities on a global scale which all take place on November 14th – organized by the Usability Professionals’ Association. WUD promotes the value of usability engineering, user-centered design and every user’s responsibility to ask for things that work better!
Our theme for World Usability Day and the first official UsabilityCamp in Toronto is Canadian innovation.
Wow, that’s gotta be the best BarCamp logo riff evar.
Anyway, if you’re interested, it looks like they’re gunning for November or December 2006 after their September success!
Last year’s BarCampLA featured Kent Nichols, the ninja from AskANinja, Jason Calacanis of Netscape, Ian Rogers of Yahoo! Media, Angelo from DeviantArt, Sean Bonner of Metroblogging and a host of other class acts (and I should be ashamed for listing anyone by name since there honestly were so many incredible people in attendance!). And becoming a yearly tradition, BoingBoing is providing its customary pimpage:
BarCamp continues to be a fantastic space for local geeks to gather, in cities around the world. Because Los Angeles is such a media-centric city (three BBers live there), BarCampLA #2 is bound to collect all sorts of media-tech geeks. Come join us November 11th and 12th at Little Radio. Sign up here.
Meanwhile, Lijit founder Stan James points out that BarCampBoulder is happening at the same time, Nov 10-11 (signup). Kathy Sierra nor Chris Locke has signed up yet, and I’m keen to investigate whether it’s some unfortunate coincidence keeping them from attending their first-ever hometown BarCamp!
A buddy of mine in Cairo that I met through Flickr and infected with the BarCamp bug has proposed and is spearheading an event he calls TuneCamp:
TuneCamp is a fun event (which is most likely, a party) to hold true music tasters and musicians’ interests together in a very comprehensive and practical way. The idea of TuneCamp is basically a get-down-with-music gathering, its goal is to widen up people’s musical cultures, help organizing and researching music much easier and much fun. Even though that TuneCamp holds basic activities, yet it’s very random and very welcoming to new ideas that can take place immediately.
I’m sure Kareem could use some help, so if you’re interested, let him know.
Toronto’s version of BarCamp (aka TorCamp) has won Best do-it-yourself conference from NOW magazine:
BarCamp was created in response to Tim O’Reilly’s ultra-exclusive FooCamp, and Toronto was quick to jump on the bandwagon. Billed as ‘un-conferences,’ these community-driven events for local tech geeks require participation from all attendees. BarCamp has several spinoffs, including the monthly DemoCamp where six presenters have 15 minutes to wow the crowd with their latest innovations.
Considering we’re up there with the likes of AmberMac, I’d say this has been a smashing year our ragtag group of independent BarCampers!
Reemer shares some incentives to hit up BarCampLA Part Deux:
Barcamp LA II will take place on Nov 11+12 in a new and improved Little Radio Warehouse. Barcamp II will feature:
- Electric cars available to test drive
- Stormhoek wine
- A fatter pipe to the interweb
- Other cool goodies
Sign up here, and please hit me up if you’re interested in helping out–barcamp at reemer dot com. Right now we’re looking for sponsors and folks who can help set up on Saturday and Sunday.
Jason Cosper at the new BarCampLA blog reports:
The question came up at last night’s Geek Dinner about what makes for a good presentation at BarCamp. Fortunately, Scott Berkun has put together an awesome list of tips and hints for constructing a great unconference session that is required reading if you plan on participating and can’t think of what to do. Give it a look!
Bar Camp NYC2 on Vimeo. Should make anyone proud.
There’s a great article about BarCampNYC in Wired from last month.
Good mentions of WineCamp, RootsCamp, and our friends at WineLog.net (blog post) and Toonamation.
Coming off BarCampNYC, Eric put together a great list for potential BarCamp participants. Definitely worth a read!
When I went to the first BarCampLA last year, I stayed with Jason Roberts, one of the co-organizers. He showed me a project he’d quit his dayjob to pursue called Preezo, essentially an AJAX-powered online version of PowerPoint.
Though I encouraged him to open up his beta as a soon as possible, his timing around Office 2.0 might really pay off as he’s gotten some good TechCrunch juice today. What with Google’s Docs & Spreadsheets giving Microsoft a run for its money, will Preezo be the first BarCamp-related acquired by Teh GOOG?
Following BzaarCamp in Milan and the upcoming BarCampTurin will be RomeCamp, “A Web 2.0 un-conference in Rome, Italy”:
Just an occasion to visit caput mundi under the cloak to talk about web 2.0, Information Architecture, social networking, business models, net economy, buzzing, geeks, blogging, conversational media, scenarios, what in Italy will be about innovation and what in Europe…
Fabio Masetti has announced the camp and followed up with something in Italian.
Now we just need to see a BarCampMessina. Heh.
I can’t even keep track of all the BarCamps coming out anymore, but as an alum of the first BarCampLA, I wanted to drop a shoutout to the second coming of BarCampLA, happening again at Little Radio, this time November 11th and 12th.
As usual, they’re looking for attendees and sponsors! You know what to do.
Besides offering up ten super steps to organizing a BarCamp, BarCampShanghai and BarCampVancouver alum Crystal Williams offers this nugget, which can’t be overemphasized:
Don’t over-complicate things. Don’t let other people over-complicate things. This is surprisingly hard. People have lots and lots of cool ideas that they want to execute to make your Barcamp awesome. That’s great as long as it doesn’t sidetrack the organizers. Try to get things accomplished in the order in which they are absolutely necessary. If you have a location, shirts, food, sponsors, etc locked down, then people can go nuts with the extras.
Then:
Don’t get too slack about the “everyone must participate” rule. It’s not just about attendance, it’s about knowledge transfer. Make sure people don’t think that it’s just a tech thing - creative talks are well received as long as they’re well thought out.
And, of course, the most important thing!
Remember: this is supposed to be fun. Keep it that way.
Yet another excellent resource to add to the organizing page.
The first BarCamp in China, BarCampShanghai, took place last weekend (alongside BarCampBerlin, BarCampMilwaukee, BarCampNYC2, BarCampIreland, and BzaarCamp) and was a grand success with additional camps in the works.
Robert Scales has more reporting here and here.
Kris Krug and a bunch of the Bryght and RainCity Studios folks are heading out to China for BarCampShanghai (note that they’re not using PBWiki because any URL with “wiki” in it is blocked in China).
The first Barcamp in China will be held in Tudou’s office on Sept. 24. They have a cool office in a two floor Warehouse, with more than two thousand square meters. If you want to have a look at their famous wall drawings, I have taken some picturs, last time I visit their office.
As one kind of unplanned conference, all the sessions are scheduled in the morning on the conference day. If you want to lead a session, you must show up at the schedule time. Your session even have to get enough vote to happen, if too many people want to talk.
With the new homepage went live the door has opened. Register to the event early, because we can only accept 80 people. Of course the attendance is free, thanks to our sponsors. Before you sign up, keep the spirit of Barcamp in mind. Evenyone is encouraged to contribute something. Please visit the register page for how to register and see who will come.
Read my post on China Web2.0 Review for more background. Thanks godness, we have secured the venue and almost enough sponsors to make this happen. Now it’s time to spread the words. Pacific Epoch is helping us again.
I am thinking of leading a session on the conference. At least, I can blog the event.
Very cool! Can’t wait for the photos and the follow up blog posts!
Riffing on the idea of WineCamp (for which one is coming up in France and another is being planned for Italy), Mike Bivens is pushing forward with his idea of BourbonCamp in Kentucky.
The idea is to maintain the tradition of mashing up geeks and non-profits, but this time in bourbon country!
It’s already been suggested that there be a BeerCamp in the great up North (or even Ireland?) but nothing’s been set in stone yet.
Perhaps I spoke too soon?
There seems to be interest getting a Tequp going down under in Sydney.
The Tequp event model is a sister event to BarCamp, like DemoCamp, focusing on innovative software and internet development. They’re shorter than BarCamps and often less structured.
If you’re interested, go sign up on the wiki (the password is tequp)!
But I’ll let Eric tell you about it.
Recent Google employee Gabor Cselle and crew have found a venue for BarCampZurich:
It takes place on October 28, 2006 in Zurich, Switzerland.
- We finally found space for the BarCamp! We’ll be at ETH Zurich, in the CAB building. There will be WLAN (free) and a bar for snacks and drinks (free once we find sponsors). There’s room for about 100 attendees.
- Corsin and I have been hard at work recruiting speakers and attendees. Our efforts have paid off: Our speakers now include famous Swiss entrepreneur and investor Nicolas Berg, Douwe Osinga, one of the guys behind Google Trends, as well as Cédric Hüsler from local.ch, the guys behind the popular collaborative editor SubEthaEdit, and many others. The number of signed-up participants has doubled in the last 24 hours.
- If you want to help promote BarCampZurich, put one of our pretty banners on your site or blog. They come in all shapes and sizes.
Go to zurich.barcamp.ch and sign up! I’ll see you there in October.
Portland, home of RecentChangesCamp, will be hosting a BarCamp sometime this fall. Interest is starting to pick up as Raven Zachary (veteran of BarCamp Austin and others) begins searching for a venue.
Any leads, please make a note on the wiki.
Well, Microsoft has come through again, providing a space for BarCampNYC II:
BarCamp is coming back to New York City for a second round! I‘m happy to announce that BarCamp NYC will be hosted at the Microsoft office in midtown Manhattan. (The first round of BarCamp in NYC took place last January.
I suppose someday we’ll just have to embrace it
Oh yeah! Haha, the SanFrancisco barcamp shirt is so ironic, because I no longer drink alcohol. Heh. But I still love my Valleyschwag!
…but Bar really isn’t about alcohol. Ok, so it’s important, but it’s Bar as in FOO. As in foobar. As in FUBAR.
…
Sigh. Nevermind.
(Meanwhile, we’ve topped 10,000 barcamp-tagged photos on Flickr.)
Hot on the heals of BarCampCapeTown, planning for more BarCamps is underway in South Africa:
“Open source conferencing” will hit Johannesburg and Durban by the end of the year as BarCamp fever grips South Africa.
Earlier this year, Tectonic reported on preparations for the massively successful BarCamp Cape Town (see some pics; roundup). Now geeks in Johannesburg and Durban are following suit.
…
BarCamp Johannesburg will run from 9-10 September while BarCamp Durban will run from 18-19 November 2006.
If you’re Chris Rue and you’re unable to make it to BarCampBirmingham, you’ll write your own custom windows mobile device theme… of course!
So we’ve got the first draft, but I need your feedback! Check out the full size version and let me know what you think — the concept is tour shirt and we want to commemorate… well, read the shirt and let me know!
I’ve posted the slides of my Wikimania 2006 presentation. Feel free to use them and mash’em up — just be sure to give me and the photo authors a li’l credit. Thanks!
Oh, and if you missed it, here’s a video of the actual presentation courtesy Raines Cohen.
Fancy yourself a Drupalhead? Well our friend and soon-to-be-wed WineCamper Greg Beuthin is hosting a DrupalMentor Open Work Session Monday, August 28th to more or less coincide with this weekend’s BarCampEarth.
He writes:
What better way for some new users to see how things work on Drupal than an open work night? A couple of us will be working on some (basic) Drupal projects we’ve been neglecting for a while (like upgrading to 4.7, or installing some new modules, etc - i.e. no coding), and we want to do it in an open space like a bar, so new users and people who want to learn more in an open environment can just come, hang out, ask questions, etc.
You don’t need to bring a laptop, but if you have one, you can probably play a bit with some of the things we’re working on. We might be able to get a bona-fide expert in the room, or at least promise to be available online during the session.
RSVP so we can make sure we’ve picked a big enough spot (and if we get more than 4 people signed up I will consider this a raging success….)
Now, I’m not sure exactly where this will happen, but it sure sounds fun!
I had no idea what AOIR stood for either, but apparently it stands for the Association of Internet Researchers. And apparently they also have really expensive conferences. I couldn’t figure out the registration form, but it seems like it could quickly add up to a lot.
So what’s a poor fella to do? Well, apparently Kevin Lim found inspiration in BarCamp’s free and open model and decided to put on his own show.
Like BarCamp, aoircamp will be free, open and full of BarCamp goodness. And, best of all, it’ll be taking place down under in Brisbane (just like BarCampPerth)! As of now he’s looking for event and venue sponsors. Anyone, anyone, anyone?
Badass, from them folks down souf.
Bryce has a great video taking a look at the controversial $700 unconference coming to Toronto called CopyCamp.
The premise of the event is straight forward but important: to bring artists together to talk about the Internet and its challenge to copyright.
It’s been picked up by a couple folks, including Boing Boing and Torontoist, and by far the biggest question seems to be: where did that $700 pricetag come from given that *camps have made a tradition of being free?
Now, it’s quite acceptable for events to vary the model as desired; charging an entry fee is just one of those options, as is setting the agenda before the event begins. Open space comes in more than just one form and variations on a theme are a good thing for the development of an ecosystem of events.
My concern with the size of the fee in this case, however, is about who will end up being excluded from the conversation — and how those people’s absences will affect the quality and rigor of the debate. Even with subsidies, anything over $50 can be a considerable burden for potential attendees. And this kind of approach seems weak or fraught with unfairness and overhead:
For people who want to come: you can get into the event either by buying a ticket (recommended for suits) or applying to have your spot paid for (recommended for artists and other “creators”). We’re trying to get the best participants we can, and we plan on giving away a lot of free spots to people who we really want there, especially people who are excited about contributing to the event.
It was that issue that lead us to make the BarCamp model as flat and low-cost as possible, because the conversation shouldn’t be limited only to those who can afford to pay-to-play. I suppose that one might make the case that since the topic here seems to be about copyright and the artist’s ability to profit from her work, the folks attending have a vested economic interest in pushing this conversation forward. At the same time, I think that the creators of free or open culture have something to add to the mix, but I can’t imagine that they’d be able to spring for an event with such a high monetary barrier to entry. This kind of event need not be free, but for every extra $50 you add to the cost, there’s a whole range of folks who can’t ante up.
However it plays out, Bryce has proposed CopyCatCamp, a free (as in beer) alternative, possibly to be held in a universally accessible food court. Sounds to me a bit like history repeating — but in the end, I’d love to see both models succeed. This topic is far too important to not bring folks together around it, and CopyCamp is just the first of what surely will turn into a long-term debate on the future of intellectual property.
So, one last thing: I wonder what the license for reuse of the CopyCamp mark is…
Ryan points out that BarCampRDU is featured in Red Hat magazine in an article by Bascha Harris, revealing some of the benefits of ad-hoc over preplanned conferences:
The ability to adapt the curriculum and the schedule on-the-fly tailors the conference to whatever audience attends that day. BarCamp was able to take advantage of present experts. And the informal setting seemed to blur the line between speaker and attendee, turning sessions into discussions, adding more viewpoints and, ultimately, more robust information.
At BarCamp–like in open source development and in design thinking–the best ideas win.
it’s getting a lot easier for people to connect now that the mechanisms for maintaining online identity are become more polished and ubiquitous. I think that people are also recognizing that they really DO want to meet other people; the rise of groups like Refresh, Barcamp, Dorkbot, Meetup, Upcoming and Couch Surfing… they all express that desire. Plus, a lot of us are getting really sick of staring at our computers and are finding relief in the physical world; I think the DIY movement is partly driven by this.
–Dave Seah via 9Rules Featured
In the tradition of piggy-backing off larger, more corporately attended and run events, comes MobiCamp, taking place Monday, September 11th, 2006, 7:00 - 10:00 p.m. at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA, and ironically completely financed and hosted by one company, Montreal-based Airborne Entertainment:
The premise behind MobiCamp is simple: come together, think new and speak out. The event is based on popular community-generated “camps” like BarCamp and CaseCamp. There is no cost to participate, but those choosing to attend must agree to truly “participate,” either as speakers or as active audience members. Although the event is being presented by Airborne Entertainment, it is an ad hoc, “open-source” mash-up of interested and interesting individuals looking to help shape the future of mobile by freely communicating their experiences and, more importantly, offering up their visions.
The rules are pretty simple, though a far cry from BarCamp’s:
- You are not speaking at an official CTIA event.
- Your presentation is eloquent and relevant to the future of mobile. It focuses on new ideas. It outlines solutions, even if it’s inspired by problems.
- You speak for no more than 10 minutes, and are prepared to answer up to 5 minutes of impromptu questions.
Not exactly embracing the chaos, but for an event with a press release, it’s not a bad start.
Now, if they actually support people editing the rules and coming up with subsequent community revisions, that’d be pretty cool. Their wiki is actually disguised as a website, so I hope folks will realize that they’re just using a tricked out version of Instiki and can actually edit the thing. Beyond that, maybe they’ll go so far as to make MobiCamp a Community Mark and prove that they’re not interested in owning the event or using it to promote themselves… but I digress. It’s nice to see yet another expansion of the camp concept making its way into new genres, new areas of tech, and most of all, into new communities.
Photo source.
This weekend there’s an interesting extension of FOO going on at the Googleplex called sci foo. This is, as far as I know, only the second time FOO has been directly extended, being co-organized by O’Reilly folks (the first was Pooh Camp at Disney in March).
True to form, sci foo is strictly invitation only
, pulling in about 200 leading scientists, technologists, writers and other thought-leaders … for a weekend of discussion, demonstration and debate
(emphasis original).
The topics certainly sound enticing but watching remotely seems muffled both by the imposition of the Chatham House Rule and other possible blogging restrictions (In addition, I need to sit down and figure out what the rules allow me to say.
— emphasis added) but nonetheless, as with most *camp events, it seems to be inspiring the right kind of rich cross-polinating discussions that we’ve all come to know and love:
Just to mention one specific for now, yesterday I was part of a lively and productive session on the politicization of science, led by Gavin Schmidt (of RealClimate). In Science Foo Camp fashion, this led into a fun and interesting dinner conversation with Gavin and others. You wouldn’t believe some of the innovative ideas some non-scientists have for helping “encourage” the media to play fair on science!
At the very least, I’m happy to see this even taking place — and heck, who knows, just maybe we’ll see the open science community pick up and localize this event in other vibrant centers outside the Valley!
Noel picks up on the Foo-Bar-Gov lineage, pimping GovCampBrussels and offers… if anyone wants to formulate a US GovCamp - count me in!
While there is no OneTrueBarCamp shirt, I am endeavoring to get a tour shirt printed for BarCampEarth. So far my buddies Dmitry and Miles of InnerTee are spearheading the effort.
If you’re interested, please let me know.
With BarCampEarth quickly approaching, it’s important to point out that the fun don’t stop with our little worldwide village-community.
Katie Lips has announced BarCamp Copenhagen for Nov 17, our RainCity friends have announced planning for BarCamp Shanghai on Sept 23. Meanwhile, efforts for BarCamp Vienna and Stanford continue unabated.
Fans of CocoaDevHouse rejoice — CDH is looking for hosts in Austin, London and Boston.
Chime in if you’ve got space.
Don’t look now, but your favorite *camp is making its way to Ireland, Switzerland and Australia (this one as part of BarCampEarth!).
Looks like the folks in Zurich could use some help as well as those in Ireland.
Richard Guiles heading up Perth, well, I’m sure he could use some camp lovin’ too.
I can’t believe that I didn’t post this before, but Jay and Ryan made an awesome video at BarCampSanFrancisco that captures quite the essence of what makes BarCamp… well… BarCamp!
I also added this to the new Media page over on the wiki. Got more? Add your own links!
Just when you thought you’d heard of everything, your pal Dimitri Glazcov writes to tell you that BarCampBirmingham will be held in a mountaintop church.
Amen, brotha.
Fred Stutzman, one of the organizers of this weekend’s BarCampRDU, has written up his preliminary advice for planning your own BarCamp. Definitely some sage advice in there, and I completely appreciate his frustration with the primitive locking mechanism on the wiki — hopefully we can get David and co. to take care of that!
The idea of organizing the wiki on paper first was certainly an interesting one… and chunking sponsors is a really smart idea. Give sponsors a meal to take care of, or have one sponsor provide coffee throughout. It’s a volunteer event and organizers should be orchestrating, not playing every instrument too!
I’ve added this to the organizing page on the wiki for reference.
Matt just announced WordCamp over on his blog:
The idea for an event for WordPress users has been bouncing around in my head for a long time, as there is a really interesting group of people around WP but we don’t do nearly as many face-to-face interactions as some similar projects. A set of circumstances are coming together at the beginning of August, and I think we’re going to give it a go.
August 5th, 2006 is the date, here in the lovely town of San Francisco, California. The idea is a one day BarCamp-style free conference with a party that night. There will be free BBQ for lunch, WordPress t-shirts, and a full day of both user and developer discussion. (”BarCamp-style” is a code phrase for “last minute.”)
There are still a few things to figure out, such as a venue, schedule, and other little things like that. (By the way, if you can help with any of these or have event experience, please drop me a note.) But mostly I wanted to get the date out there so people could start planning for it, buy tickets if they’re travelling, and let us know if there are any huge conflicts that day. (Like a national holiday or something.)
In the meantime, I’ve put up a quick site where you can leave your email to signup for more information or let us know you’re coming. If you think you can make it, please say so as soon as possible so we can prepare for the right number of people. If you’d like to help in any way, drop me a note v