Setting up your own BarCamp Photobooth

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:

BarCamp at Mix ’07 in Vegas

Beth Goza just pointed out our little BarCampMixer at Mix:

Meet at the Bar(Camp)!

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!

BarCamp World Tour, by video

Marshall Kirkpatrick (now at Splashcast) put together a sweet video channel highlighting the many videos that have been produced about BarCamp around the world:

[splashcast YNNF9428AV]

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!

WineCamp coming to France in June

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 near Lake Geneva in eastern France, in a small town called Saint-Paul-en-Chablais. It is 45 minutes from Geneva; 45 minutes from Lausanne (by boat); 2.5 hours from Lyon (by car) and 3 from Paris (by train).

How much does it cost?

We don’t know yet – depends on sponsors, and people who show up. Normally the cost covers basics – food and supplies. This is not a “conference” with an high admission price. WineCamp Calaveras had great sponsorship, and ended up costing participants $60 (45 Euros).

Who is “we”?

It’s you and anyone else who gets involved. Look at the WineCamp France wiki (see below) for more info about who has signed up to organize the event. The primary organizer and instigator for WineCamp France is Grégoire Japiot. The Smoking Goat is an early adopter and is also organizing and attending.

How do I get involved?

Read the latest on the 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!

The Promise of BarCamp in Africa

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.