Open Grid + “Unconference” format for BlogPhiladelphia

If you’re in Philadelphia, or have been looking for an excuse to visit us, you should think about coming to BlogPhiladelphia on July 12 and 13th. The focus is social media, specifically blogging, but the conference is open to anyone and is completely free. We’ll be taking over the Radisson Plaza Warwick Hotel in Center City Philadelphia, which has been recently renovated and sits right on Rittenhouse Square which will provide some beautiful outdoor space for conversations should the weather permit.

The event will follow a hybrid model, similar to Web2.Open, with pre-scheduled speakers and session leaders, along with a Barcamp-style open grid presentation venue. The general concept shared between both is “encourage conversation”.

I’m working on the organizer to include a wiki and some other mechanisms on the website, along with the current sign up form, to encourage more pre-conference interaction.

For the benefit of those traveling in (from the press release):

To make this informational conference as accessible as possible for bloggers and non-bloggers alike, there will be no fee to attend. Participants are only required to cover travel and accommodations. For [..] links to recommended hotel packages and Amtrak discounts; and details on Philadelphia attractions, visit www.blogphiladelphia.net.

My hope for this event is to generate awareness of a lot of the cool projects and talent that are in Philadelphia. This also goes hand in hand with the coworking initiative that has gained quite a bit of momentum, Independents Hall.

The event is being formally organized by Annie Heckenberger at the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC), the creators of U Wish U Nu, a blog devoted to “citizen journalism” and spreading awareness of all of the cool things that go on in Philly, not just geared towards external tourism but for residents as well.

For more information about participating, reservations, ideas, or otherwise, contact myself, dangerouslyawesome at gmail dot com or annie at gptmc dot com.

Hope to see everyone in July!

Technorati Tags: barcamp, blogphiladelphia, gptmc, philadelphia, unconference, uwishunu

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!

Unconference the Book

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….

Bring your tractor!

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!

Via Pursudo.