- BarCamp
BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — often focusing on early-stage
web applications , and relatedopen source technologies, social protocols, and opendata formats .History
The name "BarCamp" is a playful allusion to the event's origins, with reference to the hacker slang term,
foobar : BarCamp arose as a spin-off ofFoo Camp , an annual invitation-only participant driven conference hosted by open source publishing luminaryTim O'Reilly .The first BarCamp was held in
Palo Alto, California , from August 19-21, 2005, in the offices ofSocialtext . It was [http://www.tantek.com/log/2006/07.html#d10t0805 organized in less than one week] , from concept to event, with 200 attendees. Since then, BarCamps have been held in over 350 cities around the world, in North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Australasia and Asia. To mark the one-year anniversary of BarCamp, [http://barcamp.org/BarCampEarth BarCampEarth] was held in multiple locations world wide on August 25-27, 2006. The second-year anniversary of BarCamp, [http://barcamp.org/BarCampBlock BarCampBlock] was held in Palo Alto at the original location, but also over a three block radius on August 18-19, 2007, and was attended by over 800 people.Influence
By "open-sourcing" the organizational process of Foo Camp, that is, codifying it in a
wiki and making that publicly available, BarCamp seems to have struck a chord. Beyond the BarCamp-branded network to which the first event gave rise, it quickly became a model for user generated conferences in other fields or for more specialized applications, ranging from [http://wordcamp.org/ WordCamp] and [http://podcamp.pbwiki.com/ PodCamp] to [http://www.seattlemind.com/ Seattle Mind Camp] , to name a few. There is even a new variant on this user-focused event called a [http://insight.brco.com/barcamp/ MiniBarCamp] . The involvement of key figures in the web development community, such asTantek Çelik andRoss Mayfield , no doubt helped its adoption.tructure and participatory process
BarCamps are organized and evangelized largely through the web, harnessing what might be called a
Web 2.0 communications toolkit. Anyone can initiate a BarCamp, using the [http://www.barcamp.org/ BarCamp wiki] .The procedural framework consists of sessions proposed and scheduled each day by attendees, mostly on-site, typically using white boards or paper taped to the wall. This is a form of the open-space approach and has been dubbed, with another play on words, [http://www.socialtext.net/web2open/index.cgi?the_open_grid The Open Grid] approach.
While loosely structured, there are [http://www.barcamp.org/TheRulesOfBarCamp rules] at BarCamp. All attendees are encouraged to present or facilitate a session. Everyone is also asked to share information and experiences of the event, both live and after the fact, via public web channels including (but not limited to)
blog ging,photo sharing ,social bookmarking , wiki-ing, andIRC . This open encouragement to share everything about the event is in deliberate contrast to the "off the record by default" and "no recordings" rules at many private invite-only participant driven conferences.Hosting and attending
Venues typically provide basic services. Free network access, usually WiFi, is crucial. Following the model of
Foo Camp , the venue also makes space for the attendees, a.k.a. BarCampers, to literally camp out overnight. Thus, BarCamps rely on securingsponsorship , ranging from the venue and network access to beverages and food.Attendance is typically monetarily free and generally restricted only by space constraints. Participants are asked, though, to sign up in advance.
Historical precedents
This form of self-organized user generated conferences are conceptually related to hackers' meetings in Europe, especially those nearer to
anarchism andautonomism , happening since the '90s in Temporary Autonomous Zones or other occupied places. The procedural framework of BarCamp borrows some elements (particularly the Agenda Wall) from the Open Space methodology for organizing meetings. Also, the BoF sessions of IETF meetings may have provided inspiration. However, BarCamps lack the political motivations and are actually quite integrated with the mainstream ICT industry, often getting substantial sponsorships from major corporations.ee also
*
Foobar
*FooCamp
*PodCamp
* BarCampBank
*LifeCamp
*BlockCamp
*Open Hack Day
*Open Space Technology
*Unconference
*SocialMediaCamp
*SuperHappyDevHouse
*TorCamp
*WiCamp
*PHPCamp BarCamp locations
* [http://barcamp-madagascar.net/ Ambohidahy Antananarivo, Madagascar]
* [http://barcamp.org/BarCampAhmedabad/ Ahmedabad, India]
* [http://www.barcamp.com.ar/ Argentina]
* [http://bca.ludwignz.com/ Auckland, New Zealand]
* [http://barcamp.az/ Baku, Azerbaijan]
* [http://www.barcampbangalore.org/ Bangalore, India]
* [http://www.barcampbangkok.org/ Bangkok, Thailand]
* [http://www.barcampasia.net/ Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan]
* [http://barcamp.blaz.com.br/ Brazil]
* [http://barcamp.org/BarCampBrighton Brighton, UK]
* [http://barcampchicago.com/ Chicago, Illinois ]
* [http://wiki.barcampdelhi.com/index.php?title=Main_Page Delhi, India]
* [http://dmbarcamp.org/ Des Moines, Iowa]
* [http://barcampgr.org Grand Rapids, MI]
* [http://barcampsaigon.org/ Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam]
* [http://barcamp.org/BarCampHongKong Hong Kong]
* [http://barcamp.org/BarCampHyderabad Hyderabad, India]
* [http://barcamp.org/BarCampJohannesburg Johannesburg, South Africa]
* [http://appfrica.mountbattenhosting.net/index.php/BarcampKampala Kampala, Uganda]
* [http://blogcampcee.com/ Kiev, Ukraine]
* [http://barcamp.org/BarCampLondon London, UK]
* [http://barcamp.org/BarCampLosAngeles Los Angeles, California]
* [http://barcampmadison2.org/ Madison, Wisconsin]
* [http://barcamp.my/blog Malaysia]
* [http://barcampmelbourne.org/ Melbourne, Australia]
* [http://www.barcampmemphis.org/ Memphis, Tennessee]
* [http://barcampmilwaukee.com/ Milwaukee, Wisconsin]
* [http://minnebar.org/ Minnesota]
* [http://www.barcampmumbai.org/ Mumbai]
* [http://barcampphnompenh.org/ Phnom Penh, Cambodia]
* [http://barcamp.org/BarCampPortland Portland, Oregon]
* [http://www.barcamppune.org Pune, India]
* [http://barcamp.lv/ Riga, Latvia]
* [http://barcampsa.org/ San Antonio, Texas]
* [http://barcamp.org/BarCampVancouver Vancouver, Canada]
* [https://barcamp.pbwiki.com/BarCampDC2 Washington, DC]External links
* [http://blogcamp.com.ua/ BlogCamp CEE 2008 - Kyiv, Ukraine]
* [https://barcamp.pbwiki.com/Health20UnconferenceAmsterdam Health 2.0 Unconference Amsterdam - BarCamp Amsterdam IV]
* [http://mobilewebcamp.wikispaces.org/ First Belgian mobile webcamp]
* [https://barcamp.pbwiki.com/BarCamp-Rajkot Barcamp Rajkot]
* [http://www.onedayblast.org/ One Day Blast! - Paris]
* [http://www.brainjams.org/ Brainjams]
* [http://asistpnw.org/infocamp2007/ InfoCamp - Seattle]
* [http://mindcamp.gearlive.com/ Mindcamp-Seattle]
* [http://www.mindcamp.org/ Mindcamp-Toronto]
* [http://www.osscamp.in OSSCamp (India)]
* [http://toronto.transitcamp.org/ttc/ TransitCamp - Toronto]
* [http://vancouver.transitcamp.org/wiki/ TransitCamp - Vancouver]
* [http://blogcamp.com.ua/ BlogCamp CIS and Baltics - Kyiv, Ukraine]
* [http://www.CaseCamp.org/ CaseCamp - based out of Toronto, Canada]
* [http://www.EntConnect.org/ EntConnect Entrepreneurial Connections - Denver, CO]
* [http://www.barcamp.org/seo SEO Barcamp]
* [http://www.barcampasia.net BarCamp Central Asia]
* [http://barcamp.pbwiki.com/BarcampNairobi08 BarCamp Nairobi - Kenya 08]
* [http://www.barcampitalia.org/ Barcamp Italia]
* [http://barcamp.org/WiCamp WiCamp- Wipro's Innovation Camp]
* [http://appfrica.mountbattenhosting.net/index.php/BarcampKampala BarCamp Kampala - Uganda 08]
* [http://blog.tarunchandel.com/2008/03/it-is-your-camp.html A guide for first time Barcampers]
* [http://www.teraom.com/2008/09/barcamp-bangalore/ An overview of sessions held at barcamp bangalore]References
* Malay Mail [http://www.mmail.com.my/Current_News/mm/Thursday/Blogspot/20080703105238/Article/index_html BarCamp Malaysia] About Malaysia First Barcamp , 3rd July 2008
* Anon. [http://www.podcastingnews.com/archives/2006/06/podcamp_boston.html Podcamp Boston] . "Podcasting News". June 27, 2006. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
* [http://barcamp.org/ BarCamp.org] (website). Retrieved June 30, 2006.
* Calishain, Tara. [http://html.wral.com/sh/blogger/2006/06/triangle-techies-heading-for-barcamp.html Triangle Techies Heading for a BarCamp] , "WRAL's TechTalk Weblog". June 27, 2006. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
* Çelik, Tantek. [http://www.tantek.com/log/2006/07.html#d10t0805 Remembering the idea of BarCamp] , "Tantek's Thoughts". July 10, 2006. Retrieved July 14, 2006.
* Craig, Kathleen. [http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/05/technology/business2_unconference0606/ Why "unconferences" are fun conferences] . "Business 2.0 Magazine". June 6, 2006. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
* Messina, Chris. [http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2005/08/18/bar-camp-buzz-builds-the-story-twists-turns-shouts/ Bar camp buzz builds; the story twists, turns, shouts!] "FactoryCity" (weblog). August 18, 2005. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
* Murali, J. [http://www.hindu.com/2006/04/17/stories/2006041701671700.htm New conferencing tool: An attempt to conduct on-line meetings in a participatory environment] . "The Hindu". April 17, 2006. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
* Singel, Ryan. [http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,68610,00.html Barring None, Geek Camp Rocks] . "Wired News". August 23, 2005. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
* Solaris, Julius [http://www.eventmanagerblog.com/2008/01/20-resources-for-a-smooth-barcamp.html A collection of resources to run a BarCamp] . "Event Manager Blog". January 31, 2008, Retrieved February 28, 2008.
* Jagadeesh, Namith. [http://www.livemint.com/2008/05/26235257/2008/05/26235246/With-focus-on-human-interactio.html?d=1 With focus on human interaction, "unconferences" come of age] . "LiveMint". May 26, 2008. Retrieved May 26, 2008.
* Tarun Chandel. [http://www.livemint.com/2008/03/18010850/Tuesday-Post--Bridging-the-ga.html Bridging the gap between students and industry] . "LiveMint". Mar 8, 2008. Retrieved Mar 8, 2008.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.