Kiwi Foo Camp

Kiwi Foo Camp, also known as Baa Camp, is an annual Foo Camp, an unstructured gathering of technology industry people and policy makers, that takes place at Mahurangi College in Warkworth, New Zealand in early February. The first Kiwi Foo Camp occurred on 2-4 February 2007, and the second ran 1-3 February 2008. [cite web|url=http://www.geekzone.co.nz/freitasm/4503|title=At Kiwi Foo Camp 2008] [cite web|url=http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/1956694458963284CC2573E9000D8991|title=Geeks gather to share, network and play|date=13 February 2008|author=John Ballinger|publisher=Computerworld New Zealand]

It is based on the Foo Camp concept devised by technology publishers and conference organisers O'Reilly Media for previous events held in the US and Europe. The "Foo" is an acronym for "Friends of O'Reilly" and the New Zealand event was sponsored by the company. As an "unconference", it is characterised by a lack of formal schedules and structures, with the agenda being moved forward as the event takes place.The events are invitation only, and seek to bring together the technology and creative sectors, policy-makers and other influencers. It was organised by Nat Torkington and Jenine Abarbanel, with assistance from Russell Brown of [http://www.publicaddress.net Public Address] and others. The organisers plan to hold it annually in the New Zealand summer.

The alternative "Baa Camp" moniker was coined by Torkington as a light-hearted reference to New Zealand's identity as a sheep-farming nation, and a play on the alternative Bar Camp events spawned in response to the main Foo Camps.

2007 Attendees

The inaugural New Zealand event was the first Foo Camp to be attended by government ministers. Communications and Information Technology minister David Cunliffe attended and held a session on broadband and regulatory policy, which he concluded with an [http://blogs.msdn.com/nigel/archive/2007/02/05/cross-pollination-kiwi-foo.aspx indication] that the discussion would have a significant impact on his portfolio priorities in the coming year: "Thank you for helping me write my action plan for 2007... As of tonight peering is an important issue"

Another minister of the crown, the Hon Judith Tizard spoke in her capacity as Minister of Archives New Zealand, Minister responsible for the National Library, and Associate Minister of Arts and Culture on the Copyright Amendment Bill, which she sponsors in the New Zealand Parliament.

Notable Open Source luminaries to attend included Chris DiBona, the manager of Google's open-source software programme, Ben Goodger, former Firefox lead with the Mozilla Foundation and now also at Google, Robert O'Callahan, lead engineer for the Mozilla Gecko layout engine, director of the GNOME Foundation board Jeff Waugh, and Asa Dotzler, co-founder and community coordinator for the Spread Firefox project. Other tech industry guests included British software developer [http://www.hackdiary.com/archives/000086.html Matt Biddulph] , the co-creator of the [http://www.hackdiary.com/archives/000081.html BBC Programme Catalogue] , a landmark searchable database of all programming ever broadcast by the BBC, and Artur Bergman, operations and infrastructure architect for SixApart, owner and operator of the LiveJournal, Moveable Type, TypePad and Vox blogging platforms.

They were joined by a varied group of New Zealanders, including Auckland University computer scientist Peter Gutmann, InternetNZ fellows John Houlker and Andy Linton ( [http://www.internetnz.net.nz/about/people/fellows/ source] ), technology entrepreneur [http://www.drury.net.nz/ Rod Drury] , user experience designer [http://www.abitcloser.com Ross Howard] , [http://rowansimpson.com Rowan Simpson] of Trade Me, Mike Hodgson of the electronica group Pitch Black, Idolblog founders Rachel and Regan Cunliffe, [http://www.arms.org.nz/about-us.html Mark Cubey] Wellington radio producer, motivator and all round creative-talent instigator of note, [http://sethop.com Seth Wagoner] , who gave the first public demonstration of [http://interclue.com Interclue] , and many others - about 120 in all.

Pictures from the Kiwi Foo Camp meet have been uploaded to the Flickr image sharing service and are tagged with [http://www.flickr.com./search/?q=kiwifoo&w=all "kiwifoo"] and [http://www.flickr.com./search/?w=all&q=baacamp&m=text "baacamp"] .

2008 Attendees

Many of the 2007's attendees returned. A focus remained on the website, open source, and IT industries, with notable exceptions including the Hon Judith Tizard.

BarCamps

BarCamps are similar events not requiring invitation; the following have been run in New Zealand:
* [http://barcamp.org/BarCampChristchurch Christchurch Barcamp] - Canterbury Innovation Incubator, 7 September 2007
* [http://barcamp.org/BarCampWellingtonNZegov e-Government] ] - Wellington, 15 September 2007
* [http://barcamp.org/BarCampAgileWellington agile] - Wellington, 7 September 2007
*Auckland Barcamp, ran on 15 December 2007 in Botany Downs. [cite web|url=http://www.geekzone.co.nz/freitasm/4042|title=Looking forward to attending Barcamp Auckland 2007, Kiwi Foo Camp 2008] [cite web|url=http://bca.ludwignz.com/|title=BarCamp Auckland'07]

ee also

foobar

Notes

External links

* [http://work.miramarmike.co.nz/2008/02/kiwi-foo-08-blog-roll.html Kiwi Foo 08 blog roll] * [http://www.misshapenfeatures.com/video/kiwifoo.mov Video of Kiwi Foo ] This link is defunct.
* [http://idealog.co.nz/idealog-blog/vincent-heeringa/foo-you.html Vincent Heeringa's column on the Kiwi Foo Camp in Idealog]
* [http://baacamp.org/ Baa camp]
* [http://idealog.co.nz/articles/web-exclusives/from-the-floor-at-foo.html Idealog article]
* [http://www.drury.net.nz/2007/02/03/firefox3-web-apps-game-changer/trackback/ Commentary by Rod Drury on Firefox 3 session held by Gecko engineering lead Robert O'Callahan]
* [http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roc/archives/2007/02/post_baa_camp.html Roundup by Robert OCallahan on Mozillazine site]
* [http://gregluck.com/blog/archives/2007/02/kiwi_foo_first.html Commentary on technical sessions by Greg Luck]
* [http://www.publicaddress.net/default,3919.sm Roundup by Russell Brown on Public Address]