Minho Campus Party

Minho Campus Party (also known as MCP) is Portugal's first and largest recurring LAN party. It takes place in the Minho region.

A bit of history

LAN Parties have their origins in the north of Europe, where they are frequent, and where their tradition traces 10 years or more into the past.
This event is a manifestation of the new ways of the youth and youth culture in this millennium: All over the world youth are joining together to embrace their interest in computers and computing, sharing the one same passion, developing a conviviality to saluter and at the same time fortifying its preparation for the challenges that if come across to them in century XXI.

Locations by city, all editions are held in Portugal, in the Minho region.

	Date start / end	Number of participants	Location	Area (m2)
2001	August 29 - September 2	300	Braga, Parque de exposições
2002	July 31 - August 4	600	Guimarães, Pavilhão Multiusos
2003	July 30 - August 3	1500	Viana do Castelo, Pavilhão da Associação Industrial do Minho
2004	July 28 - August 1	1700	Braga, Estádio Municipal de Braga	9500

Professor Altamiro Machado

The idea of bringing to Portugal, and specifically to the Minho area, an event of this type came from Professor Altamiro Machado (one of the pioneers of education of computer science in the Seventies) University Professor and then director of the Department of Information Systems (DSI - Departamento de Sistemas e Informação) of the Minho University. Professor Altamiro Machado developed the idea, looking for support, and developing the first contacts with the team of Charles Pinto Spanish event. It was from his initiative that a group of about forty students of the DSI participated in the Campus Party [1] 2000 in Valencia, with the objective of later helping to implement the Portuguese version of the event. Professor Altamiro Machado died in end of March 2001. In his memory the accomplishments of the Minho Campus Party are a tribute to the university professor who was truly a man of vision. During the 2001 event, a session to honor the professor's memory [2] was organized

Network

Cisco Systems supported the MCP since its first edition, and for the past 4 (four) years, mounting the network infrastructure and supplying the necessary equipment (an investment of more than two million dollars). Before the role was taken over by ProCruve Networking by HP
Portugal Telecom supports the connection.

MCP 2004

• 3 (three) ATM, STM-1 (155 Mbit each), connected to the data centre of the Telepac (Portugal Telecom Group) on Porto.
• 15,000 meters of optical-fiber
• 30,000 of network cables

Areas

• Computer games
  • Counter-Strike
  • FIFA Soccer 2004
  • Halo: Combat Evolved
  • Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
  • Need for Speed: Underground
  • Quake III Arena
  • Rise of Nations
  • Unreal Tournament 2004
  • Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
  • Age of Mythology
  • Age of Empires II: The Conquerors
• Multimedia
• Linux and Security
• Mobility and Telecommunications

When official competitions don't exist, participants frequently organize competitions between themselves, of which many become officially recognised by the organization.

External references

• Minho Campus Party, official page
• Minho Campus Party Forum
• #campusparty, channel in the IRC network, PTnet

Articles and news

• SIC Online, online videos (in Portuguese)
• Ciberia, photos
• Minho Campus Party, 2002 (format WMV) RTP2 - Magazine 2010
• NTV, 2002 (format WMV)
• RTP1 morning edition, 2002 (format WMV)
• RTP2 night edition, 2002 (format WMV)

Press releases

• Cisco Systems Portugal

See also

• Leeching
• LAN Party
• Minho University
• Professor Altamiro Machado
• Professor Eduardo Beira