BarCamp
Encyclopedia
Unconference
An unconference is a participant-driven meeting. The term "unconference" has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid one or more aspects of a conventional conference, such as high fees, sponsored presentations, and top-down organization...
s). They are open, participatory workshop-events, the content of which is provided by participants. The first BarCamps focused on early-stage web applications, and were related to open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
technologies, social protocols, and open data formats. The format has also been used for a variety of other topics, including public transit, health care, and political organizing.
History
The name BarCamp is a playful allusion to the event's origins, with reference to the programmer slang term, foobarFoobar
The terms foobar /ˈfʊːbɑː/, fubar, or foo, bar, baz and qux are sometimes used as placeholder names in computer programming or computer-related documentation...
: BarCamp arose as an open-to-the-public alternative to Foo Camp
Foo Camp
Foo Camp is an annual hacker event hosted by publisher O'Reilly Media. O'Reilly describes it as "the wiki of conferences", where the program is developed by the attendees at the event, using big whiteboard schedule templates that can be rewritten or overwritten by attendees to optimize the schedule...
, which is an annual invitation-only (for Friends of O'Reilly) participant-driven conference hosted by Tim O'Reilly
Tim O'Reilly
Tim O'Reilly is the founder of O'Reilly Media and a supporter of the free software and open source movements.-Life and career:...
.
The first BarCamp was held in Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
, from August 19–21, 2005, in the offices of Socialtext
Socialtext
Socialtext Incorporated is a company based in Palo Alto, California that produces enterprise social software, comprising an integrated suite of web-based social software applications including microblogging, user profile, directories, groups, personal dashboards using OpenSocial widgets, and shared...
. It was 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, the Middle East, Australasia and Asia. To mark the first anniversary of BarCamp, BarCampEarth was held in multiple locations world wide on August 25–27, 2006. The second anniversary of BarCamp, 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. The largest recorded BarCamp happened in February 2011 with over 4700 confirmed registered attendees in Yangon
Yangon
Yangon is a former capital of Burma and the capital of Yangon Region . Although the military government has officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw since March 2006, Yangon, with a population of over four million, continues to be the country's largest city and the most important commercial...
, Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
(Burma). The previous year (January 2010) BarCamp Yangon attracted over 2700 attendees (confirmed with registration forms) Barcamp Yangon in Global Voices.
Influence
BarCamp makes their organizational process freely available, codifying it in a publicly available wiki. In addition to the BarCamp-branded network, it is also a model for user-generated conferences in other fields and for more specialized applications such as WordCamp, PodCamp, Seattle Mind Camp, CrisisCamp and THATCampTHATCamp
THATCamp is a user-generated unconference for technologists and humanities professionals, including university and college faculty, librarians and archivists, and museum staff...
. The real estate industry has adopted the Barcamp format with over 30 RE Barcamps completed and scheduled throughout the U.S. with plans underway to take the format internationally. The BarCamp format has been used to organize events in foreign countries like the French-language VinoCamps which have been held in wine regions across France.
Structure and participatory process
BarCamps are organized and evangelized largely through the web; anyone can initiate a BarCamp using the BarCamp wiki.The procedural framework consists of sessions proposed and scheduled each day by attendees, mostly on-site, typically using whiteboard
Whiteboard
A whiteboard is a name for any glossy, usually white surface for nonpermanent markings. Whiteboards are analogous to chalkboards, allowing rapid marking and erasing of markings on their surface...
s or paper taped to the wall. This approach has been dubbed to play on words
Open Grid Services Architecture
The Open Grid Services Architecture describes an architecture for a service-oriented grid computing environment for business and scientific use, developed within the Global Grid Forum...
, The Open Grid approach.
FooCamps and BarCamps are based on simplified variations of Open Space Technology
Open Space Technology
Open-space technology is an approach for hosting meetings, conferences, corporate-style retreats, and community summit events, focused on a specific and important purpose or task—but beginning without any formal agenda, beyond the overall purpose or theme.- Law of two feet :If at any time you find...
(OST), relying on the self-organizing character of OST. Unlike classical conference formats, BarCamps and OST rely on the passion and the responsibility of the participants.
Although the format is loosely structured, there are 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 via public web channels, including blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s, photo sharing
Photo sharing
Photo sharing is the publishing or transfer of a user's digital photos online, thus enabling the user to share them with others . This function is provided through both websites and applications that facilitate the upload and display of images...
, social bookmarking
Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to organize, store, manage and search for bookmarks of resources online. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves aren't shared, merely bookmarks that reference them....
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, wikis, and IRC. This encouragement to share is a deliberate change from the "off-the-record by default" and "no recordings" rules at many invite-only participant driven conferences. It also turns a physical, face-to-face event into a 'hybrid event
Hybrid event
A hybrid event is a tradeshow, conference, unconference, seminar, workshop or other meeting that combines a "live" in-person event with a "virtual" online component....
' which enables remote online engagement with Barcamp participants.
Hosting and attending
Venues typically provide basic services. Free network access, usually WiFiWIFI
WIFI is a radio station broadcasting a brokered format. Licensed to Florence, New Jersey, USA, the station is currently operated by Florence Broadcasting Partners, LLC.This station was previously owned by Real Life Broadcasting...
, is crucial. Following the model of Foo Camp
Foo Camp
Foo Camp is an annual hacker event hosted by publisher O'Reilly Media. O'Reilly describes it as "the wiki of conferences", where the program is developed by the attendees at the event, using big whiteboard schedule templates that can be rewritten or overwritten by attendees to optimize the schedule...
, the venue also makes space for the attendees, or BarCampers, to literally camp out overnight. Thus, BarCamps rely on securing sponsorship, 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 typically encouraged 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 anarchismAnarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
and autonomism
Autonomism
Autonomism refers to a set of left-wing political and social movements and theories close to the socialist movement. As an identifiable theoretical system it first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerist communism...
, happening since the '90s in Temporary Autonomous Zone
Temporary Autonomous Zone
T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism is a book by anarchist writer Hakim Bey published in 1991 by Autonomedia...
s or other occupied places. However, BarCamps lack the political motivations and are actually quite integrated with the mainstream ICT
Information and communication technologies
Information and communications technology or information and communication technology, usually abbreviated as ICT, is often used as an extended synonym for information technology , but is usually a more general term that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of...
industry, often getting substantial sponsorships from major corporations.
Most BarCamps use the agenda wall technique from Open Space methodology
Open Space Technology
Open-space technology is an approach for hosting meetings, conferences, corporate-style retreats, and community summit events, focused on a specific and important purpose or task—but beginning without any formal agenda, beyond the overall purpose or theme.- Law of two feet :If at any time you find...
. Some, like RecentChangesCamp
RecentChangesCamp
RecentChangesCamp is an unconference focused on wikis, that was first held in 2006. It is named after the "recent changes" feature that is found in most wikis...
, BEAST (east bay Bloggers) Camp, HealthCamp
HealthCamp
HealthCamp is an unconference inspired by the popular BarCamp conferences, which are intended to allow people to share and learn in an open environment...
and others, use the whole of the Open Space methodology
Open Space Technology
Open-space technology is an approach for hosting meetings, conferences, corporate-style retreats, and community summit events, focused on a specific and important purpose or task—but beginning without any formal agenda, beyond the overall purpose or theme.- Law of two feet :If at any time you find...
.
The BoF
Birds of a Feather (computing)
In computing, BoF can refer to:* An informal discussion group. Unlike special interest groups or working groups, BoFs are informal and often formed in an ad-hoc manner...
sessions of IETF
Internet Engineering Task Force
The Internet Engineering Task Force develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standards bodies and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite...
meetings may also have provided inspiration.
See also
- Café PhilosophiqueCafé PhilosophiqueCafé philosophique is a grassroots forum for philosophical discussion, founded by philosopher Marc Sautet in Paris, France....
- Crisis campCrisis campA crisis camp is a BarCamp gathering of IT professionals, software developers, and computer programmers to aid in the relief efforts of a major crisis such as those caused by earthquakes, floods, or hurricanes...
- CloudCampCloudCampCloudCamp is an unconference for cloud computing early adopters, held internationally on an ad-hoc basis.- History :CloudCamp was formed to provide a common ground for the introduction and advancement of cloud computing. The founders include Dave Nielsen, Reuven Cohen and Sam Charrington...
- HealthCampHealthCampHealthCamp is an unconference inspired by the popular BarCamp conferences, which are intended to allow people to share and learn in an open environment...
- OggCamp
- Knowledge CafeKnowledge CafeA knowledge café or World Café is a type of business meeting or organisational workshop which aims to provide an open and creative conversation on a topic of mutual interest to surface their collective knowledge, share ideas and insights, and gain a deeper understanding of the subject and the...
- Open Hack Day
- Open Space TechnologyOpen Space TechnologyOpen-space technology is an approach for hosting meetings, conferences, corporate-style retreats, and community summit events, focused on a specific and important purpose or task—but beginning without any formal agenda, beyond the overall purpose or theme.- Law of two feet :If at any time you find...
- ProductCamp
- RecentChangesCampRecentChangesCampRecentChangesCamp is an unconference focused on wikis, that was first held in 2006. It is named after the "recent changes" feature that is found in most wikis...
- StixCampStixCampStixCamp is a BarCamp unconference hosted in a rural area. Organisers of StixCamps aim to engage the local community in technology, often by providing special 'how to' or introduction to technology sessions as part of the schedule...
- SuperHappyDevHouseSuperHappyDevHouseSuperHappyDevHouse is an international series of social events which organizers originally conceived as parties for hackers and thinkers. Founded May 29, 2005 by Jeff Lindsay and David Weekly , SHDH in Silicon Valley began by hosting 150 to 200 people every six weeks at rotating venues throughout...
- TeachMeetTeachMeetA TeachMeet is an organised but informal meeting for teachers to share good practice, practical innovations and personal insights in teaching with technology...
- Tribe (internet)Tribe (internet)The term tribe is used as a slang term for an unofficial community of people who share a common interest, and usually who are loosely affiliated with each other through social media or other internet mechanisms...
- UnconferenceUnconferenceAn unconference is a participant-driven meeting. The term "unconference" has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid one or more aspects of a conventional conference, such as high fees, sponsored presentations, and top-down organization...
External links
- BarCamp.org (website). Retrieved June 30, 2006.
- Singel, Ryan. Barring None, Geek Camp Rocks. Wired News. August 23, 2005. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
- Craig, Kathleen. Why "unconferences" are fun conferences. Business 2.0 Magazine. June 6, 2006. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
- Murali, J. New conferencing tool: An attempt to conduct on-line meetings in a participatory environment. The Hindu. April 17, 2006. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
- Jagadeesh, Namith. With focus on human interaction, "unconferences" come of age. "LiveMint". May 26, 2008. Retrieved May 26, 2008.
- Tarun Chandel. Bridging the gap between students and industry. "LiveMint". Mar 8, 2008. Retrieved Mar 8, 2008.
- BarCamp.in (website). Retrieved June 20, 2011.
- Çelik, Tantek. Remembering the idea of BarCamp, Tantek's Thoughts. July 10, 2006. Retrieved July 14, 2006.
- Messina, Chris. Bar camp buzz builds; the story twists, turns, shouts! FactoryCity (weblog). August 18, 2005. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
- Solaris, Julius A collection of resources to run a BarCamp. Event Manager Blog. January 31, 2008, Retrieved February 28, 2008.