Post-BarCamp Indy 2008

Saturday 02.09.2008 04:40PM

I probably should have written more about BarCamp Indy between the first time and now, but, oh well. I certainly did plenty of word-of-mouth promotion to my geeky friends that might have been interested, so that's what matters.

So yes, BarCamp Indy 2008 was today. A BarCamp is an “un-conference”-style tech conference. All content is presented by the participants and is usually scheduled on the day of the event. It's a very open and collaborative event.

This was the inaugural BarCamp in Indianapolis and while I have never been to one before, I thought it was quite a success. We had 16 in attendance, one of whom drove a couple hours from South Bend to attend (I believe he said he left at 5:30am). Topics included: “Going Green with Technology”, “Linux Desktop: Making the Switch”, “The Future of Mobile Web”, “Graphic Web Design and CSS”, “Simplifying Your Life in Spite of Technology”, and “Information Strategy / Processing”. There was good discussion for all of these topics, and various links related to these can all be found on del.icio.us, tagged with 'barcampindy2008'. The presenters will be uploading their presentations and linking them from the BarCamp Indy wiki. I encourage them to tag these on del.icio.us as well, so they should show up on that same page above.

Brad Williams used Ustream to stream live video of BarCamp. Ustream provides chat along with the video, so we had several people tune in and interact. Pretty cool. Most of us there are on-board The Twitter, of course. Between Scott Wilder, Brad Williams, and myself posting updates, I'm sure most of central Indiana Twitter people knew what was going on. Twitter is awesome, simple, has great uses and potential; I recommend it, even if it seems silly at first.

Photos from the event can be found on Flickr, also tagged with 'barcampindy2008'.

I think it was unanimous that this was a successful BarCamp, and I am sure there will be more coming. How soon, when, and where – that's all up in the air. I'm sure we will all start working that out on the wiki soon enough. Feel free to join in!

P.S. Check out our cool lanyards and name badges, provided by SnapFoo. Scott was cool enough to use my special capitalization.

Tagged: geek / barcamp / barcampindy2008
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BarCamp Indy

Thursday 11.01.2007 12:27AM

Calling fellow geeks in Indianapolis: We have a BarCamp coming!

What's a BarCamp?
Good question. I was only passingly familiar with the concept before; I just thought they were cool conferences for computer geek types. That they can be, but they're very open and participation-driven. All content is presented by participants and is scheduled on the day of the event. It seems in many senses they are rightfully called “un-conferences.”

What are the Rules of BarCamp?

1st Rule: You do talk about Bar Camp.
2nd Rule: You do blog about Bar Camp.
3rd Rule: If you want to present, you must write your topic and name in a presentation slot.
4th Rule: Only three word intros.
5th Rule: As many presentations at a time as facilities allow for.
6th Rule: No pre-scheduled presentations, no tourists.
7th Rule: Presentations will go on as long as they have to or until they run into another presentation slot.
8th Rule: If this is your first time at BarCamp, you HAVE to present. (Ok, you don't really HAVE to, but try to find someone to present with, or at least ask questions and be an interactive participant.)

When is BarCamp Indy?
Some time in early 2008.

Uhh?
Well, this is pretty fresh. Scott Wilder just started the idea up in the last couple days. We're both brand new at this and since it's a user-generated conference, well there is not an exact date or location set yet.

Your participation is welcomed and needed. Nevermind if you have not done anything like this before, just jump in on the wiki: barcampindy.org.

Tagged: geek / barcamp / barcampindy2008
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