Missoula BarCamp - Sat April 18 - noon-5:30pm

[Harold Shinsato]

Dear Missoula Technology People,

Missoula BarCamp will be Sat April 18, 2009 from noon - 5:30pm.

We will try to have an organizing meeting in the next two weeks - let me
know if you're interested. We'll just meet at a cafe for about an hour
to go over promotion and sponsorship ideas.

The MonTEC Conference Room is available so I've tentatively reserved the
space. We have the run of the lobby, conference room, and halls. I'm
willing to consider alternate locations, but it's hard to beat free and
ModWest is such a great location but their conference room just won't be
adequate for a BarCamp. If you have other suggestions for the location,
please let me know before Monday 8am!

I received a ton of ideas for making the second Missoula BarCamp an even
bigger success than last year - but I'm eager to hear more - just email
or call me at 777-3892.

Harold

[Jason Christ]

What be bar camp kind sir???


Jason Christ, WebDev

406.207.7078

Ja...@BigSkyWebscapes.com



BigSky Webscapes

PO Box 8282

Missoula, Montana 59807

[Cliff]

I'd be willing to attend an organizing meeting.  Just let me know.

 

-Cliff

[Harold Shinsato]

Jason,

Thanks for asking. The Missoula BarCamp is a technology conference self-organized by the participants using the model of the FooCamp "unconference" created by the well known computer publisher, Tim O'Reilly. FooCamp stands for "Friends of O'Reilly". FooCamp is an influential and exclusive invitation only conference that happens once a year in Northern California where about 250 key representatives from the computer, publishing, and gaming/hacker fields come together.

BarCamp was created to make the FooCamp unconference model available to a wider audience. They happen all over the world and cover topics as diverse as the creative arts, science, technology, law, and social activism. You can find a listing of other BarCamp events at http://barcamp.org.

At a FooCamp or BarCamp, rather than the agenda being designed beforehand, the conference topics are created on the spot by the participants using a large grid with locations and times. People just write in the session topics they want to talk about into the grid. This "unconference" format tends to be much more participation oriented - which many find to be much more helpful to the learning process than the passive lecture based model - though you can also have a traditional powerpoint slide presentation at an unconference.

This missoula-web-discussion-group was heavily involved with the Missoula BarCamp that happened last April. You can see some of the topics discussed and the conference notes from last year by visiting this site.

http://missoulabarcamp.org

    Cheers,
    Harold