Barcamp

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Participants in a BarCamp in Orlando , Florida : Discussions, listening and recording on-screen at the same time.
Grid of a BarCamp in Bangalore

A Barcamp (often BarCamp , unconference , ad hoc non-conference ) is an open meeting with open workshops , their contents and expiration even developed by the participants at the beginning of the meeting and made in due course. Barcamps are used for content-related exchange and discussion, but can also show concrete results at the end of the event (e.g. at joint programming workshops).

Since the first barcamp in Palo Alto ( California ) in August 2005 on the premises of the Socialtext company , barcamps have been held in North America , Asia and Europe . In the German-speaking countries, the first bar camps took place the following year in Berlin, Vienna and Zurich.

development

The name is an allusion to one of Tim O'Reilly initiated series of events called FooCamp in which selected individuals ( F riends o f O 'Reilly) for replacement and overnight ( camping met). While you need an invitation from O'Reilly to participate in FooCamp, Barcamps can be attended without an invitation. With Foo and Bar placeholders are called in computer science.

Barcamps are a form of large group moderation . They have similarities with Open Space , but are more loosely organized. A barcamp consists of lectures and discussion rounds (so-called sessions ), which are coordinated by the participants themselves at the beginning of the barcamp on whiteboards , meta-plans or pin boards - in so-called grids (timetable). All participants are invited to give or organize a lecture themselves.

The BarCamp is… a subsidiary of Open Space, there are many similarities, but some important differences.

The principle of the BarCamp: give and take. Every participant is asked to bring a 'gift' to the event in the form of a contribution (presentation, lecture, example).

The principle of Open Space: getting better together or planning actions together. Every person is invited to raise concerns and burning questions as part of the main topic (focus) of the event. If desired, the documented discussion results can be weighted within the framework of the so-called convergence process in the final phase of the Open Space and put into an action plan. "

- Erich Kolenaty

Barcamps are mainly organized in wikis and advertised and documented through channels such as blogs , micro-blogging , social bookmarks and IRC . Everyone can organize a barcamp themselves and use the wiki on Barcamp.org for this. Participation is often free of charge and is only limited for reasons of space, so prior registration is required. At many barcamps abroad it is possible to spend the night in your own sleeping bag at the venue. The costs of the event and food are borne by sponsors .

Topics such as early-stage web applications , open source technologies and social software are discussed at bar camps . In the meantime, however, there are also regular bar camps on other topics, such as the BibCamp for topics related to libraries, the EduCamp for questions of teaching and learning, the CareCamp for topics of health and nursing or barcamps in the tourist environment (tourism camp, hotel camp, MICEcamp, Spacamp).

method

Since there are often several dozen to hundreds of participants, large group methods are used for moderation . The open space method has proven itself : the participants advertise their own topics in the plenary and each create a working group. In this, possible projects are worked out or knowledge and experience are simply exchanged. The results are collected at the end. Open Space can produce a wide variety of concrete measures in a short time, or spread a lot of knowledge and generate motivation. Barcamps sometimes create finished projects with executable code or code snippets to improve existing projects. Or project ideas emerge that are put into practice after the barcamp.

The moderator, who moderates the plenary at the start of the barcamp, has central tasks and celebrates the success in the final plenary together with the participants. It is important to have an infrastructure during the barcamp that ensures functioning networks and hardware, enough pens, wrapping paper, adhesive tape, but also for drinks and food. The collection and distribution of the results also requires a good structure. An essential element is the social and professional networking of the participants, also beyond the barcamp. The success of the event ultimately depends on the ability of the organizers to support and accompany the project group in implementing their ideas after the barcamp.

The concept presentation of the barcamp often takes place in a plenary session, but it can also take place in the form of a vernissage . This is then done with the help of pin boards, which the audience walks past in small groups and explains details. The bar camp ends with a community-building final ritual.

Events

Barcamps now take place in practically every country.

Austria

On September 30, 2006, Barcamp Vienna was the first barcamp in the German-speaking region. The announcement is often made via the wiki barcamp.at. As of 2013, 60 barcamps in Austria were documented on Lanyrd.

Germany

As of 2019, there are over 200 events in the German-speaking region that are held in the form of a barcamp. In 2017 there were 150 events.

United States

In the USA, bar camps are held on a wide variety of topics. The events in Silicon Valley and the major cities on the east coast have achieved national awareness . In addition, so-called WordCamps are held regularly , which are aimed specifically at bloggers and are supported by the WordPress developer Automattic .

See also

literature

  • Frank Feldmann and Kai-Uwe Hellmann: Participation raised to a principle . In: Thorsten Knoll (Hrsg.): New concepts for memorable events. Participation instead of boredom - from participant to actor . Wiesbaden: Springer / Gabler 2016, pp. 29–54.
  • Kai-Uwe Hellmann: Barcamps as communicative meeting places for the internet scene . In: Christoph Bieber / Claus Leggewie (eds.): Among pirates. Explorations in a new political arena. Bielefeld: transcript 2012, pp. 127-136.
  • Dominik Rzepka and Franz Patzig: Think Tank for Web 2.0 . Today.de from November 3, 2007 [no longer available]
  • Meike Richter: Barcamp: Knowledge through sharing . Die Zeit , No. 48 of November 26, 2008 full text
  • Laetitia Seybold: Barcamp - break as a program . Focus Online from January 6, 2009 full text
  • Chapter Barcamp . In: Charlie Hailey: Camps: A Guide to 21st Century Places. MIT Press, 2009. ISBN 0-262-51287-4 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Barcamp  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : BarCamps  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Oliver Gassner: Happy Campers. In: Telepolis. December 20, 2006, accessed August 23, 2012 .
  2. Franz Patzig: What actually is BarCamp? February 13, 2007, accessed August 23, 2012 .
  3. a b Erich Kolenaty: Similarities and differences between BarCamp and Open Space , in: Digitale Moderation / Moderation 2.0 ( Xing group / topic), October 31, 2013, on xing.com
  4. a b Erich Kolenaty: Similarities and differences between BarCamp and Open Space , Vienna (undated), on rheinisches-forum.de
  5. project website www.carecamp.at (link checked on January 4, 2014)
  6. Meike Richter: Barcamp: Knowledge through division. In: Zeit Online. November 26, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2012 .
  7. ^ Anne M. Schüller: Touchpoint Barcamp: A new form of large-scale employee event. In: Management Portal. June 14, 2015, accessed June 15, 2015 .
  8. barcamp.at. Retrieved June 27, 2013 .
  9. Lanyrd. Retrieved June 27, 2013 .
  10. Barcamp list DA-CH. Retrieved September 2, 2019 .
  11. Overview of all WordCamps. Automattic, accessed August 23, 2012 .