Barcamp Kathmandu is back again! I was also one of the participants among some 600 online attendees of the event last year in Kathmandu and found the event worth attending. I am looking forward to this 3rd Barcamp Ktm (Barcamp Kathmandu 2011).
Honestly speaking it’s not been long that I learnt about BarCamp. Around a year ago in one of the London’s Blogger Meetup, it was Cristiano Betta, the organizer of London BarCamp who let me know about the BarCamp. I found the concept behind the barcamp fascinating and didn’t miss my chance to enlighten it, which then also lead to some further discussions about bar Camp. Soon I was able to distinguish it with some other camps such as Blog Camp, Bootcamp, Wordcamp, etc.. that I had in my mind already. Well, with a unique concept “BarCamp is more like informal gathering to share some common interests”.
BarCamp London, that I promised to attend is still some months away but I am so glad to explore Barcamp Kathmandu again! BarCamp Kathmandu 2011 will take place on August 6 at Nepal Administrative Staff College (NASC) Jawalakhel, Lalitpur in Kathmandu.
Before you dive into the scenes of Barcamp Kathmandu, let me make you clear about the concept behind the BarCamp.
So what the heck is BarCamp?
BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants who are the main actors of the event. BarCamp is a cool place for young, motivated and talented people to hangout. More importantly, it is where ideas get shared, created and advanced. This is not a formal gathering of black suits but an intense camp of those who strive to achieve.
BarCamp is in essence a conference without a preset agenda. We prefer the term ‘unconference’ actually. BarCamp is an ‘unconference’- organized by attendees, for attendees. There is no audience, only participants. So host a session, help out with planning, ask questions, spread the word- Everybody is invited. There really are no walls.
If you want to learn more about Barcamp Kathmandu, go through these promotional videos of 2011 (Latest one to happen) and of past events followed on tabs.
[tabs style=”default”] [tab title=”Promo Video 2011″][/tab] [tab title=”BarCamp Ktm 2010″][/tab] [tab title=”BarCamp Ktm 2009″][/tab] [/tabs]
Moving on to Last year’s Barcamp Kathmandu, the event was really successful. Attendees of the program discussed issues including Social Media, blogging, cyber crime, academic records, Green movements, why art?, Software freedom, garbage in everest, thought for good and much more. There was also a new concept in the camp – live attendant presenting to the attendees. The live discussion of Pukar Malla live from boston on issue of “development of Nepal” was well received. The event was live broadcasted on ustream making everyone possible to attend and also created lively discussions on twitter (Organizers also taking time to answer questions received from twitter). Hope this year’s will be more interactive and interesting one.
And before I sum up, I have an important comment! Barcamp Kathmandu is undoubtedly a good initiative but I don’t find it impressive the way it is organised. Somewhere I think barcamp in Kathmandu is not a real barcamp. In barcamp it’s essential that “all attendees MUST present a session”, NOT just participate by attending one. And barcamp in Kathmandu is often similar to other camps like as having few speakers and more attendants! The organizers of BarCamp should try harder to preserve it’s essence.
[box type=”info” style=”rounded”]Event Information:[/box]
[highlight]BarCamp Kathmandu 2011[/highlight]
Date: August 6, 2011
Venue: Nepal Administrative Staff College (NASC) Jawalakhel, Lalitpur
Learn more about Event | Attend this event
Are you attending? What do you think of BarCamp Kathmandu?
really nice write up about barcamp…well one thing it may not be practical for all the attendees to present a session especially when the attendees are in the hundreds. certainly people are encouraged and expected to take active participation in sessions and discussions, it just might be a little difficult to stick with the strict rule after all it is an open event.`
Hmmmm Agree but then, Rule is what makes BarCamp unique. Well, Well I can understand how things work in Nepal but we could atleast try. We could have small group of participants all willing to share and contribute something and then go for a camp. If not possible on a single day, we could make it like of two or three days!
Or else if the sharing/contributing group is large, we could go for multiple sessions at same time in different rooms and ask for attendees to attend the sessions they are interested in…
Over time we need to think of maintaining its uniqueness. Nevertheless, I understand and appreciate the effort in organizing events as such.
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