1. Ba r c a mp i n g
i n Ea s t e r n
Eu r o p e
ByCamp, Miensk (Belarus), June 7, 2008
By Oleksandr Demchenko

2. Ou t l i n e
1. Barcamps : WTF?
2. Overview of Barcamps in Eastern Europe and
Central Asia
3. Regional Barcamping Features
4. Future Trends

3. 1.
Ba r c a mp s :
W ?
TF

4. Or i g i n o f Ba r c a mp s
 O'Reilly's FooCamp and FooBar
 Barcamp as an opensourced version of
Foocamp
 First barcamp: 2005, Silicon Valley
 Several hundred barcamps in 3 years

5. W ?
TF
 Self-organized (user generated)
(un)conference. Wiki is usually used to set up a
barcamp
 Brief sessions with no topical division to give
an opportunity to everyone and to mix up the
audience
 Generaly on new media or ICT related topics,
but not limiting to
 Great spirit of creativity, information
exchange ant extensive networking

6. 2 . Ov e r v i e w
o f Ba r c a mp s
i n Ea s t e r n
Eu r o p e a n d

7. Bl o g c a mp CI S a n d Ba l t i c s
2007
 Kyiv, Ukraine (no visa for both EU and CIS
citizens), Oct 13-14
 OSI granted, also supported by TOL and
Internews
 300 participants
 60 sessions within 2 days in 3 simultaneous
flows
 700 blog posts covering the event
 Promoting barcamp format as one of the aims

8. Ba r c a mp Ba l t i c s 2 0 0 8
 Riga, Latvia, Feb 8-10
 Both commercial and non-commercial sponsors
 Venue is city's best hotel
 450 participants from all post-USSR countries
 Barcamp is only one day
 Innovation incubator and pecha kucha next day

9. Mo s c o w' s 1 st
Ed u c a t i o n a l
' S a mo s b o r '
 Moscow, Russia, Feb. 24
 'Samosbor' is a linguistic purist translation of
barcamp
 Intel's educational program

10. Ed u c a t i o n 2 . 0
 Moscow, Russia, March 28
 Google's educational conference
 ½ of event pre-scheduled
 ½ in barcamp format

11. ' Bl o g c a mp ' o n I n t e r n e t
a n d Bu s i n e s s Co n f e r e n c e
2008
 Near Moscow, April 17-18
 Leading Russian internet annual conference
 Mis-using word 'blogcamp' instead of barcamp
 Participants are free to propose their sessions
on conference website
 Online voting for proposed sessions: most
voted items included in program of the
conference

12. Co d e : Ca mp
 Lviv, Ukraine, April 19-20
 Set up in frames of Decoded annual IT festival
 Sessions given only by sponsors and Kyiv
blogcamp community
 Local community isn't informed enough about
barcamp format

13. Br i d g e c a mp
 Riga, Latvia, April 25-26
 «Bridge» is for bridging ICT and NGO
communities
 One session flow educating NGO people about
ICT
 Another one educating ICT people about non-
governmental activities

14. Ba r c a mp Ca u c a s u s
 Tbilisi, Georgia, June 7-8
 Georgia is a safe ground for Armenians and
Azerbaijanis to meet
 About 150 participants
 Lack of local barcamp community

15. Me d i a b a r c a mp
 Lithuania, June 6-8
 Media activism in focus
 Mostly for Belarusians
 Hosted by Belarusian Greens
 At Baltic seashore
 Simultaneous with Barcamp Caucasus

16. i Ca mp
 iCamp - near Moscow, Jul 30 — Aug 3
 'Ethnomir' resort
 About 450 participants
 Devided into sections (blogcamp, startupcamp,
educamp etc.)

17. An d mo r e . . .
 Barcamp (Central) Asia - Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan,
Aug 29-31 (See Kristina's presentation)
 Barcamp Azerbaidjan - Baku/Lenkoran, Aug 29-
31
 Barcamp Kazakhstan - Almaty, Sept 12-14

18. Bl o g c a mp Ce n t r a l a n d
Ea s t e r n Eu r o p e 2 0 0 8
 Kyiv (Ukraine), Oct 10-12
 Region shift: from CIS in 2007 to CEE in 2008
 821 participants from 16 countries
 101 presentations
 Investor day – about 130 projects contesting
 Best Ukrainian Blog Awards

19. Ed u c a mp
 Kyiv (Ukraine), November 15-16
 Not a barcamp!
 Seminars in Universities on new media prior to
Educamp (up to 600 participants)
 Up to 400 students took part
 Blogcamp community were presenters in 3
session tracks
 Educamp in Donetsk on Dec. 18th

20. S o c i a l Ca mp
 Kyiv, December 13
 Some 100 participants
 3 simultaneous session flows
 Focus on new media for NGOs and activists

21. By Ca mp
 Here you are!

22. Mi n i b a r s a n d mi n i c a mp s
 Minibars are thematic gatherings of Moscow
iCamp community
 Minicamps are Ukrainian (Kyiv) monthly
meeting of this kind
 In other countries word 'minibar' is sometimes
used for barcamp presentation meeting

23. 3 . Re g i o n a l
Ba r c a mp i n g
Fe a t ur e s

24. No n - g o v e r n me n t a l s u p p o r t
 Open Society Institute is granting main
barcamps
 Supported by: Internews Ukraine, Internews
Network, Transitions Online, European
Journalism Centre, Swedish International
Liberal Centre...
 Travel grants for barcampers from other
nations

25. I n v e s t me n t e v e n t
 Named Innovation Incubator on Baltic and
Caucasus barcamps
 Special activity on barcamps to get together
investors and startupers
 Both business and non-profit projects

26. W ki i s not t he onl y
i
opt i on
 Wiki was used for Blogcamp CIS and Baltics and
Samosbor
 Wordpress used for Barcamp Baltics and
Barcamp Caucasus. Registration for the event
was realised with registration in wordpress
 Special CMS will be used for iCamp and
Blogcamp CEE

27. Mi s c e l l a n e o u s ( o u t d a t e d a
bi t )
 Traincamps and aircamps — participants of one
nation are travelling to barcamp to another
country together
 Barcamps of Eastern Europe are generally more
'organized' and attract more participant than a
typical barcamp
 'How to organize your barcamp' is a typical end
session

28. 4 . Tr e n d s

29. Co mme r c i a l i z i n g
 OSI to end support?
 Commercial sponsors are better acqainted
with barcamp format
 Organizers are more experienced
 Barcamps are cool

30. Ge t t i n g l e s s e r i n s i z e ,
mo r e t o p i c - s p e c i f i c
 More specialized barcamps
 'Normalizing' in size

31. De - b a r c a mp i n g ?
 Not barcamp elements: investment event,
pecha-kucha etc.
 More control of content: thematic sections on
iCamp, voting for sessions
 Some not-barcamp events but inspired by
barcamps are called barcamps or ...camps.

32. Bo i l - o u t ?
 Barcamps are loosing their `inspirational spirit
 Searching for new efficient formats (e.g.
discussions in groups as at ByCamp and and
Barcamp Baltics 2009)

33. Blogcamp CEE 2008
Oleksandr Demchenko
http://demchenko.info