BarCamp Yokohama: Fall 2009 Photos
Multiple international communities came together for another BarCamp here in Japan last weekend, this time at the Yokohama International School about a half hour south of Tokyo. Back in May we organized a BarCamp in Tokyo, and I think we`ll do more of these events after this Yokohama effort. This BarCamp model for conference organizing is interesting and extremely efficient because it`s a flat structure and distributes tasks widely: everyone organizes, everyone participates, and the schedule is built live on site. Some OpenSolaris guys were there, and we gave out OpenSolaris t-shirts and CDs and other items. The theme for the event was 21st Century Education. Special thanks to kurisuteen for leading. Great event.
How does the self organization work? Is there a pre-set schedule or is that decided as people arrive? Thanks, Rafael
Rafael
November 25, 2009 at 11:08 am
It depends.
Stuff gets done or it doesn’t.
Sometimes the schedule is made up totally live on site with people gathered around a white board writing on stickies and putting up sessions in a grid, and other times people fill in sessions on a wiki online beforehand. Generally, during the weeks of organizing leading up to the event — which all takes place on an open list (unlike vendor conferences) — lots of ideas are tossed around for sessions so when the actual conference rolls around it’s just a question of filling out the schedule. It flows fast, in other words.
Tokyo BarCamp worked this way and so did the Community Leadership Summit:
http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris/entry/community_leadership_summit_photos
http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris/entry/barcamp_tokyo_051609_photos
The other issue with scheduling is how long to make the sessions. In Tokyo we did 15 minute blocks to really break things up massively and distribute as widely as possible. That really facilitated speed and cooperation, too. If people wanted more than 15 minutes, they could just sign up for more sessions (consecutively or otherwise). It’s all very casual. In Yokohama, the sessions were 1 hour each, and that, too, generated a different flow to the day. Give people more time and they will tend to present more formally with slides and such, and their presentations will be more complete. Give people less time and they improvise more and that leads to more informal conversation and spontaneity.
In Japan some of the events were did for OpenSolaris were based on micro-talks — 5 minute talks, no slides, schedule made up on the site, lots of beer. Fast. Wild.
What’s nice about this format is that leadership from an organizational and content perspective is defined by those who show up and organize and those who present. It’s just really clear.
After experiencing the Japan micro stuff and the two BarCamps, I am bored to tears with traditional conferences. So, consequently, I tend to not go to the traditional events but to instead focus on the smaller venues that are actually driven by the community (or a university, etc).
Jim Grisanzio
November 25, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Very, very cool.
Rafael
November 26, 2009 at 1:19 pm
[...] Related: Tokyo Hackerspace, O`Reilly Make Tokyo, Tokyo BarCamp, Yokohama BarCamp. [...]
A Quick Visit to Tokyo Hackerspace « Jim Grisanzio
March 28, 2010 at 10:55 pm
[...] I bet the turn out will be huge this year. In 2009 I participated at two BarCamps — Tokyo and Yokohama. What I like best about BarCamp is that no one is special — everyone organizes, everyone [...]
BarCamp Tokyo 2010 « Jim Grisanzio
April 25, 2010 at 2:53 pm
[...] your name and contact information on the wiki. Previous BarCamps in Japan: BarCamp Tokyo 2009 | BarCamp Yokohama 2009 General BarCamp info: here and [...]
BarCamp Tokyo バーキャンプ東京 « Jim Grisanzio
May 11, 2010 at 7:37 pm
[...] Related: Tokyo Hackerspace, O`Reilly Make Tokyo 04, Tokyo BarCamp, Yokohama BarCamp. [...]
Photos: Tokyo Make Meeting 05 2010 « Jim Grisanzio
May 24, 2010 at 3:29 am
[...] here are two examples of what these events look like from right here in Japan: BarCamp Tokyo 2009 | BarCamp Yokohama 2009. And there is some basic information about BarCamp here and here. BarCamp Tokyo 2010 is just four [...]
BarCamp Tokyo 2010: 4 Days Away « Jim Grisanzio
May 25, 2010 at 4:12 pm