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Posts tagged BarCampBangalore
BarCamp Bangalore 6
Apr 21st
BarCamp Bangalore or BCB6 started off with a bang on 19 April morning at IIM Bangalore. This time around, we (planners) were very clear since the beginning that this time it is going to be a classic BarCamp. If you have attended BCB 1 / BCB 2, then you can definitely understand what I am meaning here. Over the last 2 BCB’s, various formats have been experimented and there has been a good response for those too. However, there has been a great demand to re-create the classic style.
What is the classic style? Very simple, there are no spectators. Every attendee is a participant and he/she has to speak. In this way, everyone understands each others ideologies and the spirit of BarCamp.
This time, we had three categories on the wiki – Speakers, Volunteers and Talk ideas. If you wanted to attend BCB, then you should register yourself as a speaker with a topic, as a volunteer to take up any task or request for a topic which you would like to hear more on.
Day 1 saw a lot of new faces at the camp. We have quite a few from outstation too. Live twittering and live blogging have taken a leap forward during this camp. I could not participate in sessions, but was just going around and doing some writing. I need to admit that I have just not been active during this camp. Also, I could not attend Day 2 as well 
Hope I don’t repeat these things going forward.
Here are few fellow tweeters who were live tweeting – BCB6, Prasanth, Vaibhav, Sanjukta, Jerry and Aditi
Here are few pictures which I took on Day 1.
BCB 5 Planning
Oct 13th
Today, we had the first meeting for BarCamp Bangalore (BCB) 5 which will happen end of November/beginning of December.
I should confess that it was a great way to start with around 20 enthusiasts willing to be part of the group of Planners and take this forward. We had loads of discussions, arguments and debates on the format of the camp, willing to consider few thoughts which have come up. Arun was coordinating the discussion and others pitching in.
Here are people who came in today to kick of planning for BCB5:
Arun
Jace
Kesav
Aditya (on Phone)
Akash Mahajan
Mansi
Nishant
Srinivas
Shahnawaz
Pawan
Saurab
Vinayak
Prasanth
Satish
and we had an unexpected guest – Kiruba.
Last but not the least, even I was there 
I will not get into the details of what we discussed or how it went, but it was a good 2 hour brain storming session and I am sure everyone enjoyed it.
Few more pictures on my Flickr…
If you are interested to be part of this exciting and most happening Bar Camp in the world, please add yourself to bangalore_barcamp@yahoogroups.com.
If you are interested to be a planner for the event, leave a comment for this post and I will write back to you.
Making of BarCamp
Aug 6th
I know its late, but as promised earlier and as one of “proud” participants and also fortunate of being with minds behind the camp, wanted to share my experiences with Making of BarCamp.The first Planning meeting for BCB4 happened on the 3 June 2007 at Cafe Coffee Day on Richmond Road. From then on, every week all of us meet every Sunday at 10 AM at some CCD or the other (mostly at the Koramangala CCD) taking our planning session step-by-step. The day we began Jace came up with the idea of grouping tracks, which we called “Collectives“. There were loads of debates every week and concluding was pretty difficult. Each one of us had our own thoughts. Synchronizing and framing one concept is really a tough task. Imagine, a group of 10 people who have been totally un-known to each other (few of us knew each other from BCB 1), coming together to make an event which will bring in various like-minded people to a common platform to share, learn and understand various “ideologies” is not a simple task. However, we were determined. We wanted to make this happen and the only aspect we were looking at is the Event itself. It was like the situation when Dhronacharya asks Arjuna as to what he could see on the tree for shooting and Arjuna replies “the eye of the bird” (I am very bad at mythology, but just trying to convey as precise as I can). We were looking only at the event and all the discussions we had were like the deviations which pulled us apart. We took them as tests and by the next week we would come together taking the discussion to the next level. Finally, we concluded that this time BarCamp should be different from earlier versions and should be a “Collective Edition”.
Dates
What we announced during BCB3 was in July. The first weekend was turning a bit difficult with venue and other logistics. The second weekend was Proto.In which we did not want to coincide to ensure that we have our friends from Chennai join us So, it was the last weekend which was working for everyone and hence 28/29 July were finalized.
As i remember, our thought was to bring various communities together under one roof for sharing, knowing each other and forming a community. Our vision was that these communities which will be formed/are formed will go from BarCamp with deliverables which they would work on themselves. If there were anyone who did not know that communities existed, they would know during the camp. If groups already existed, we would have provided a platform for them to come together. I really dont know if I am doing a good job of explaining what we intended, but in one line – “We wanted to create a platform to bring various communities together” and in other words – “An incubation center for like minded people”
What happens after BarCamp?
The communities which have formed will go forward with take-aways and build their associations. If possible, would come back next time with planned activities and collective projects.
NSRCEL Support
On a parallel note, preparations were going on for sponsorships and other logistics. After BCB3, NSRCEL came forward for a long term partnership with BCB and wanted to host this event to ensure that an “educative and motivational” environment is created for creative minds to shape the future of “innovation” and “entrepreneurship”. Now, that is divine blessing. Right?
Sponsors
Our platinum sponsor – DirectI, came forward for sponsorship shortly after our request to them. This was the first motivation for us that this event would be really a success. Later our other sponsors – TCS and ThoughtWorks showed their appreciation. Honestly, TCS and ThoghtWorks were from BCB 1 standing behind us and motivated us. PureTesting and Yahoo also supported this event showing their
The D-Day arrives
As the dates were getting closer, our To-Do lists were increasing. Fortunately/Unfortunately all of us were having hectic schedules even at work. This happens in life, Right?
We asked for volunteers for various tasks, and there were enthusiasts who pitched in. I communicated to volunteers to come to IIM on 27th evening at 5 PM to help us with arrangements. Only two – Hema and Bhavana were the only two who turned up sincerely that evening. They were surprised to see the way things were going. Pradeep, who has his office incubated in IIM was our main venue coordinator. His office was our dumping yard of all the material. We sincerely thank Ashwin, head of MapUnity for baring with us even though we messed up their office.
By the time we all assembled (after last minute shopping) it was 10 PM. Banners and other material arrived. Saurabh and team from ENI (Students wing of IIM) which supported the event, took care of organizing the sign-boards and sticking them around.
We had dinner and worked out the final logistics which needed to be taken care. We dispersed at around 12 AM committing that we would assemble back at 7:00 AM on 28th to tie up banners around (it was raining and windy the previous night and we decided not to put them up). The next day, we came in by 7 AM (I came in a bit late though ) and put up the banners and set-up the registration desk.
I would not write any thing more from here. You have experienced in person and also, I wrote about it in my earlier post too.
BCB 4 Planners
Feedback
I need to run now, will post feedback summary in my next post…sorry about that.
BCB 4 – Overview
Jul 14th
BarCamp Bangalore 4 is fast approaching. It is happening on the 28th and 29th July 2007 at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
We have 16 Collectives for this event. Few of them are roll-over’s from BCB 3 and few are new.
I am fortunate to be one of the Volunteers. Also, I am taking part in the SocialTech, Bloggers and Photography collectives. I know it is a lot of multi-tasking, but I really would want to be a part the above three. I really hope I can learn and contribute to the learning during the Camp.
The other Collectives we have this time are:
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
BangPypers – Python Programming
Photo Collective
Mobile Collective
Internet Collective
SocialTech Collective
Ruby Collective – Programming
BangAJAX Collective – Programming
Bloggers Collective
UnBand Collective – Music
Investors Collective – Financial
BandFun Collective – Functional Language
Startups Collective
Programming Languages and Compiler Design Collective
Content Management Systems Collective
SysAdmins Collective – IT System Administrators
E-governance Collective
Visit the Collectives Page to know more in detail and register yourself for a collective
If you are a Blogger and would like to write about BarCamp and your experiences/participation, please register your blog here.
Hoping to see you around in the IIM Campus…Be there…
