This document summarizes barcamps that have taken place in Eastern Europe and Central Asia between 2007-2008. It outlines the origins and format of barcamps as self-organized conferences where participants propose and lead sessions on topics related to new media or ICT. It then describes several regional barcamps held in countries like Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, and Georgia that have attracted hundreds of participants to discuss topics at the intersection of technology and civic issues. Finally, it notes future trends like barcamps gaining commercial sponsors and becoming more specialized in topic or location.

1. Barcamping in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Barcamp Caucasus, Tbilisi (Georgia), June 7, 2008 By Oleksandr Demchenko

2. Outline 1. Barcamps : WTF? 2. Overview of Barcamps in Eastern Europe and Central Asia 3. Regional Barcamping Features 4. Future Trends

3. 1. Barcamps: WTF?

4. Origin of Barcamps 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. WTF? 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. Overview of Barcamps in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

7. Blogcamp CIS and Baltics 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. Barcamp Baltics 2008 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. Moscow's 1 st Educational 'Samosbor' Moscow, Russia, Feb. 24 'Samosbor' is a language purist translation of barcamp Intel's educational program

10. Education 2.0 Moscow, Russia, March 28 Google's educational conference ½ of event pre-scheduled ½ in barcamp format

11. 'Blogcamp' on Internet and Business Conference 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. Code:Camp 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. Bridgecamp 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. Barcamp Caucasus Here you are!

15. Mediabarcamp Lithuania, June 6-8 Media activism in focus Mostly for Belarusians Hosted by Belarusian Greens On Baltic sea Simultaneous with Barcamp Caucasus Visit barcamp video-bridge session

16. Future barcamps iCamp - near Moscow, Jul 30 — Aug 3 (Unlike other barcamps topics are prescbibed to audiences)‏ 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

17. Bridgecamp in Ukraine Kyiv, presumably late september Some 200 participants 3 simultaneous session flows Focus on new media for NGOs and activists

18. Educamp Kyiv (Ukraine), November Seminars in Universities on new media before Educamp 300-400 students interested in IT to participate Blogcamp community to give presentations

19. Blogcamp Central and Eastern Europe 2008 Kyiv (Ukraine), Oct 10-12 Region shift: from CIS in 2007 to CEE in 2008 Some 500 participants To build a bridge between Eastern and Western Europe

20. Minibars and minicamps 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

21. 3. Regional Barcamping Features

22. Non-governmental support 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

23. Investment event Named Innovation Incubator on Baltic and Caucasus barcamps Special activity on barcamps to get together investors and startupers Both business and non-profit projects

24. Wiki is not the only option 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

25. Miscellaneous 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

26. 4. Future Trends

27. Commercializing OSI to end support? Commercial sponsors are better acqainted with barcamp format Organizers are more experienced Barcamps are cool

28. Getting lesser in size, more topic-specific More specialized barcamps 'Normalizing' in size

29. De-barcamping? Not barcamp elements: investment event, pecha-kucha etc. More control of content: thematic sections on iCamp, voting for sessions

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