BarCamp primarily operates as a platform where raw, innovative ideas and concepts get nurtured. A person or group of people from any discipline with a novel idea is welcome to share it at BarCamp. Through interaction with participants, raw ideas get analyzed, refined and advanced. There is also opportunity for collaboration among participants who can and are willing to contribute towards development of the idea. For those attending, networking is not limited to exchanging business cards but also exchanging ideas with a potential for collaboration. As such, BarCamp is the perfect hunting ground for Venture Capitalists looking to fund the next big idea or for entreprenuers in search of talent to help grow their businesses.

Besides serving as a launching pad for new ideas and concepts, BarCamp also provides opportunity for people from all backgrounds and all skill levels to share knowledge. For instance a tech enthusiast could talk about tools which could be useful to people across various fields such as finance, marketing, development etc. Such dissemination of knowledge could not only help people develop new skills but also lead to further innovation. Besides knowledge sharing, people are also invited to share their experiences such as important issues they have come across by successfully completing a project or through a failure they have experienced.

Having said all that, bcktm09 is also a place where you (BarCampers) can hang out and have fun. You don’t have to have the next big idea to participate. All sorts of ideas and concepts are welcome. If you can make a wickedly delicious achar for Mo:Mo – share it at BarCamp. If you are into fitness, want to start a cycling club and are looking for people to join in or help out – share it at BarCamp. People from all walks of life are encouraged to participate. However, BarCampers are expected to refrain from doing, saying or engaging in any activity that might offend others present at bcktm09. Essentially, do your thing but be considerate.

While unconferences rarely have a preset agenda, a broad theme that can accommodate ideas from various disciplines is ususal. The theme for bcktm09 is “Innovation for the Development of Nepal.” If you are planning on attending bcktm09, think about the general theme and any associated topics that interest you beforehand. Here is list of things you are suggested to bring.

• Laptop: If you want to live blog or live tweet. Remember your charger!
• Power strip: If you can, bring a power strip to plug into the much-coveted few outlets. It’ll allow more people to benefit from power during the day.
• Business cards: Bring yours and collect others’.
• Notebook & pen: Taking notes with a word processor might note be easy for all.
• Video/photo camera: Take as many pictures and video recordings. Upload it and tag it with one or more of these: #bcktm, #bcktm09, #BarCampKTM2009
• Money: The event is free but lunch and tea is going to cost you Rs. 200 only.
• Your demo/presentation/materials: Bring your presentation on a USB stick/CD/DVD. Don’t forget to bring any other material you plan on using for your session.

Most importantly come with an open mind. Participate and contribute to a session on a topic you are familiar with then join another session on a topic you know nothing about. If you plan on hosting a session, it is not essential that you present using a PowerPoint presentation and a laser pointer in a suit. While suits are not recommended, creative presentations that inform and entertain are encouraged. Sessions can last anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour. It is advisable that you don’t present a research paper but share your ideas and experiences, ask others to pitch in with feedback and lead a useful conversation. Your goal should be to get fellow BarCampers excited and involved. Finally, there are no fixed time slots. The first one to arrive on the day of BarCamp gets to pick the slot of his or her choice.

Everyone is invited to BarCamp to participate, present, mingle and enjoy themselves. Lastly, BarCamp Kathmandu could not have been possible without the generosity of our sponsors. A big thank you goes out to ChangeFusion Nepal, Diyaalo Enterprises, IDOREGAN Holdings, Janaki Technology Private Limite, MaxBlogPress, Nepal Aid and Young Innovations Private Limited.

A. Benefit for Participants:
1. Participate: It’s all about sharing and learning in an open environment. Participate in discussions and involve others in topics that interest you.
2. Beat the Crowd: BarCamp is where cool and innovative ideas are often talked of for the first time. If some of those ideas are going to transform into new product, technology, tool, campaigns, non-profit, piece of art, book, movie or such like, you’d have heard about them before everybody else has.
3. Right people: If you have interesting ideas or stories to tell, BarCamp is where you’ll find the right audience. Apart from the great people like you who’ll be participating live during the event, thousands more will be listening, watching and reading about them on the internet.
4. Nurture the geek in you: In a single place, in a single event, you’ll be participating in intense discussions on topics from various fields. The brainstorming during BarCamp is a sight in itself. You’d probably not want to miss an opportunity like this, maybe for stories to tell your grandchildren or to live the stories your grandparents told you Now, who’d like to miss the first BarCamp this place will be hosting? We’re sure this would make great stories too, but there’s more to it.
5. Business Please: Looking to find possible partners, collaborators, investors, reviewers, commentors, critics or advertisers? Or wanting to offer your expertise, join in and work with others? There’s no place like BarCamp.
6. Make friends and Network: You’ll meet and know a wide group of people during the BarCamp. Someone said that it would have taken them a year to meet all the people that they had wanted to meet if BarCamp hadn’t taken place.
7. It’s about us: It’s about Kathmandu and about Nepal. BarCamp Kathmandu 2009 will be a representative gathering of our generation – of the innovative, optimistic, brilliant and visionary youths who’d like to lead the transformation this country is going through. Its about those “non-aligned” youths in Nepal who have something to say and want to be heard for it. There’s been enough of politicking and this generation wants no more of it. Let’s bring academics, economy, trade, technology, art, craft, professions and people back to their rightful places.
8. It’s fun !: There is no dress code to follow. There are no rules to break. There are no norms to adhere to. BarCamp is all about its participants. Come, bite some cookies, sip some coffee and surf the web. Enjoy the way you want !

1. To the global audience via the internet
Our documents, video, audio and other updates will be permanently published on the internet in both Nepali and English. They will be available and open to everybody forever. The sponsors will receive perpetual and positive exposure to the savvy consumers of the internet media.

It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants who are the main actors of the event. Anyone with something to contribute or a desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

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. I think, with this approach we can attract a wide range of people – especially young innovators and entrepreneurs – from all fields.

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. An ‘unconference’ is exactly what it sounds like – the opposite of a conference. It is not centered on an agenda with just the host making a presentation or a speech. As such discussion is not limited to just one topic, but a wide range of topics. It is participant driven to the core and everyone is invited to share by default.

A bunch of smart people meet up over the weekend, put up a schedule on a wall and spend the rest of their time taking up sessions and discussions with each other. 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.

The word BarCamp also represents the international network of user generated conferences — open, particripatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants.

How are BarCamps organized?

BarCamps are organized and evangelized largely through the web, harnessing what might be called a Web 2.0 communications toolkit. Anyone can initiate a BarCamp, using the BarCamp wiki. BarCamp “open-sources” their organizational process of, documenting it in a publicly availble wiki. In addition to the BarCamp-branded network, it is also a model for user generated conferences in other fields or for more specialized applications.

The event-schedule in a BarCamp could end up looking like this

Usually, the events of the BarCamp are broadcast on the internet using audio and video streaming tools and platforms. Such broadcasts may be done “live” or “recorded”.

History of BarCamps

In 2003, Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly publishing invited 200 of the smartest people in the technology industry over the weekend. He called this event Foo Camp (Friend’s of O’Reilly Camp). The event had started as a joke between Tim O’Reilly and Sara Winge, O’Reilly’s VP of Corporate Communications. Sara had always wanted to run a “foo bar” — an open bar for “Friends of O’Reilly” — at one of O’Reilly’s conferences. That joke morphed into a brainstorm after the dot com bust left O’Reilly with lots of unused office space, creating the opportunity for Foo Camp. There was eventually a Foo Bar at the camp!

In 2005, a complementary alternative was created by a past attendee of Foo Camp and a few individuals who were interested in organizing their own version of Foo Camp. Taking from the two words ‘Foo Camp’ and ‘Foo Bar’, it was called ‘BarCamp’ and hosted at the Socialtext offices in Palo Alto, California by Socialtext founder Ross Mayfield. It stood out from Foo Camp in that it sent out an open invitation to anyone who wanted to join. Since then, BarCamps have been held in over 350 cities around the world.

Further Information
Official BarCamp Wiki
BarCamp page on Wikipedia
BarCamp blog