[clug] Re: reviving BarCampCanberra

[Nathanael Boehm]

Thanks Bob, we'll certainly look into amending the BarCamp information on 
wikipedia to maximise the marketability of this thing!

Here's a pic of a BarCamp I attended in Sydney last year:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/purecaffeine/1226101959/

Not rowdy or anarchic at all! The schedule for presentations is where the 
chaos happens - not like chairs are being thrown around the room!

That was held at the UTS campus in Ultimato - it's where I believe all 
BarCamps up there are held, as well as the last couple of Web Essentials and 
Web Directions conferences.

It's great that Melbourne has managed to secure an office venue for their 
BarCamp events - and we certainly haven't discounted the option of leasing 
an office space for this, but considering the sort of audience we'd like to 
attract to this event and taking into consideration costs, access, venue 
size etc the ANU is at the moment our preferred and leading option.

If there's anything we can do to ease your mind about the manageability of a 
BarCamp, please let us know.

Thanks,

Nathanael Boehm
web ui/ux designer & developer
nat at purecaffeine.com
canberra, australia
0409 288 464

Free Canberra Wireless:
http://freecanberrawireless.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Edwards" <bob at cs.anu.edu.au>
To: "Stephen Collins" <trib at acidlabs.org>
Cc: "Andrew Boyd" <facibus at gmail.com>; "Andrew Boyd" <ABoyd at smsmt.com>; 
"Steven Hanley" <sjh at svana.org>; <linux at lists.samba.org>; "Nathanael Boehm" 
<snoop at purecaffeine.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 3:48 PM
Subject: Re: [clug] Re: reviving BarCampCanberra


>
> I guess I should comment on this thread. If we were to have the BarCamp
> here at the CSIT Building at ANU, I would be largely responsible for it.
> I have never been to a BarCamp, but looking it up on Wikipedia (source
> of all truth...) I see words like anarchic etc. and I am not sure that
> I really want to be responsible for something like that (some here are
> sure to think that I am now getting hysterical or whatever).
>
> I notice that the Melbourne BarCamp (in a couple of weeks) is not being
> held on a Uni. campus (I think), but in an office building in the CBD.
>
> I have also had some discussion with some academics here. None of them
> have ever heard of BarCamp, but one of them has helped establish a local
> dorkbot chapter here in Canberra recently (www.dorkbot.org - "people
> doing strange things with electricity"). Probably not the same as
> BarCamp, but meets monthly (apparently) and is all about technology
> and art and stuff like that. Sounds kinda interesting to me!
>
> Anyway, that's my $0.02 worth. If a BarCamp is organised in Canberra,
> at a time/date that I can make, I will endeavour to get along and get
> a better feel for what it is all about.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bob Edwards.
>
> Stephen Collins wrote:
>> All
>>
>> On Feb 3, 2008 3:13 PM, Andrew Boyd <facibus at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> My feeling is that it will fail again this year because of the
>>> diversity of opinion and the multiple reasons why some location won't
>>> work for everybody - I think that we can probably guess that no
>>> location will work for everybody, and my suggestion last year that we
>>> run with a location that at least worked for some people was not
>>> popular. I still maintain that half a BarCamp would be better than
>>> none, and that we can build on even a small success.
>>
>> I'm siding with Andrew here - 100%. We need to choose a good enough
>> venue with access to public transport for those who need it. UTS in
>> Sydney can't be perfect for everyone, but they still get there. The
>> "not suitable for me" attitude seems to be a Canberra thing.
>>
>> It will be far better that we have a BarCamp of some description
>> rather than none. I'm more than a little disappointed by the lack of
>> interest on the part of the ANU - I would have thought that BarCamp
>> would be the ideal point of exposure for some of the clever stuff
>> their students are working on, would expose commercialisation
>> opportunities (we'd more than likely have some angel and VC types
>> along), as well as earning them significant kudos in the local tech
>> community.
>>
>> Steve
>