When I first heard of the term “BarCamp” a few years back, I was totally confused with it. Lot of thoughts went through my mind. The term “Bar” is little bit confusing here. I thought it as a gathering of drunkards in a bar. With this thought in my mind, initially I was indifferent to it.

One day, during a casual talk with one of my colleagues Mr. Anish Chandran, I came to know that this BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering of technology enthusiasts from different parts of the country/world at a particular place. By that time, he already attended two three barcamps organized by barcampkerala team. He also took a few sessions in those barcamps. His words changed my attitude towards it.

With this idea in our minds, during the second anniversary celebrations of ACM student chapter, we introduced  “Technical Unconferencing” in the campus last year. Students and faculty of our campus got a unique platform to share their thoughts on various technical areas they are really interested in. As their audience, they got people with same mindset and most of the sessions were on ablaze. Those who came there just to see what it is also took part actively in it.

People feel very relaxed when a technical/non technical session is organized in a very informal way in an open environment. In a classroom type setup or in a formal seminar  session, all the people listening to it may not be interested in that topic. People feel it improper in leaving the room during the session. But ”unconference” is just the opposite of the normal conference where there is no such formalities. People can come in and go out at any time on their own interest.  Here there is no spectators, only participants.

Barcamp is a group of such unconferencing sessions on different technical and non technical areas going on simultaneously. People can attend any of these sessions according to their interest.

A Little History and the conduct of BarCamp

BarCamp arose as a spin-off of Foo Camp, an annual invitation-only participant driven conference hosted by the founder of O’Reilly media, Mr. Tim O’Rrilly.

Is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment.

It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants who are the main actors of the event.

“Foo” and “Bar” are placeholder names usually used in computer programming or computer related documentation. The terms are used to name entities such as variables, functions and commands whose purpose is unimportant and serve only to demonstrate a concept.

The first BarCamp was held in Palo Alto, California, from August 19–21, 2005.

BarCamps are organized and evangelized largely through the web.

Anyone can initiate a BarCamp through the site www.barcamp.org

The Kerala version of BarCamp started three years back by a group of technology evangelists.

They can be reached through the site www.barcampkerala.org

The first ever BarCamp in Kerala was organized at Technopark Trivandrum on 13, Nov, 2007.

After this, seven more BarCamps were hosted successfully in different organizations/institutions across Kerala.

BarCamp Kerala 9 @ Amritapuri Campus

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus is hosting the 9th BarCamp in Kerala on 14, Nov,2010.

We are also very glad to celebrate the third anniversary of BarCamp Kerala in our campus.

Those who are interested in the idea and not yet registered for the camp, please do it now itself through the site www.barcampkerala.org

There are no registration fees or any charges for the barcamp as this is a user-generated conference.

If you wish to take a session, register the topic for your session in the site by clicking the link “Sessions“.

Attendees can register  by clicking the link “Attendees“.

On behalf of Amrita and BarCamp Kerala, I personally invite each one of you to be an integral part of this new revolution of knowledge sharing…