BarCamp Oxford 2009

4-5 April, University Club, Oxford

OSS Watch have teamed up with Torchbox, Nearly Done and The Apache Software Foundation to run a BarCamp in Oxford on April. The fun will start on the evening of April 4th with a geeky meal, the real action commences at 10am on Sunday the 5th (add your name to the list of attendees).

ATTENDEES: follow @barcampoxford on Twitter (or use the tag #barcampoxford to join in), and join the Google Group. That way we can all keep each other informed, about resources, planning, requests for help/crash space etc.

Details

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Venue and overview

The venue is the University Club, Mansfield Road, Oxford. It's booked for the Sunday, but we will kick off on Saturday evening with a meal somewhere in Oxford. The unconference will happen during Sunday daytime, for those planning to turn up on Saturday night we have researved a small number of rooms in the venue, there are also plenty of cheap options for overnight accommodation (including couch surfing for free, see below).

Meals on Sunday

Food will be provided on Sunday, thanks to generous sponsorship from Nearly Done. More details to follow.

Themes

BarCamps are ultimately themed by the attendees: what you want to present, the BarCamp will host.

We'd love for this event to allow academic/hacker types to meet up with the vibrant and highly active geek community in Oxford, the county and beyond. Our intention is to make geek connections between projects in the academic and business sectors.

BarCamps are supposed to be fun, informative and useful. Whilst we do not intend to limit the kinds of topics you can discuss we are deliberately marketing the event to people with interests in one or more of the following:

• Open development techniques and practices
• Web 2.0 style data mashups
• Use of and engagement with The Apache Software Foundations projects

Barcamps need you!

Although we have sponsorship, a venue and a date, unconferences consist of you, the attendee! We need:

• People!
• More sponsorship: food, schwag etc.
• Network bits and pieces, projectors, stationery
• Offers of basic help, setting stuff up
• Offers of crash space for out-of-town visitors, on Saturday and maybe Sunday 

Attendance at the BarCamp is Free, but normal BarCamp rules will apply, most importantly all attendees will be expected to particpate in an active way. Ways to contriubte include:

• present (informally or formally) about your favourite project
• hack together a mashup with other attendees systems
• play devils advocate in a lively debate
• have a drink with someone you have never met before

Help publicise the event

You could help by telling people about the event, or by putting up this poster.

What to bring

• Laptop
• All the chargers/cables you'll need
• A plugboard to make sure we have enough sockets
• If you're using a Mac for a presentation, VGA adapters
• Spare battery (if you have one)
• Camera
• Sleeping materials - sleeping bag, pillow and toiletries (if you are using our crash spaces - see below)
• An idea for a session, presentation or talk
• A smile
• ...?

Crash space

Geeks from out of town will be in need of crash space on Saturday 4. Please put your name down if you can offer someone a piece of floor.

We have also reserved a small number of rooms at the venue for those wanting to pay for their own bed. Contact OSS Watch to learn more.

Attendees

Put your name on the list below, along with what you can bring to the party. Everyone at a barcamp will speak or contribute somehow, but if you can offer extra bits and bobs then that'd be great.

If you don't want to get a pbwiki account, then just email us and we'll put you on it.

Catering

We're batting around a few ideas for Sunday daytime catering. If you've used any Oxford caterers for events in the past, then please add a suggestion below.

* How about getting a crate or two of bread, fillings, toasters etc – build your own lunch – 'open sandwich'? --Pete C

* Also, I'm sure if you speak nicely to Krispy Kreme (Castle complex), they'll do a good deal on large number of doughnuts – I've bought from there before for events, and they threw all manner of freebies in (lanyards, hats, vouchers etc). --Pete C

* Ross: if you can find out who did the catering for the OSS Watch event in October last year, that was *brilliant*. Bear in mind you might have a premium to pay for weekend caterers --Pete C

Core Organisers

If you've any queries, contact one of these people.

Thanks also to Danese Cooper for keeping an eye on BarCamp Oxford 2009.