NOTE: This is a “reprint” of my blog post to Kodak’s previous “A Thousand Words” blog.
I’m very excited to announce that DIVcamp is coming to Palo Alto on October 12-13! What is DIVcamp? DIVcamp is an unconference (aka barcamp) focused on all things digital imaging and video. DIVcamp is open to everyone interested in the topic: web developers, entrepreneurs, researchers, start-ups, marketers, enthusiasts and the like.
Unlike traditional conferences, there is no program created by conference organizers. What happens at DIVcamp depends on the attendees! Come share your work and ideas. Tell everyone about some interesting photo or video mash-up or widget you are creating, share your tools for vlogging or moblogging, lead a session on digital imaging for social networking, or show off your new and exciting photo- or video-based online service!
If you’ve never attended a barcamp or unconference before, you might be thinking to yourself, does this really work? How can you have an event like this where the program and speakers are not known ahead of time? I like to think of the underlying motto for unconferences is like the saying from the movie Field of Dreams – “If you build it, they will come.” That is, if you provide some space, some topics, some time and some munchies, people will actually attend and participate! The first barcamp was a little over two years ago in August of 2005. Since then, more than 200 barcamps have been held around the world!
One of the largest barcamps, BarCampBlock, was recently held in Palo Alto in August as part of the second anniversary celebration of the first barcamp. There were over 600 people who attended! The empty BarCampBlock schedule looked like this:
Here, folks crowd around to post sessions and review the evolving schedule:
Afterwards, the Saturday schedule looked like this:
Robert Scoble even captured some fun BarCampBlock historical video via some little late night vlogging.
DIVcamp will be held at the Woman’s Club of Palo Alto on October 12-13. You can find out more about DIVcamp on the DIVcamp wiki. Kodak is helping to sponsor the venue, but we still need sponsors for food, networking and supplies. Interested in attending or helping out? Sign up on the wiki! Although there is no charge to attend, we do need a headcount for logistical reasons, so please sign up if you plan to join us. We hope to see you there!