For a BarCamp to be successful, it's only as strong as its supporters, which is why it's great to see such a great, growing group of people and organizations getting behind BarCamp Africa 2010. It's easy to be part of this group. All you have to do is place a Badge on your website to show your support even if you're not able to come to Abidjan in the first weekend of June for the event.
We try to find all those who place a Badge on their site, but after putting one on your site, if you want to make sure that we include you, contact us!
Using this platform to inform my fellow Africans about Barcamp Nigeria 2010. The event was successfully hosted last year in Lagos (April 25th). This year's event will be held on the 22nd of May 2010 with the Theme: Creating local content for Nigerian Web Market.
We hope to accelerate the growth of internet enterpreneurs in Nigerian and kickstart the growing community.
More updates are live at barcampnigeria.com
The BarCamp movement continues to gain ever more momentum in a local context, and although there have been BarCamps with an Africa focus in the Silicon Valley and UK, there has yet to be a pan-African BarCamp taking place on the continent. This changes with the staging of the inaugural BarCamp Africa 2010 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, June 4-7.
Abidjan shares land borders (and thus easy and cheap transportation) with five countries, it has an excellent international airport and is a cosmopolitan world capital that can provide the necessary facilities. The event will be organized by the experienced local groups of Akendewa in Côte d'Ivoire and GhanaThink in neighboring Ghana, with additional collaboration from Maneno.
The year 2010 is an incredibly important year to have this event as it is marks the 50th anniversary of independence for many African nations in addition to Côte d'Ivoire, including: Cameroon, Togo, Mali, Senegal, DR Congo, Somalia, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, CAR, Congo, Gabon, Nigeria, and Mauritania. A celebration and meeting between the people of these nations at BarCamp Africa will allow them to share the progress of their nations as well as exchange ideas and work together on what lies ahead for the future, looking back at the last 50 years, preparing for the next 50. Additionally, this marks the first year that the World Cup will be held on the African continent and the BarCamp will take place the weekend before the official start of the Cup.
The official main site is www.barcampafrica.org with 2010.barcampafrica.org serving for this year's event. The website pages are available in: French, English, Portuguese, and Spanish. Place a Badge on your site. Follow along on Twitter. Fan the event on Facebook. Register at Eventbrite. But most of all, attend and be part of the first event to bring together Africa and bridge the ideological and language divides.
BarCamp Africa is currently look for forward-thinking sponsors who realize the talented people and vast potential in Africa. Contact us if you would like to be part of this historic event.
