We are sad to inform everyone that the BarCamp Africa 2010 that was set to take place in Abidjan has been cancelled. This is due to many reasons, but the primary one has been locating a proper venue to hold the event. There have been ongoing power blackouts that are set to increase in the coming months. These are unpredictable and have made it impossible to find a venue that will absolutely be able to provide power and internet for the event, not to mention allow for visitors to have a degree of comfort during their stay.

Additionally, the security situation in Côte d'Ivoire continues to deteriorate due to elections that have been stalled for half a decade and a power sharing government that is not sharing the power well. This has in turn created an air of uncertainy which has been echoed in the newspapers declaring that any number of unfortunate things will happen the next day.

So currently, the BarCamp Africa must be called off. We hope that at a later date, a pan-African event such as this can indeed happen in the region.

Here we are at the two month mark before the BarCamp and things are rapidly falling in place for the event. We are in talks with some really big name sponsors who will help us put on the event, but naturally if you have some interesting contacts or you work with a company who would like to be associated wtih this great event, don't hesitate to contact us (sponsors@barcampafrica.org).

We are also working to facilitate a creative contest to help get some of you talented developers not in Côte d'Ivoire to attend the event. So stay tuned for more news!

Moreover, we've gotten a great show of support by an ever-growing group of supporters who are showing their love with a badge on their site. You can join this proud group as well by supporting the barcamp and doing the same thing. Grab your badge here.

Stay tuned to this blog as things start to really heat up over the next month and the event takes on more form. All the details will be announced here. But in the meantime, you can already add your thoughts and your proposed sessions or topics to the coordination Wiki page. The programme will drafted based on the list of proposals.

You can also follow what's being said and done on Twitter & Facebook. And most importantly, make your plans to come to Abidjan in the first weekend of June!

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.

Before we start:Abidjan is the capital of Côte d'Ivoire, located on the west coast of the "United States of Africa". Babi is to Abidjan what Big Apple is to New York or Jozi to Johannesburg.

BarCamp Babi 2010 will be a three day event held on March 5th through the 7th of this year 2010. BarCamp Abidjan 2010, also known as Barcamp Babi, will be a FREE event for anyone who is interested in using their skills, talent, vision, rive and financial resources to improve the production, dissemination, and monetization of content from and about Africa's economic, financial, cultural and social life. The first Barcamp Abidjan in 2009 gave birth to a Côte d'Ivoire-based social entreprise, Akendewa which is producing this second BarCamp .

BarCamps all over the world have brought together individuals and organizations to share ideas, passion, drive, ambitions and, eventually, collaborate on various projects and businesses.

Expected panelists and speakers (yet to be confirmed) include Google, Paul Sika, Jean Patrick Ehouman, Ameyah Debrah, E-tranzact, VIPnet, Web4Africa, Gwen Marshall, Radio Jam, etc.

There will be sessions organized by various Google representatives, presentations by lead speakers as well as other breakout sessions on various topics and interests as put forth by the attendees.

Register/RSVP today at the BarCamp Babi website. Help spread the word about BarCamp Abidjan 2010 by grabbing badges, and show yoursupport by donating to help cover costs. You may also contact the BarCamp Abidjan team through its website for sponsorship opportunities.

If you are interested in organizing a breakout session, let us know, especially if you have special needs. BarCamp Babi 2010 is supported by Google Africa, Web4Africa, Chembe Ventures, Foundation, Ushahidi, Web4Africa, who all pledged their support . Our media partners are IvoireMuzik,Ivoire Blog,Avenue 225, Fratmat.info, Koaci.com, Bassam fm (some to be confirmed). Our technical partners include VIPnet and Assistweb.

See you there!

Interested in becoming a partner? Contact Frederic Tape at tapefr(at)gmail.com or Edith Brou at edithbrou(at)gmail.com

An Akendewa production.

I was able to sit down with Jean-Patrick Ehouman and talk about BarCamp Abidjan and what he is doing as part of the team behind the Africa Startup Challenge. I was unable to attend the barcamp, but Jean-Patrick told me that it went great. People were very excited once they understood the format. That happened to be one of the biggest initial challenges was that people were used to the traditional conference format. This is a common problem everywhere in the world as people have to grasp that they organize the conference themselves and that everyone is an equal. After about an hour or so, people really took to this in Abidjan and Jean-Patrick said that one of the best moments was a when a PhD student gave a talk on cyber criminality.

Of course, there were obstacles. The worst one came when two days before the event, the sponsors pulled out. This led to having to find a new venue immediately that ended up being at the poly technical school. In turn, this made for a great many students being part of the barcamp. But it wasn't just limited to them. A number of journalist showed up as well as some Germans and French who happened to be in the country. Overall, it was a young and mostly male crowd though.

As to media coverage, those journalist didn't seem to make any noise as there was virtually no coverage of the event in Côte D'Ivoire, following the event. It was until days later when the BBC wrote about the event (in English I might add) that the local Ivorian journalists picked up on what had happened and decided to cover it. This got the ear of the ICT Minister in Côte d'Ivoire who is apparently on Facebook and contacted Jean-Patrick on friendly and encouraging terms.

As to the future of barcamps in Côte d'Ivoire, they want more and they want them now. They would love to organize another in November, but there are some rather tricky elections happening then for the current president who has been in office four years too long. But, quite possibly in February, they'll have another either in Abidjan or in the capital of Yamoussoukro. I wish them well and hope that I'll be able to attend any of these in the future.

One small note I'd like to add is that if anyone translates this article, pay attention to the fact that the video is on dotSUB, so you can write a translation of the video in the target language there and embed that version along with the text version here so that everything gets translated. This is the first video on BarCamp Africa to have this treatment and we hope to use it more in the future to encourage even further cross-lingual communication.