Here is a quick round-up of articles already written about the success of BarCamp Cameroon 2010 from the press and the blogosphere:
Tomorrow morning the 2nd edition of BarCamp Cameroon will start at the Djeuga Palace Hotel in Yaoundé.
Here are some final instructions and reminders.
Registration will be open from 08:30, so please try and arrive by 09:00 or earlier so that we can start on time. The first session will start at 09:30.
You will receive a free t-shirt during registration but these will be available on a first come first served basis as we have only 250 t-shirts available.
Volunteers to come earlier to help setup are more than welcome.
As this is an IT event the dress code for the event is casual, jeans etc. are fine. The important thing is that you come prepared to present and to take part.
As Ringo is providing fast Internet we encourage all participants to bring their laptop/smartphone/ipad and be online during the event, but please try and bring your own power strip if you have one as we have limited sockets. If you have a camera, bring it to capture this exciting day.
Please bring along a printout of your registration from the eventbrite website.
The official hashtag for twitter, flickr etc is: #barcampcameroon
Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow,
The BarCamp Cameroon organisers
Below is Fritz Ekwoge Ekwoge's (aka Fee) proposal for the theme and manifesto for Barcamp Cameroon 2010 to be held in Yaounde on 12th of June 2010.
—
This is our land
In the first Barcamp Cameroon(Digital Dreams), I made a bold statement. I said Cameroonians had stopped dreaming.
I was wrong.
You should have been there to see what I saw. I saw passion in one of its purest forms. I saw cool stuff people had started working on. I saw people with great ideas discussing with each other, generating even greater ideas. I saw people evangelizing and creating awareness on matters linked to our digital future. I saw people with dormant talent suddenly waking up from slumber. I saw the young entrepreneurs I thought were lacking, with the VC community to back them up. All these, and more, all happening here in Cameroon.
But there are still many things that are broken in this country. Very broken.
Be it local content, e-governance, corruption,transparency, media, taxes, mass communication, piracy, Internet connectivity, local prices, food, water, shelter, education, specialized skills, roads,employment, mobile payment, agriculture… All broken.
Are these irreversibly broken? I don’t know. But I am hoping the next barcamp will bring some answers.
I want to see that we are trying hard enough in our own little way to fix broken areas in our land. Barcamps are all about technology, and technology is what we’ll be looking into for solutions. How can we use technology to fix the educational system in this land? How can we use technology to fix its agricultural sector ? What are we doing to promote our very own local content in this global village ? How do we even make this technology accessible to many Cameroonians?
Alan Curtis Kay once said: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
Do we have what it takes to invent our own future? I still don’t know.
What I do know, is that complaining about what’s broken is not going to help. We have to fix it. We may get exterior help. But the responsibility of transforming the Cameroon we know, into a Cameroon where we truly belong, is ultimately ours.
Because this is our land.
—
Fritz Ekwoge Ekwoge aka Fee.
It's just 10 days to go till BarCamp Cameroon and while we wrote this article the number of remaining tickets went from 9 down to 2... so sign up quickly!
As a teaser for those of you attending here is the free t-shirt every participant will be getting.
We are please to announce that once again this year we have two headline sponsors, Google and Ringo.
Ringo believes that everyone is entitled to access Information Communications Technologies (ICT) without which growth and economic development, in a world of globalization, are not possible. Ringo's mission is to make the Internet accessible to the greatest number of Cameroonians.
Once again this year Ringo will be providing fast Internet over wifi during the event, providing free t-shirts for every participant and publicising the event in the press and through their website and street banners. In addition their engineers will be at the event to talk about some of the latest technologies they are working with.
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Despite some of the lowest Internet penetration rates in the world, Africa has enticed Google. The company's investment in the continent and events like this represents Google's long-term commitment to driving the web forward for users globally through creating developer platforms, supporting open standards, and providing building blocks for developers to create robust web applications.
We are excited once again to be sponsored as part of Google's G-Africa initiative, which is aimed at software developers. Google will be covering the cost of the lunch for all participants and they are sending a number of Google staff to do talks at BarCamp.
Without these two headline sponsors this event would not have been the same, and so we are very thankful to both of them for their continued commitment to BarCamp Cameroon.
There is still time to sponsor BarCamp Cameroon 2010, please read on if you are interested about the benefits and advantages.
BarCamp 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 attendees.
The first BarCamp Cameroon was held on November 7, 2009 in Douala and after its success with more than 250 participants who attended the event with a peak of 200 more following the event online, the consensus was to hold a second edition as soon as possible.
BarCamp Cameroon 2010 will be happening again on the 12th of June, 2010 in the Djeuga Palace Hotel in Yaoundé, we have an official blog and we use twitter to promote the event. The registration site is here: http://barcampcameroon.eventbrite.com/
Within less than two weeks with publicity purely via our blog and twitter account we have managed to nearly sell out the event.
We were also in the news on many websites and blogs as well as the local newspaper and radio (http://www.lemessager.net/2009/11/barcamp-cameroon-la-grand-messe-des-tic-a-douala/), you can get a good idea of how the event went last time from the photos here: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=barcampcameroon&m=text and also from the live feed from the first barcamp (http://africamp.com/eng/articles/cameroon/asw1257575318/).
This year we have a bigger budget for the media and we would expect coverage in print, on TV and Radio. However we feel that the biggest benefit to sponsors is to be associated with the BarCamp brand and the exposure of the company to the participants. BarCamp is not an event where sponsors are encouraged to come and present their products but rather to take part as participants, presenting aspects of the cool technology that they use to help the whole IT community in Cameroon. Our goal is not to promote products but to promote community and sharing within the Cameroonian IT sector. We feel privileged that sponsors like Google and Ringo have returned again as sponsors of this event as without their support the event would not exist.
Currently our headline sponsors are Google and Ringo, with a number of other companies providing smaller amounts. Our current sponsorship shortfall is around 500,000 - 700,000 CFA (it depends on other sponsors committing). You can see our budget and what sponsors have committed here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Alf9cQlbgXhydEN3Q0cwRHZsYkg2cTlYN19SX2pRTlE&hl=en
It should be noted that the event is not run by one particular company, but rather by a group of volunteers who co-ordinate their activities online via a mailing list. Our finances are open and available online and we prefer our sponsors to pay our suppliers directly rather than through an intermediary. The event is run to break even, not to make a profit.
If you are interested in sponsoring the event please get in touch with Jeremy (+237 977 99940) as we would be happy to meet you in person or talk on the phone to present further the event and discuss the benefits in detail.
Some attendees for the 2nd edition of BarCamp Cameroon in Yaoundé may not be familiar with a BarCamp or what to expect at BarCamp Cameroon.
Here is a recap of older blog posts on this topic:
BarCamp in Video - watch this for a great overview of what a BarCamp is and find out who is welcome.
Want to come to Barcamp Cameroon and are afraid about your talk? - sign up to do your talk here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ak2CJKuKJsredDhHbFdoZkdRRC1pRTJ6ZFBYd05CQkE&hl=fr
What to bring to BarCamp Cameroon ??? - Don't forget your laptop, smartphone, ipad or other cool gadgets so that you can tweet and live blog the event, we will have a fast open wifi connection at the event.
With just 31 days left till BarCamp Cameroon 2010 we thought it would be good to provide you with some ways to promote the event.
We have gathered the widgets, buttons and banners, plus other graphics that you can use on our wiki here:
http://barcamp.org/BarCampCameroon#LogosandPromotion
Please help us in promoting this event as far and wide as possible.
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.
