OpenSesame BarCamp

January 26, 2009 by RootSpaceOnline

OpenSesame Initiative

"Openness" provides many benefits in education, society and social development, technology, innovation, government, the business world, civil society, arts and creativity, intellectual development, and much much more.  "Closed systems", "closed minds", obsessive protection, and hording of information and knowledge all slow down innovation, ideas, and development.

Several programs and activities are in development as part of RootSpace's OpenSesame Initiative.  Stay tuned here, sign up on our listserve, or contact us through this site.  Our first event is listed below:

"OpenSesame BarCamp-Lebanon" (Beirut on February 28)
To help promote "openness" in various contexts, we are organizing our very own "OpenSesame BarCamp-Lebanon" in Beirut on February 28.  Through this event we are providing a forum to discuss open source technology initiatives (like Linux, Drupal, Joomla, OpenOffice, OpenSocial, etc), collaborative problem solving, Creative Commons and intellectual property in Lebanon and the region, open business models, Arabic on the web and collaborative sites (like Wikipedia, etc), and more.  Please join us!

More info at:  http://barcamp.org/OpenSesame+BarCamp-Lebanon

Who should come?  Technology developers, entrepreneurs, students, lawyers, teachers, artists, bloggers, journalists, product and graphic designers, and anyone interested in social, political, or economic development wanting to learn more, share knowledge, and meet interesting people.  (We are also looking for some talented lawyers to help with a Creative Commons translation/adaptation project for Lebanon. Please let me know if you might be interested, or know of someone who might be interested.  It takes a bit of volunteer work, but it is also a great way to promote a lawyer or firm interested in intellectual property rights law.)

A BarCamp event is an open source collaboration. 
Your participation/contribution/attendance/volunteering/sponsorship welcome.

We will be holding an "organizers meeting" on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 from 6-7pm at RootSpace (Saifi, Valli & Valli Bldg, near Gemmayze and downtown).  If you want to help with, or help shape, this event, please join us.  Any questions/thoughts, please send me an email or call at 03-138-770.

Cheers!

Munir & Sami
(co-initiators...)

David Munir Nabti, RootSpace
Sami Tueni, Naharnet



............................  further details  .............................

WHAT is a bar camp?  An "open source conference", of sorts... we propose the theme, invite people, and then we collaboratively create the schedule that day.  What does that mean for you?  To make this work, we need people who want to lead discussions, and people who want to participate in discussions.  Check out the Wikipedia description, or the official Bar Camp website. (we'll be posting up there soon... and yes, as far as we know, this is the first Bar Camp to be held in the Arab World)

HOW does it work?  We invite everyone to gather at 10am for coffee and snacks and to meet each other.  Sometime soon after we gather for a brief welcome to the event, and then everyone in attendance helps to collaboratively set the agenda for the rest of the Bar Camp.  We will have a grid on the wall with different rooms and time slots (short sessions), and lots of pieces of paper for you to write your session idea down on.  You can find other people with similar ideas to join together for a session, or not.  As you wish. 
The sessions will probably run from 11-11:45am, 12-12:45, lunch from 1-2pm, and another session from 2:15-3pm, and then 3:15-4pm (to be finalized soon).

WHY? Everybody has fun, everybody learns something, everybody participates, nobody gets bored, ... or if you do get bored, it's your own fault for not proposing and leading a session that is more interesting to you (and probably to others).  :-)   We hope people learn something new, and some ideas are born and develop into something cool for the participants, Lebanon, the region, and beyond.

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