"The IWMW event provides an opportunity for those involved in the provision of institutional Web services to hear about institutional case studies, national initiatives and emerging technologies and to actively participate in a number of parallel sessions."

BarCamp

Building on the success of last year's BarCamp sessions delegates will once again be given the opportunity to run their own BarCamp.

A board will be provided for people to post up ideas for slots, rooms will then be allocated. Screen projectors will be available in rooms for people to use.

Some ideas for topics include:

• A technology you are currently working with (you could demonstrate the technology)
• A project you are currently working on
• A discussion area you feel strongly about

You might also like to have a look at topic suggestions made on the call for participation page and on the Ideascale site.

If you have an idea for a BarCamp session you'd like to discuss please email m.guy@ukoln.ac.uk. Slots will be kept empty for the start of IWMW 2009 to ensure every one has an opportunity to participate.

What is a BarCamp?

Wikipedia defines BarCamp as an international network of user generated conferences, open, participatory workshop events, whose content is provided by participants. A BarCamp is typically one or two full days held at a weekend attended by people with an interest in technology. The day is split into a number of sessions typically of around 30 minutes each. Depending on the number of participants, size of venue, etc. there may be several sessions running simultaneously.

At the start of the day a board is put up and people scramble for a slot to do their talk. Often a whiteboard and post it notes is used to allocate rooms and timeslots. Once this has been done the sessions start. People turn up to whichever sessions they wish provided there is enough room. If there's not enough space then they go to another session. No one can pre-book a session (either as a presenter or participant) and there's an accepted rule (though no one checking up) that if it's your first time at a BarCamp, you present something. There is no fixed format for sessions, often they involve some kind of on screen presentation but they could be round table discussions or more practical.

"One of the best presentations I've seen was titled "stuff I know" and was a guy drawing shapes, arrows and random words on a flip chart while telling us what we should know..."
Mike Nolan