Barcamp HK 2009 - Grass Roots Internet Event

As a co-organiser of Barcamp Hong Kong (#barcamphk), I am proud to say that we successfully brought together a wide cross-section of the tech, design and start-up community for our 3rd annual unconference in Hong Kong. My tagline for this event was "dip into the grass-roots net community in Hong Kong". I should have said "dive" as we were truly consumated by the talks and all the fascinating people you get to meet at such a laid-back event.

I was going to devote time to writing a long blog post but then my fellow co-organiser, Aaron Farr (CubicleMuses.com), invited me to work from his summary. In following with true Creative Commons principles, I've provided a slightly altered ("mashed-up") version below. (Thanks, Aaron!)

This year over 300 campers attended 35 sessions on 12 September at Turner International’s beautiful offices in Quarry Bay. Topics ranged from iPhones to ethics in social media. Microsoft provided an XBox which went to the most popular presenter of the day, Kin Ko for his session on mobile gaming in China. River Ho walked away with an iPhone 3GS from Pinpoint Asia.

But prizes aside, the whole day was fantastic and left me (us all!) exhausted. This was definitely our best barcamp yet. Read on for links, photos, and notes from the day.

Google Wave

Aaron did a packed session on Google Wave, for which I got to play around with live! For those who want more info, check out:

• Sign up for Google Wave (includes video)


• Wave Protocol website


• Wave APIs & code


• Aaron's diagram of wave protocols

If you have a Wave account, you can find this tech guru at jaaron@wavesandbox.com

Links

We’ll add more as I find them:

• Facebook event with photos


• BarCamp Wiki


• Photos on Flickr


• Tweets


• Belle’s videos on Blip.TV
  
  
  
  • the Lumina session [Lumina website]
  
  
  • the iPhone forum
  
  
  • Bill’s Go Indie video
  
  
  • River’s Analytics session
  
  
  • William’s iPhone developer session
  
  
  • Google Wave Part 1 and Part 2


• Andrei’s slides from his HK Government funding for startups session


• Ben’s slides on Pylons + Tokyo Cabinet


• Video of Kin Ko’s winning talk on Mobile games in China


• Andy’s links from his session on open source design


• Hitchhiker’s Guide to Startup Survival slides


• Poken made a splash


• Preetam Rai’s Travel 4 Web 2.0 slides


• Bill’s blog on his Go Indie session


• Alan Knowles’ review on his blog, “Smoking toooooo much PHP”


• Sammy Fung wrote about his session on GoGoGo (English Version)

Sessions

Here’s a copy of the final schedule for the day.

Many, many thanks to all those who made BarCamp HK possible, especially the other organizers, Aaron, Belle, Ben and Henry, and to all the sponsors who generously gave us support: Turner, Microsoft, Adobe, Net Dimensions, Cyberport, Pinpoint Asia, DediPower, Dookas and Socialutions.

And of course, barcamp couldn’t exist if it weren’t for everyone who attended and participated. Thanks to everyone who shared a session and put up with me moving sessions around.

Get Involved

If you know of any other barcamp hk links please add them in the comments.

If you’re interested in getting involved in barcamp hk next year, then please add your name to the wiki. We’re always looking for more volunteers and sponsors. And please leave feedback (here or on the wiki). What would you like to see next year? What worked well? What didn’t? Personally, I’d love to see barcamp reach a broader audience of participants from film, art, and music industries.And if you liked barcamp hk, then don’t forget to attend other barcamps in Asia. Preetam Rai has a great weblog featuring barcamps in south east Asia. BarCamp Phnom Penh is coming up next month.

And a picture of me with my Flip video recorded taken by the lovely Ryanne (@laihui), who blogs at NiceSoda.com.