Barcamp is on this weekend

Just what exactly is an unorganised computer conference? And why is it awesome?

There’s an unusual computing conference going on this weekend. It’s called BarCamp, and it’s not a normal computing conference – it’s what happens when you apply the open source model to real world gatherings.

The plan is for people to just rock up and give talks on whatever they are knowledgeable and interested in. All the benefits of the open source movement are there: people who’ve dedicated a lot of time to learning about one specialised area share what they know about a niche topic, along with freeform discussion, debate and learning.

A quick skim over the registration page reveals what might happen, because some people have posted what they’ll be speaking about. Some of the talks include:

Business structures for start-ups -- by Paul Zagoridis, author of a blog entitled "Psychology of the Deal".

More than you wanted to know about Maps -- by Joseph Gentle, who’s been writing a native mapping application for the iPhone and toying with cool ideas like making a maps rendering engine that renders on the client side instead of sending pre-rendered tiles to the user.

Speed Networking -- by Alex North, the event "unorganiser" who’s in charge of the craziest meet and greet ever. He’s also a Google Engineer and creator of the GasBag iPhone app that’s received a lot of attention in the mainstream press recently.

Nick Hodge from Microsoft (and guest at previous Atomic Live Forums) is going to be there, but hasn’t specified what he’ll be talking about yet. In the spirit of BarCamp, we’ll see what he’s got planned on the day.

There are a whole stack of people who have vague ideas and are open to suggestions, and anyone who wants to can talk about a topic. If you’re going to though, you should be prepared and know your stuff.

Hell, I’m even giving a presentation about human computer interaction, user interfaces and how users comprehend options through phrasing and context.

If you’re free this weekend, live in Sydney, and want to learn more about quirky aspects of tech, check out BarCamp Sydney’s site for more details.