History of BarCamp
The first Missoula BarCamp was held in April 2008 to learn about technology, especially web technology, for fun and for non-profits. We invited the arts communities of Missoula to the party at the second Missoula BarCamp in April 2009.
Why is it called Missoula BarCamp? The name goes back to Tim O'Reilly's FooCamp. The Foo stood for Friends Of O'Reilly. It was and is an exclusive invitation only "unconference" where the agenda is created by the participants on a large white board that lets the participants write whatever they want to talk about, when, and where. The invitations go to about 250 people a year, and often times select hackers, programmers, writers, and game designers will camp, thus Foo Camp. Since the term "Foo" is used frequently in computer science classes to describe variables, and "Bar" is a second term often used in the same programming classes, when an past FooCamp attended wanted to make the format available to others - it was Christened BarCamp. BarCamp is a simple unconference format which has been used all over the world for all kinds of different themes, including real estate, science, art, law, and government.
Missoula BarCamp is also such an "unconference" where the agenda and the conference is created dynamically by the attendees during the event. Learning is amplified by high engagement, greater conversation, and participation. If you want to learn more details about the facilitation format, you can learn more at barcamp.org and OpenSpaceWorld.org.
