CrisisCamp is June 12-14th in Washington, DC

CrisisCamp is an unconference to bring together domain experts, hackers, makers, developers, and first responders to improve technology and practice for humanitarian crisis management and disaster relief. This is the first event in what I hope will become a movement, and it's happening on June 12 - 14, 2009 in Washington, DC.

Across the world, everyday people can find themselves in crisis. Whether for a day, a month or a continued state of social distress, citizens across the world have common needs for communication. We want to connect with our loved ones to let them know that we are okay (or that we need help) and we crave information by which we make decisions within that time or place of crisis. We want to let people know they they are not alone, that people across the world care and seek to act act altruistically to provide resources to aid in the crisis recovery.

CrisisCamp seeks to break down the bifurcation between international and domestic humanitarian relief agencies and unite their efforts to share lessons learned, response tools, and expertise to encourage citizen engagement and use of information communications technologies (ICTs) to aid in crisis recovery, wherever people need help. We have great hopes that with a successful CrisisCamp, we can inspire a global effort to mitigate the potential impact of times or places of crisis on the human condition.

Crisis Camp seeks participation by anyone who wishes to help. We are especially interested in the use of ICTs in developing countries, especially in the areas of access, usability, and innovation. We seek to learn from academic findings on citizen participation, needs and problem solving efforts. In addition, we seek to understand global information needs through a consumer approach, because people will use what is available and familiar if a crisis event occurs. And finally, we want to know how ICTs, in all their uses, can help citizens of all abilities, recover during a time or place of crisis.

CrisisCamp Ignite! Session Kick Off

Time: Friday, June 12, 2009 from 7:30-9PM
Location: The World Bank,1818 H St., NW Washington D.C.
Participate: Sign up at CrisisCampIgnite (separate registration required for World Bank entry)

CrisisCamp - Saturday, June 13 & Sunday, June 14th

Start Time: 9:00am both days
Location: The Institute for Politics Democracy & the Internet @ George Washington University Participate: Sign up at CrisisCamp

Importance of Innovation in Finance & BarCampBank

“Progress is not the mere correction of evils. Progress is the constant replacing of the best there is with something still better.” -Edward Filene

Two years ago, when we were organizing the first BarCampBank in the US, many people found it hard to believe that banks & credit unions could a place for meaningful grassroots innovation. Even crazier was the idea of organizing an unconference to begin bringing open source, transparency, identity, and community into the very closed world of banking & finance.

Since then the BarCampBank idea has turned into a movement. There have been over 14 events all over the world, and many of the ideas generated are beginning to turn into action.

To me, the global financial system is a platform that exists to “create more value than it captures”. Tim explained this in his Work on Stuff that Matters post, saying:

“A bank that loans money to a small business sees that business grow, perhaps borrow more money, hire employees who make deposits and take out loans, and so on. The power of this cycle to lift people out of poverty has been demonstrated by microfinance institutions like the Grameen Bank. Grameen is clearly focused on creating more value than they capture; not so the like of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, or WaMu, or many of the other failed financial institutions involved in the current financial meltdown.”

There has never been a more important time to bring meaningful innovation into the financial system, and there has never been more opportunity for our community to make it happen.

The next event is occurring this weekend (April 25-26, 2009) on Treasure Island in San Francisco.

After that, the following events are planned:

• BarCampBankVegas is set for May 2, 2009.
• BarCampBankCharleston2 is set for June 13, 2009
• BarCampBankGermany is set for October 23-25, 2009

BarCamp Nairobi Technology Survey

BarCamp Nairobi took place this past weekend and several bloggers estimated that there were over two hundred participants. As part of BarCamp, Erik Hersman, kindly conducted a simple survey for us. In this short post, I will give a brief summary of the results of the survey. For more details on BarCamp Nairobi, consult Erik's blog and flickr pages.

The goal of the short survey was to get a feel for the technologies favored by the attendees. Of the 52 completed surveys, 21 respondents (40%) cited php as one of their primary programming languages.

27 (or 52%) cited one of the common scripting languages (perl, python, php, ruby). The fact that c# was more popular than python, ruby, and perl, is probably indicative of the local IT job market as well. Windows and Linux garnered almost the same number of users:

In a previous post, I mentioned a paper Erik wrote that outlines the importance of cell phones in Africa (“Africa’s PC”). Not suprisingly more than half the BarCamp attendees develop for mobile phone platforms: 27 responded Yes (52%) when asked whether they do any mobile phone application development. At the end of the camp, one of the mobile phone app developers was interviewed by a reporter for the NY Times.

The results of the survey are available as a Google Doc.

CloudCamp gathering after Velocity

On Tuesday after Velocity closes there will be a CloudCamp gathering at Microsoft's San Francisco Office. I'll be going (unless I'm too exhausted to stand).

CloudCamp was formed in order to provide a common ground for the introduction and advancement of cloud computing

Through a series of local cloudcamp events, attendees can exchange ideas, knowledge and information in a creative and supporting environment, advancing the current state of cloud computing and related technologies. As an informal, member-supported gathering, we rely entirely on volunteers to help with meeting content, speakers, meeting locations, equipment and membership recruitment. We also have corporate sponsors that provide financial assistance with venues, software, books, discounts, and other valuable donations. To become a member, simply register for an upcoming event. Anyone may attend a meeting, there are no fees or dues.

It looks like there is now a London CloudCamp being planned for July 16th as well.

(PS: If you still haven't registered for Velocity and want to attend, you can use my 20% discount code "vel08js".)

BarCampBank is spreading

When Ben Black and I organized the first BarCampBank in North America last year, we hoped that it would spread. According to William Azaroff's post on NetBanker, the movement is there and growing:

What's all this about BarCampBanks? From a North American premiere in Seattle almost a year ago, we've witnessed two more in the last few months, and eight more are either scheduled, or in the planning process.

Well, maybe not exactly “planned.” BarCampBanks emerge more than they are planned.

[...]It started as a technology summit, an un-conference where developers and technology geeks could share exploits, connect, and find like-minded companions to extol the virtue of open-source and emerging technologies over pizza and wine.

And then someone decided that this forum would be a perfect place to talk about banking and finance. Weird. And yet it works.

The next event will be BarCampBankDallas on June 21-22nd at the American Bank of Texas Building in Frisco, Texas. William has details on the other events this year on his blog, and a current list can always be found on the main BarCampBank wiki.