From Appfrica Wiki

Campala

Contents 1 Barcamp Recap 2 BarCamp 3 Photo Gallery 4 Event details 5 Sponsors 6 Schedule 7 Sessions and Presentations 8 Questions and Discussion Topics 9 Organizers 10 Participants (aka Campers) 11 What We Need 12 Tags for flickr, delicious, ma.gnolia, technorati etc.

Barcamp Recap

A full review of Campala Day 1 and Day 2. Questions were added in realtime via the BarCampQuestions page and Twitter. User:Jon liveblogged the event on Twitter search for #campala. Photos are up in the BarCampPictureGallery. A collection of slides, video and notes from the conference are available below.

BarCamp

A Barcamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants. Here is a quote from the wikipedia description:

'BarCamp is an international network of un-conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies and social protocols.'

Campala 2008 will be held in Kampala, Uganda on 29, August 2008 at Makerere University's Faculty of Computing and IT, Block B Level 5 Large Lecture Theatre. It is being organized as a way to bring people interested in a variety of topics together in one place for a day of exploration, connection and enjoyment.

Some of you might be asking yourselves why Appfrica is hosting this page?  Well, for one, the philosophy of Barcamp (encouragement, sharing, development, innovation etc.) is perfectly inline with why I started Appfrica.  While Appfrica will be more formal and will aim to bring together a more diverse group of professionals, Campala is a Barcamp all about developers, bloggers and tech enthusiasts native to or working in Africa.  We had to change the name because the Barcamp people are very clear about how you can and can't use their trademark and to be honest I had no idea what I could or couldn't do so I just bypassed it completely, lol.

Campala is also a collaborative effort meaning we want as many people involved in planning it as possible.  If you're interested in helping to organize Campala, contact me here.

Photo Gallery

Photos from the two-day Campala barcamp are available at Flickr and on the wiki at BarCampPictureGallery

Event details

1. When Friday 29th, August 2008 and Saturday 30th, August 2008
2. Where Faculty of Computing and IT, Block B Level 5 Large Lecture Theatre

Sponsors

Makerere University Faculty of Computing and IT

Mountbatten Uganda Web Hosting

E-Tech Quality IT support at affordable prices

Appfrica Facilitating East African Entrepreneurs in Technology

GosDot Web Development and Applications

eBox IT and Education Suport

 

Schedule

DAY 1
Date: Friday 29th, August 2008
Time: 3:00pm (15:00)
Location: Faculty of Computing and IT, Block B Level 5 Large Lecture Theatre

       Starts 3pm
       3:00pm to 4:00pm Meet and greet
       4:00pm - 6:00 panels and discussion
       4:30pm (there is a proposed break-out session for those interested in Translation and Localization)
       5:30pm - Pootle demo - Denye, Dennis, San, James        
       6:00pm Day 1 Wrap-Up

DAY 2
Date: Saturday 30th, August 2008
Time: 10:00AM
Location: Faculty of Computing and IT, Block B Level 5 Large Lecture Theatre

       Starts at 10:00AM sharp
       10:00am to 3:00pm panels and discussion
       3pm Break for Lunch at the Makerere Guest House
       4pm Closing, Good-Byes, Hugs
       5pm Campala Over and Out

Sessions and Presentations

1. Social Media in Uganda What is Micro-messaging? (Twitter, Jaiku, La.Conica)
2. Embracing Data Portability
3. Who's Who in the Ugandan Blogsphere (Introduce Yourselves!)
4. What is Google Agenda in East Africa?
5. Django, Rails or PHP Frameworks. What's the best language for web development?
6. Cool Stuff You Can Do With JQuery
7. Optimizing Your Website for Low Bandwidth Access
8. E-Box for Your Business
9. Camara and Edubuntu in Ugandan Schools
10. Ugandan Software Localisation Luganda Firefox Translation Project
11. Netsupport School
12. Web Applications and Social Protocols
13. New DNS Vulnerability

Questions and Discussion Topics

When Barcamp started we began by opening up the floor to the room for the questions they wanted answered or discussed by the end of Barcamp. Here's what we got, anything struck was covered.

1. What is Version Control?
2. What is Google's purpose in East Africa?
3. How do developers from East Africa get in touch with Venture Capitalists abroad?
4. Who is producing local content?
5. Wifi in Rural Areas and Villages
6. Location based Mobile Application Development
7. Technologies Role in Forcing Government Transparency
8. Artificial Technology and Semantic Web Applications
9. BPL (Broadband over Power Lines)
10. Security and Ecryption
11. Software for Schools
12. Broadband in Uganda versus the Rest of the World. (Comparing price and speed.)
13. What equipment could improve Broadband?
14. What is the Google Cache?
15. Hosting Locally versus Abroad
16. Messaging Protocols (XMPP/Jabber, IMPS, SIP)

During the course of Barcamp, User:Jon liveblogged the event on Twitter and asked the international audience that followed the feed to submit questions. It worked! We had five people (from Dubai, Johannesburg, Uganda, Paulo Alto, CA (Silicon Valley) and San Francisco, USA) contribute to the discussion in realtime.

1. "were costs for Firefox Lunganda to translate the app or to create automatic translation services for the future?" asked by ksjhalla
2. "Is the feeling in the room that 12 M UGX is a lot or a little? Is there a way to bring cost down?" asked by sbramley
3. "i would like to know the status of funding therE? any VC's?]] asked by ismaild"
4. "Hmm, I'd like to know if there's any truth to the rumor of a seeding a "silicon valley" in that part of the world" asked by senkwe
5. "What are the key actions or follow-ups, changes that will come from the conf?" BarCampAfrica
6. "how can the greater tech community support grassroot tech innovation in Uganda?" ksjhalla

Organizers

1. Jon Gosier
2. Reinier Battenberg
3. Michael Niyitegeka
4. Simon Vass

Participants (aka Campers)

• Jon Gosier (Appfrica)
• Reinier Battenberg (Mount Batten)
• Marcin Zaleski
• Michael Niyitegeka (Makerere)
• McTim
• Daniel Mulumba
• Jude Lumala
• Clare Sempebwa
• Nagawa
• Mugarura
• Kathleen Diga
• Samuel Mburu
• Simon Vass
• Richard Matovu
• Jon Chamberlain
• Trisha Olsson
• Felix Kikoba
• Olweny San James
• Simon Muwanga
• Dennis M. Senyonjo
• Joseph Mucheru (Google East Africa)
• We don't have everyone's name but there were over 75 attendees.

 

 

What We Need

(please cross out when it's done)

Tech

Wifi

Projector, White Boards

Audio (Microphones)

Video Camera For Recording

Digital Camera

 

Non-tech

Refreshments

Lunch

Tables and chairs

Pens including a Felt Marker

T-Shirts

Caps

Tags for flickr, delicious, ma.gnolia, technorati etc.

Please use the tags campala, #campala or campala2008 for content related to this event

• Campala @ Twitter
• Campala @ Flickr
• Campala @ YouTube
• Campala @ SlideShare