Swaziland’s First BarCamp Announced
BarCamp Swaziland is one day “unconference” to provide a platform for technology practitioners in Swaziland to share and learn in an open environment. The event—the first of its kind for the country—is scheduled for Saturday, June 27th in Mbabane, Swaziland. The organizers hope to attract young people to the gathering, with a particular focus on rural youth using mobile phones.
The objectives of the BarCamp are to:
- Encourage local technology capacity building by sharing best practices and building partnerships within the technology field.
- Identify technology interests and trends in Swaziland.
- Expose youth to technology and technology providers by involving them in the conference.
- Provide a platform and opportunity to test the capacity of mobile phones for mobile registration and real-time, international mobile reporting.
Rather than depend on expensive and unpredictable Wi-Fi access to connect participants, BarCamp Swaziland will focus on using mobile phones and SMS. It will be the first barcamp to conduct real-time, international reporting exclusively using mobile phones. This will include SMS updates to Mobile Facebook and Twitter alerts via SMS with Twe2.com, among other methods. In doing so, they aim to explore how effective mobile phones are for outreach, registration, reporting, and data collection.
Follow BarCamp Swaziland online
Sponsor: YouthAssets
Blog: http://www.barcampswaziland.org
Facebook Group: BarCamp Swaziland
Twitter: @barcampswaz, @jennifer_sly, @youthassets, @ksjhalla
