If you are passionate about innovation in finance, we invite you to participate in BarCampBankSeattle.
When & Where
Dates: July 21st - 22nd, 2007
Location: 
MiKiJio Arts
Meals: Breakfast & Lunch will be provided on-site, along with beverages and snacks.
Costs: We invite sponsorship from interested organizations, and will ask for participants to contribute $35.
- People and organizations interested in in sponsoring this event should contact Jesse Robbins.
What is a BarCamp & BarCampBank?
BarCamps are part of an international network of “unconferences“. They are open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants. Many focus on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies and social protocols. The name is a playful allusion to its origins, with reference to the hacker slang term “Foo Bar“. The BarCamp movement arose as a spin-off from Foo Camp, an annual invitation-only unconference hosted by open source publishing leader, Tim O’Reilly.
BarCampBank events are organized internationally to foster innovation in banking, credit unions, and finance. BarCampBankSeattle will be sixth BarCampBank event and the first held in the United States.
For more information on this event, please go to the BarCampBankSeattle wiki page or email Jesse Robbins at jesse.robbins@openaid.org!
July 2nd, 2007
We’ve started organizing BarCampBankSeattle, which will probably be the first US BarCampBank meeting. A sign-up form and more information will be posted to the wiki and discussed in the BarCampBank group.
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.
BarCampBank is a community organized around the following mission:
The aim of BarCampBank is to foster innovations and the creation of new business models in the world of banking and finance.
Here’s an article about “unconferences” like BarCamp in BusinessWeek: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_20/b4034080.htm
May 14th, 2007
It’s been a while, and so I wanted to send out a quick update on what’s been happening with the project.
Recent updates:
- I spoke about the project at the IgnitionNW Town Hall Meeting on March 26th and made two important announcements:
- The first group in our Field of Membership will be IgnitionNW.
- I’m building a technology platform to create and operate Credit Unions like Black Rock Federal. (There will be more about this soon!)
- I also had an outstanding meeting with Carmen Mauk of Burners without Borders, who is taking BWB in some exciting directions.
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Upcoming:
- I’m sending our revised Field-of-Membership to the NCUA on Friday.
On Saturday I’m flying to San Francisco to help Brady run the Ignite Event @ the Web2.0 Expo in San Francisco. (Justin.tv will be there and presenting, so you might be able to see it live… and from a speakers perspective!)- I might be speaking at the Web2.0 Expo as well (check my personal blog if you want to know more)
Next Update: Friday, April 20th
April 11th, 2007
I recently found the BarCampBank, which describes itself as a “community of people interested in disruptive innovations in the world of banking and finance”. It is part of the BarCamp movement, which wikipedia describes as:
“BarCamp is an international network of unconferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies and social protocols.”
I know we will be participating in this community, and I hope leaders such as OpenSourceCU, Trabian, the Filene Research Institute, and Wesabe will be doing so too.
March 11th, 2007
We will be writing our charter as part of an Open Space Technology (OST) conference and forum, and so I thought I’d begin explaining what OST is all about. Here is a little background… enjoy!
-Jesse
This is the front page of the Business Section of the San Jose Mercury News for July 13, 2006 it features the Principles of Open Space and asks - How can you plan anything in Silicon Valley using these rules?
“Open Space Technology is a simple way to run productive meetings, for five to 2000+ people, and a powerful way to lead any kind of organization, in everyday practice and ongoing change…”
Harrison Owen describes OST as:
“At the very least, Open Space is a fast, cheap, and simple way to better, more productive meetings. At a deeper level, it enables people to experience a very different quality of organization in which self-managed work groups are the norm, leadership a constantly shared phenomenon, diversity becomes a resource to be used instead of a problem to be overcome, and personal empowerment a shared experience. It is also fun. In a word, the conditions are set for fundamental organizational change, indeed that change may already have occurred. By the end, groups face an interesting choice. They can do it again, they can do it better, or they can go back to their prior mode of behavior.
Open Space is appropriate in situations where a major issue must be resolved, characterized by high levels of complexity, high levels of diversity (in terms of the people involved), the presence of potential or actual conflict, and with a decision time of yesterday.
Open Space runs on two fundamentals: passion and responsibility. Passion engages the people in the room. Responsibility ensures things get done. A focusing theme or question provides the framework for the event. The art of the question lies in saying just enough to evoke attention, while leaving sufficient open space for the imagination to run wild.”
Update 1/14/07: Ted Earnst blogged about us on OpenSpaceWorld’s blog.
January 13th, 2007
The great folks at blip.tv posted the video from my talk at Ignite Seattle I and of course I have a few updates, corrections, retractions, and denials from the event.
- I was, in fact, drunk when I wrote and presented this talk. I feel the need to state for the record that this event was held in a bar which didn’t have food and I’m I lightweight because I don’t drink that often. So… moving on…
- I was wrong about Credit Union capitalization.
- The Open Space Technology (OST) conference where we will write our charter and figure out how we will implement it is currently scheduled for April 7th, 2007. More details will be posted soon!
- My talk mentions Jonah Burke’s presentation on the Darfur Wall project. Donate!
- The OpenSourceCU folks aren’t creating technology yet, but their sponsor Trabien is a technology company serving credit unions.
December 19th, 2006
