This article was written by Chris Boudy and originally appeared in New Orleans Tech.
For three years, nerds, geeks, technologists and those with a hunger for anything technology-related have congregated at BarCamp NOLA. The annual event, which has been dubbed an “unconference,” began its journey in Palo Alto, Calif. in 2005. The conference began as a flexible one, opening its doors to anyone willing to participate. If attendees chose to present on specific topics, they were welcome to do so. BarCamp not only focuses on various topics such as web application and open source technology, but also centers itself around public transit, healthcare and political organization. Since its founding, BarCamp has spread to several cities across the United States.
Four years ago, New Orleans joined the ranks as a BarCamp city, hosting BarCamp NOLA for the first time in 2007. Matthew Tritico and Nicky Henriquez Mast, organizers of BarCamp NOLA, are taking the reins again this year to bring the conference back to the New Orleans technology community.
“Although BarCamp NOLA has seen a variety of topics, this year the focus seems to be coming back to its tech roots,” Tritico said.
Looking at the BarCamp NOLA sign up, a long portion of the workshop focuses solely on technology. Some of the lineup includes: Tim Garrett, who is set to present on using Yahoo! pipes to achieve full-flavored RSS deliciousness; Logan Leger, who will present on “Ruby, iOS, and Andriod, platforms” and yours truly, who will speak about how the world’s biggest software vendors are racing towards a centralized OS.