Jesus Barcamp 2010
The first non-conference in the format of barcamp * for Russia and most CIS countries, organized by the Association of Internet evangelists was held at St. Petersburg Christian University.
Within the barcamp the school of Internet Evangelism II was also held, which last year took place in the building of the Salvation Army in St. Petersburg.
The main distinction between this non-conference and other related activities is that it primarily talked about Web 2.0 (blogs, podcasts, online videos, groups in social networks) in the life of the church. And also about the most modern tools and techniques that help to bring the great message to the large number of people. The number of participants was recorded about 150 people, of which nearly 30 people presented their themes and shared experiences of evangelization in the world- wide web.
The format barcamp, and the people who spend a lot of time on the network, assumed to be democratic in atmosphere. The schedule of speakers and topics, sometimes change on the fly, listeneres move freely in three different rooms, which occur simultaneously. It was an excellent opportunity and they represented different countries: Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Germany, Finland, Kazakhstan, and even On-line integration of USA.
In the process of moving around the building of SPbCU, there was the meeting of people who actually already knew each other a long time, but many of them SAW each other for the first time. This is one of the distinguishing features of Internet sphere, where old friends can meet for the first time again. It was said by the head of the Christian business ministry "Success in God" Victor Bozhenko: "We all communicate a lot on the Internet, but here there is a great opportunity to meet personally and shake hands with a potential partner, or colleague."
This whole internet specificity implies freedom of thought, a good sense of the word, independence and a high degree of responsibility. Because at the forefront of Internet evangelism are, in fact, the leaders, each of which once received the revelation of the creation of their own service on the Internet. Therefore, anyone who arrived at Barcamp, was an interesting personality.
Personal communication and the experience of those who shared in the presentations created the mutuality among the speakers and listeners. Someone could, by submitting their own project, see his weaknesses and to find workers for the further advancement of the project, such as Vladimir Atapin, an expert on the organization of streaming from Germany, presented his project "A quotation from the Bible Online». The participants included both students and already experienced bloggers, online marketers, the creators of successful projects: Mikola Maluje - the most popular blogger on the Ukrainian-language version of Yandex. Victor Eliseev - the owner of an advertising agency QuadroMedia, included in the five largest in Kazakhstan. Dennis Semeniuk - the owner of the hosting company in Ukraine. Paul Levushkan - the owner of the Baltic Sea Portal religion Baznica.Info and co-owner of the Center of effective communication. Writer and director Eugene Harhardin, whose works you can see how the Christian channel TBN, and on national secular channels. Oleg Bindasov - Director of Radio Theos. These and many other professionals gathered at Jesus Barcamp 2010 in the walls of St. Petersburg Christian University.
Quite hot topics were heard in the lecture halls: work in social networks, upgrading of the network, a number of seminars could get acquainted with modern techniques and technologies contributing to better livelihood Internet evangelism.
Topics were such:
• How the church can use the Internet to preach the gospel!
• How can I expand my ministry and to begin the mission in other countries without leaving home!
• How can I reach tens of thousands and even millions of people the gospel of the web!
• How to create your own Internet radio station, or even online TV!
• What's the strategy of the church in the 21st century!
• How to reduce costs on travel and the education of ministers by a hundreds times in one month!
• How to organize a Christian distance education from your church to church members, ministers etc.!
In addition to workshops and performances, as it should be at the Christian event, several hours were devoted to worship, which was led by the Christian world author and performer Dmitry Shletgauer.
The closing of the non-conference was highlighted by the president of the channel TBN Igor Nikitin. His speech was as unusual as the whole conference. Citing an example, one of the most recent phenomena of our time - the movie "Avatar", he showed how the world has become unreal, how easily people are "included" in the drawn by someone picture, a new reality. He urged Christians to unite and show that our faith helps us to be one step ahead of reality and opens new horizons for our projects and creative ideas.
Then, Oleg Bindasov representing a partner of Barcamp, radio Theos, held a competition startup. The point of this contest was that each participant can submit an idea that he would like to implement in the near future. The authors of the two of the most interesting ideas received cash prizes from the largest Christian radio network of the country. The prizes were awarded to: Lutheran pastor Dmitry Martyshenko from Kaluga, a project of an electronic archive of photos and letters to war veterans and Maksim Varfolomeev of Poltava, who proposed the project blog for people with disabilities.
The non-conference was ended by the director of the Association of Internet evangelists Gregory Gabdiev as he told the story of the Association, its bumpy ride, with financial difficulties and lack of confident people. The result, which we saw in those two days, was that all those present and those who could watch the broadcast Barcamp on-line, was proof that the faith of one man is capable of much. And with the help of God Jesus Barcamp 2010 took place.
* Reference:
The name "BarCamp" is derived from the event, which was organized by Tim O'Reilly for his friends - Foobar. The first BarCamp was held in Palo Alto, California, August 19-21, 2005 in the office of Socialtext. It was organized in less than a week, from concept to event, which was attended by around 200 people. Since then, BarCamps were more than 350 cities around the world. The first BarCamp in Russia was held on 31 July to 4 August 2008 in Moscow and called it - iCamp, founder of the CIS was barcamp Ukraine - Blogcamp (Блоґкемп), last August 13-14, 2007. One of the main features of barcamp around the world is that despite the fact that there is an initiative group, most of the work of organizing the event themselves is taken by the participants themselves. Typically, organizations use online resource, which uses a wiki or something like a social network for discussing all issues of common issues to the program activities, etc. One of the main conditions is the availability of wireless internet technology using Wi-Fi. Participation in barcamp, usually free, but organizers will provide all necessary with the help of sponsors - from facilities and internet access to food and beverages. Number of participants limited to premises where held BarCamp. Although the organizers ask to register in advance, this is not a prerequisite for involvement.
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