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Good luck to the IT community up in Hanoi, Vietnam, tomorrow with Barcamp Hanoi 2009.  I hope to catch some of the events live over Twitter tomorrow.

Event information

• Date: Sunday, April 19, 2009
• Time: 8.30AM to 5.00PM
• Location: RMIT International University, Hanoi Campus – 2/2C Van Phuc Compound, Kim Ma street, Hanoi. [Google Maps]
• Lunch: will be served
• Parking: there is a motorbike parking, and a car parking not so far from the location.
• Public transportation: public bus lines 07, 09, 13, 18, 20,…. Please check it here (maybe it’s quite outdated but it’s the best version we have got)

Joint Barcamp Saigon / Barcamp Phnom Penh

I remember from last year’s Barcamp Saigon, there was talk about holding a joint Barcamp Saigon / Barcamp Phnom Penh (Barcamp Indochina) possibly next September, 2009.   In short, Barcampers could present at Barcamp Phnom Penh on Saturday and then board a bus that night for Saigon.  They then can present at Barcamp Saigon on Sunday.

Helen Clark published her article in relation to the new blogging regulation for Vietnam last Friday.  Originally, the blogging regulation was supposed to include all bloggers but has since focused just on bloggers who host blogs within Vietnam.

Anh Hung (Fresco 2.0), Chris Harvey (charvey in Vietnam), and I were interviewed by Helen Clark via telephone.   This will be Anh Hung’s second interview.  Over a week ago, he appeared in Geoffrey Caines’ SFGate article, Bloggers the new rebels in Vietnam.

It will be interesting to see how the law will be implemented next year.  What about blogs not affected by the new Blog Law, will they just be filtered out?  As we have seen with Geocities for many years, the Vietnamese government has the capability to filter out websites.  It will be relatively easy to filter out ‘controversial’ blogs as well.  We will just have to wait and see but as I told two other reporters, I think the Western media are a bigger threat to Vietnam bloggers than the new blog law

Excerpt of Helen Clark’s article:

Though blogging regulations have been discussed before the issue again came to prominence in November, with reports running in local media that the Ministry of Information and Communications was planning a law which would counteract “incorrect information” about Vietnam.

Read more here -> http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45171

or here -> http://www.google.com/search?&q=Blogging+Boom+Faces+Gov%27t+Blockages+Helen+Clark

Oh yeah, one little mistake.  Helen mentioned that I ran Barcamp Saigon.  Actually, I just formed it and helped obtain the venue though my network.  The Barcamp Saigon organizers ran the event.  Want to make sure they get the credit here, not me

Other Press Reports on the Blog Regulation

Edit 1:

Reuters published their report on the blogging regulation.  A bit more negative in tone than Helen Clark’s article.  John Ruwitch seemed to just quote online news sources without checking out the facts.  As I mentioned earlier, nobody seems concerned about the new blog regulation except the Western media.  They are blowing this out of proportion.

Read article here -> Vietnam Bans Submersive Blogs

The first Barcamp Central Asia was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.  I have a reporter friend back in Bishkek who attended this Barcamp.  It was a success, roughly 300 people attended.  They are now planning a second Barcamp Central Asia to be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, next April, 2009.  I am considering attending this Barcamp though it would mean reviewing my Kazakh and Russian.  It seems that the entire event was in Russian, the lingua franca of the region.

Below is the logo for Barcamp Central Asia 2009 and a brief presentation of the upcomThe first Barcamp Central Asia was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. I have a reporter friend back in Bishkek who attended this Barcamp. It was a success, roughly 300 people attended. They are now planning a second Barcamp Central Asia to be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, next April, 2009. I am considering attending this Barcamp though it would mean reviewing my Kazakh and Russian. It seems that the entire event was in Russian, the lingua franca of the region.

Below is the logo for Barcamp Central Asia 2009. Really nice. Almaty is the ‘City of Apples’.

Fresh off the press from the eXo Platform website.  There will be an openSocial Hackathon next month and a tentative plan for Barcamp Hanoi 2009.

The openHackathon will take place on December 13, 2008, at the eXo office in Hanoi.  This event is co-organized by eXo Platform and Jason Vu’s Webpal.  You will need to register for this event, only 50 seats are available.

Go to the eXo Platform website for more information on the openHackathon event in Hanoi.

Exo Platform also made an announcement about Barcamp Hanoi 2009.  Jason mentioned to me they were organizing it as well.  Go to the following URI for more information about the next Barcamp in Hanoi: http://wiki.barcamphanoi.org/

Hard to believe that nearly 5 months ago, I posted an entry about organizing the first Barcamp in Saigon.  Nearly 5 months later, Barcamp Saigon was held at RMIT Vietnam.  Nearly 300 participants attended Barcamp Saigon 1.  Barcamp Saigon had visitors from Cambodia, Singapore and far away as the US (Washington, DC).

VinaConsulting helped sponsor the event.  It was nice to see that the two VinaConsulting banners were well placed.  You can see the banners on two of the five photos from PC World Vietnam’s piece on Barcamp Saigon.

Both Leon and I gave presentations.  I decided not to present on Open Source Business Applications at this Barcamp.  I will save it for next year.  Instead, I wanted to focus on my use of Ubuntu Linux at the American International School, where I teach IT.  You can see my presentation at Slideshare #barcampsaigon.  You can view the presentations from other Barcamp Saigon presentors as well.

We had to keep our eye on the Live Schedule to figure out which sessions to attend.  I missed many good Linux presentations.  My favorite presentation focused on virtualization.  The Sexy Cambodian Bloggers session was enjoyable though many of the popular Vietnamese and Expat Vietnam Bloggers were not present at Barcamp Saigon.

I really have no complaints for Barcamp Saigon 1.  I did not even notice that the WiFi was down until some people complained about it. Despite this, RMIT should host Barcamp Saigon 2 next year.  There was even a discussion to collaborate with the organizers of Barcamp Phnom Penh and host a joint Barcamp Southeast Asia in 2009.  In short, Barcamp Phnom Penh would host the event on a Saturday.  At the end of this event, then participants would board a bus for Saigon and attend Barcamp Saigon on a Sunday.

Here are some good links and reviews in regards to Barcamp Saigon:

• Barcamp Saigon Live Schedule
• Slideshare Barcamp Saigon Presentations
• Barcamp Saigon (Chris Harvey)
• ducban’s blog entry about Barcamp Saigon
• Thomas Wanhoff’s entry on Barcamp Saigon
• Goodbye BarCamp Saigon
• Barcamp Saigon 1 Recap
• PC World Vietnam on Barcamp Saigon
• Barcamp Saigon Flickr Photos
• YouTube Barcamp Saigon Videos

(Introduction of Barcamp Saigon by Huy)

(Chris Harvey’s Presentation on ‘Building a Successful Web Business)

(Hung talking about ELearning 2.0)

(Leon speaking about IT Strategy for VinaConsulting)

(Closing Ceremonies for Barcamp Saigon)

See you all Next Year.

Edit: Subtracting volunteers, staff, and RMIT students, the actual number at Barcamp Saigon 1 may be around 200 participant.  Barcamp Saigon 1 and the Google Devfest 2008 had roughly the same attendence rate.

Edit 2: There were some complaints that Barcamp Saigon should have been hosted at a Vietnamese university, not at a private university such as RMIT.  They argued that RMIT was not representative of Vietnam or the Vietnamese people.  Unfortunately, we had little choice since the other venues candidates were either not ready or never showed interest in barcamp saigon.

Edit 2: Actual number of participants, excluding organizing committee and volunteers, was around 159.