Youth BarCamp

October 18-20, 2013 | Vienna

From October 18-20 a Youth BarCamp will take place in Vienna, gathering 70 young people

from six different European countries. The Youth BarCamp tackles youth policy in Austria focusing on the implementation of the EU Youth Strategy, Guidelines for successful e-

Participation of young people as well as any topic within the thematic framework of eDemocracy and Participation young people themselves wish to discuss.

A BarCamp

“ A BarCamp is an international network of user-generated unconferences primarily focused around technology and the Web. They are open, participatory workshop-events, the content of which is provided by participants. The first BarCamps focused on early-stage web applications, and were related to open source technologies, social software, and open data formats. The format has also been used for a variety of other topics, including public transit, health care, education, and political organizing. The BarCamp format has also been adapted for specific industries like banking, real estate and social media.” En.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp

Main organiser of the Youth BarCamp is WienXtra, a youth work agency in Vienna, in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth and the project youthpart. The Youth BarCamp is realized together with different partners from six countries: Koordinaatti (Finland), British Youth Council (United Kingdom), INJUVE (Spain), AEGEE-Europe (Belgium), CECE (Spain) and Liquid Democracy e.V. (Germany). Target group are young people between 16 and 24 years who are in touch with relevant questions related to eDemocracy, digital participation, youth policy and the structured dialogue, yet, also young people who have not been yet in touch with those questions and can provide a different perspective on questions at stake. The European Youth BarCamp is funded by the EU-Program “Youth in Action”, the German Federal Ministry for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth as well as the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth.

Figures at a glance Start of the Youth BarCamp | October 18th Arrival of young people to the Youth BarCamp | October 18th (till 15 hrs) Ending of Youth BarCamp | October 20th Departure of young people from the Youth BarCamp | October 20th (after 14 hrs) Youth BarCamp platform opens (youthbarcamp.eu) | September 6th Start and end of application & confirmation of participation | individual by country Maximum numbers of places at the Youth BarCamp for young people | 70 There is a waiting list in case the actual number of applications exceeds the number of places. Confirmed applicants must register at youthbarcamp.eu for updates and preparation for the Youth BarCamp. The selection of participants takes place through partners from the various partner countries. In case of confirmed participation, the following is included in the participation of the Youth BarCamp:

• Travel expenses (upon presentation of receipts after the event) • Accommodation (double rooms, incl. breakfast) for 2 nights (18-20 October) in Hotel

Bellevue Wien (Althanstrasse 5, Wien) - only for residents outside Vienna• Dinner on 18th & 19th October • Lunch buffet at 19th October & Lunch buffet/Lunch-packages for October 20th

(departure day) • Public Transport in Vienna during the Youth BarCamp • Evening program on Saturday 19th, and optional sightseeing on Sunday 20th.

The location of the Youth BarCamp is: Ifp - wienXtra-institut für freizeitpädagogik; Albertgasse 35/II: 1080 Wien; Tel. +43/1/4000-83 417

Preliminary flow of action at the Youth BarCamp Friday, 18.10.2013 16:00 hrs Start of Youth BarCamp – warming up & getting to know each other 17:30 hrs Leaving for Dinner Saturday, 19.10.2013 09:30 hrs Start of Youth BarCamp including Introduction to the method of BarCamp & Questions Session planning 12:00 – 18:30 hrs Rounds of parallel Youth BarCamp sessions

In between: lunch and a coffee break 18:30 hrs Leaving for Dinner Sunday, 20.10.2013 11:00 hrs Farewell meeting Youth BarCamp 12:30 hrs Departure of Participants or optional sightseeing tour of Vienna What is so special about a BarCamp? A BarCamp is the physical transformation from social media communication into an event format, the so-called un-conference. Key element is the difference between participants and speakers – there is none, it’s reversed. All attendees are equal and asked to bring their ideas, questions or positions into discussion rounds, so-called sessions. The sessions are the programme of the BarCamp and are exclusively determined by the attendees at the event itself, yet discussions about the possible sessions should take place beforehand through social media or a special interactive webspace that is usually provided by the organiser of such a BarCamp. That is why there is no programme available beforehand, as it is shaped at the event itself through the present people. The number of parallel sessions taking place at a BarCamp is only determined by the interest of the people to take part in one session, and the availability of time and space at the meeting venue. The interest of the people to take part in one session is identified at the beginning of the BarCamp when all proposals for the sessions are presented to the whole group of attendees of that BarCamp. The main aim of a session is not to lecture about a specific topic – it is about the exchange and the discussion of it! Of major importance is the direct link to online media: a BarCamp is embedded into online services such as Twitter (our Hashtag is #ybcvie) and blogs to ensure time bound news coverage on the one hand, to receive feedback from interested ones that cannot be present at the event themselves, but also for documentation purposes. At the Youth BarCamp

Vienna we will be even use video-live stream including a chat function from some sessions. More about the event format BarCamp is to be found here (also in particular about youth BarCamps). Yet the handbook is currently only available in German, but very soon in English as well: http://www.ijab.de/uploads/tx_ttproducts/datasheet/JugendBarCamp_Online.pdf Thematic focus of the youth BarCamp Vienna #ybcvie The main focus of the youth BarCamp is the discussion of the current status of the „Guidelines for e-participation of young people“ that are developed by the youthpart-project-network. These guidelines are available prior to the BarCamp on youthbarcamp.eu. For the BarCamp itself they are split into useful sections to facilitate the discussion and editing process. Next to the discussion related to the guidelines also current questions about youth policy, democracy, social networking and participation are addressed. Here the common platform youthbarcamp.eu comes into action: prior to the BarCamp proposal for sessions are collected in here. A BarCamp is a free event format that allows strong deviation from the main focus, yet, during the BarCamp in practice attendees chose for the given main focus though. The active role of attendees is also visible when it comes to the voting and prioritising of presented sessions: it’s exclusively all up to them, not to the organisers! For some people rings a bell when comparing a BarCamp to the Open Space technology; yet there are differences, as outlines above. Basically, it is one big group work, where everyone can be an expert, not only the few we see at normal conferences. During the event we link to (political) decision-makers but also afterwards the results are serving as rich source of expertise and inspiration. Young people’s contribution before the Kick-off Young people contribute beforehand to the Youth BarCamp. This will happen through the platform “barcamptools.eu”, where young people can make session proposals and vote upon them before actually arriving at the Youth BarCamp. If the made a proposal they can share this through social media and gain attraction for the event. At the same time the young people can learn who else is interested in the Youth BarCamp and start discussions even prior to the event. By this the young people take an active role in exercising their right of participation, making their interests and voice heard and receives instant feedback and responses to their ideas. Overall, this helps to raise the involvement of the young people as well as the overall experience of the event and personal ownership to the outcome of the Youth BarCamp.

In particular, the content of the Youth BarCamp provides a thematic framework to issues directly related to young people in Europe: such as youth participation, Europe, European citizenship, active citizenship, eDemocracy, ICT for decision-making processes, Open Data, Open Government. Through its interactive and innovative character, it offers an ideal space for young people to contribute to the topics of the framework as well as bring own issues within this framework to the table. Outcome of the event & learning dimension The anticipated outcome of the Youth BarCamp is many-folded. From the young people the project partners expect valuable input and ideas for the update of the guidelines for successful e-participation of young people. This is part of a broader consultation process with the target group of the guidelines. Next to this, the project partners and organisers expect young people to bring discussions and topics themselves to the event and discuss them with peers from five different countries. Also, the project partners expect new insights about the functioning of the format BarCamp in international policy making. It is the first BarCamp in Europe where young people and decision-makers meet to discuss about e-democracy. In addition, the project partners will experience themselves how a BarCamp is functioning and will elaborate afterwards about its added value in international youth work and policy making. As part of the learning outcome for the project partners as well as for the young people is also how to realise a qualitative feedback input in policy making from 70 young people on a complex issue. Contact: WienXtra | Bettina Schwarzmayr | Main coordinator | Email: Bettina.Schwarzmayr@wienxtra.at More information, updates and action anytime on youthbarcamp.eu