It is important to note that the real estate industry did not "invent" barcamps. Just like twitter and facebook and blogging, real estate peeps and tweeps enter the existing scene, and modify it as needed to meet their objectives. There have been recent discussions about the word "bar" being in the name, so it is important to note that this stems from the word "fubar", which is and has been a common "placeholder name" for an unknown quantity in Computer Programming. Barcamps are a spinnoff of "Foo Camp" and there are "wordcamps" and "mindcamps" and the potential for future "camps" is endless. 

They are "camps" because technically you are supposed to "camp out" for longer periods of time until you exhaust the views on the topic at hand. Seattle Mind Camp will run for 24 hours straight, but most REBarcamps are all day events with an informal gathering afterward...often at a "bar"...but that is not where the "bar" in barcamp comes from.

A "bar" is a placeholder for new information to be inserted (by many).

The best analogy I can think of is in "Good Will Hunting" where the professors posted an equation that they had taken as far as they could, and posted it in the hallway. They then invited any and all to work with it further...and the janitor (Matt Damon) was the one who surprisingly completed the problem at hand.

THAT is "a barcamp". It is a place where you bring your passion, your unsolved mysteries, your questions and your "would be" answers, to test and share, and for all to leave with more than they came in with. Not a place to come and "get" from those "in the know".

My hope is that one day REBarcamps will expand to the point where there are as many people NOT in the real estate industry attending, as there are people IN it attending. Because THAT would be a barcamp that invites a bit of "hacking" and even "cracking" the information appropriately. Hackers take the information and move it forward to a new level...expansion. Crackers gather information and use it to break into and chip away at a "secure system". While this is generally viewed as "a bad thing", in the real estate industry we need to bring together both hackers and crackers.

I have attended a few REbarcamps, and often the attendees treat it as a place to come and "get" vs. a place to come and "give". They also view it as a place to come and learn about how to make more money. I'm not sure if there is a right ad wrong to that. But clearly we need to break barcamps into two groups or tribes. One for people who want to use the internet to make more money...and others who want to help the internet be a better place to get information on an everyday basis for people who are not in the industry.

One of my clients once said that most real estate agents use new technology to perpetuate old bullshit. Only a few agents use new technology to provide efficencies to consumers, and help them understand THEIR side of the equation.

1) Do you use facebook and twitter and blogging to give info...or to sell something?

2) Do you go to a barcamp to find out how to get more "leads" and make more "deals"?

3) Do you go to a barcamp to figure out how to take the same things you have been doing for years to a new audience...vs "a new level"?

We are talking about the internet becoming a place to get more and more info to make intelligent and well informed decisions. Now let's add "Who you mean "WE", kemosabe?" A kemosabe is a trusted scout who is often at the same time a "faithful friend". Barcamps...Wordcamps...Mindcamps, all, require a willingness for "the scouts" to share and guide freely and LEARN.  It is time to define "what works" in terms of what works best for buyers and sellers of homes, and not "what works" for industry insiders. (A side observatiion...those who come to figure out how to "sell"...usually get "sold" something.)

Lately REbarcamps have even become popularity contests. Who and how many came? I'd much rather have a barcamp of 30 people. 10 tech people, 10 REindustry people, and 10 consumers who help teach us where we are lacking, and possibly on the wrong track, vs 600 'how can we make more money using the internet" people.

So the REAL question is not "What IS an REbarcamp?"...but what SHOULD it be, looking out 5 years. They (or at least half of them) should not be about how WE can save more, make more and use the internet better...they should be about how consumers can save more, make more and use the internet better. Think about that...and leave the words "deal" and "lead" at the door the next time you "attend" an REbarcamp. Have a CONSUMER focused...how can we make everthing better for THEM barcamp.

So my challenge to you might be...be the person at an REbarcamp who may not be doing...what everyone else is doing.