The first BarCamps focused on early stage web applications, and were related to open-source technologies, social software, and open data formats.
[2] In addition to Celik, Chris Messina, Matthew Mullenweg, Andy Smith, Ryan King, and Eris Stassi have been described as founders of BarCamp.
[7] Wired described the second anniversary meeting BarCampBlock (Palo Alto, August 18–19, 2007) as "BarCamp Geeks Celebrate Two Years of Organized Chaos.
"[8][9] In January 2013, the largest recorded BarCamp took place in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma), with 6,400 attendees and free internet provided by the government.
This encouragement to share is a deliberate change from the "off-the-record by default" and "no recordings" rules at many invite-only participant driven conferences.
However, BarCamps lack the political motivations and are actually quite integrated with the mainstream ICT industry, often getting substantial sponsorships from major corporations.