What is Beijing Open Party?
We call it a group or community. Most of the members are developers or geeks. We have people using Java, Oracle, Linux—a lot of different computer language groups to come together for an “unconference.”

An unconference? What does that mean?
It’s a popular term in America and it just means this is a loose event that provides a place for people to get together without a specific topic.

So what’s the meeting like? How do you start talking about a topic?
People put topics on the white board, then introduce the topics. Then we vote, choosing about 12. Then we split the time into three sessions where different groups discuss different topics.

Is it all computer talk?
About 80 percent is about computer development, sharing code, open source library experiences.

What are some other topics?
Because this is an open community, we don’t restrict ourselves. We like how free it is. We can talk about sports, photography, travel or anything. There are non-tech topics too like how to begin a start-up.

How many people come?
About 115. We’ve met seven times since January.

Most of the members are from Beijing?
Yes. Actually, Beijing is the biggest software developer center in China. We have more programmers and developers here than in Shanghai and Chengdu combined.

How did it start?
It was started by a guy from Java User group, Matrix.com, another Java, and myself and people from Thoughtworks where I work. We met three years ago and had been talking about how different user groups wanted to communicate.

Are there other groups like this in Beijing?
There is the Mac user group. At theirs they only talk about MACS, but at ours we talk about anything and everything. Another big group is the Java User group which has 300 some members.

Why is it important to combine different user groups?
The goal is to be a better programmer so we want to learn different things. The best way to learn is by communicating with experts in that community. This is THE geek community.

So that’s goal.
Also, there’s an event called Foo Camp run by Tim O’Reilly, the biggest computer science book publisher in the world. He invites all the experts and big heads for a dinner and they always come up with the next big thing in our industry. We keep an eye on events like that we want to have a similar “unconference” in Beijing.

THE FACTS
What: Beijing Open Source Camp Beijing
Where: English Study Bar at Lianqiying in Haidian
Web: http://www.beijing-open-party.org/