Its been quite sometime since we tried or had something different from conventional lectures and discussions and exhibitions. In Techfest 2008 we present before you; the lesser known yet indefinable concept of BarCamp.

Barcamp-a word that would have most of the techenterpreneurs running around for tickets leaves the not so much geek crowd wondering, Barcamp is a un-conference defying those conventional formal corporate seminars, while at the same time satisfying the hunger of the participants. The best part about this concept is the very fact that its content is dictated by participants. It is place where you see a Many to Many discussion in full flow and with the geeky touch coming.

Everything at a barcamp is impromptu, on the spot, unplanned, that’s why they call it an “un-conference”, that’s why it is fun swapping stories and experiences.
Barcamps aren’t about intense gyan (wisdom), indepth info, comprehensive knowledge. They are more about “hey, check out this cool stuff and what it can do”. Talks aren’t planned or scheduled before a Barcamp - you go there, decide that you want to talk about something, write it on the whiteboard, pick a slot, and if people are interested in your topic, they sit in, discussions start, and so on.In terms of topics - they are literally anything. But topics tend to be technology oriented, so if you are a geek, you should feel right at home. We

So dont get surprised if you see something like a chaotic after-concert party, with t-shirts, banners, food stalls,with people on a couple of mattresses rolled out on the lawns and corridors, having animated discussions about new-fangled developments in software coding, a discourse on improvising technology in bicycles, heated arguments over gender roles and utter chaos…u gotta be in a barcamp.

And with Atul Chitnis founder of FOSS.in  and Jon maddog Hall director of Linux international participating ..along with the best brains of the country the GEEKS of IIT Bombay,u cannot have a better barcamp…and that would be Techfest at its best..:)

be there to witness the bestest of best ….

P.S. - i’ll be there too, have an invite to present a paper on Cyber law :)

www.barcamp.org/techfest

www.techfest.org

Well, it seems there is a purpose. The purpose is ‘regulation’, something which the law exists for. The purpose is to identify the course of events, as they take place on the cyber space, and then provide a mechanism to determine rules affixing responsibilities and liabilities on the participating actors in the transactions. Take for example a simple and every day case of a cyber-café. A goes in Xena Computings and used the café for an hour. In this time, he views Z government’s site and tries to interfere with the site-coding. He is unable to change the things and so he leaves. Now should the government whose site has been fiddled with do something? Let us say that Xena Computings is situated in Z country only but A is of Y country. Can anything be done?

Well here comes the role of cyber law. It firstly defines unacceptable code of conduct on the cyber-space (something like cyber offences) and then prescribes a mechanism or procedure to deal with the situations in which this prescribed code of conduct is breached. So in this case, unless the law of Z provides against or prohibits interference with governmental websites, Z’s government will not be able to do anything, even if A had been successful in hacking the site or otherwise. Now once this is made a cyber offence, what next? The law of Z must provide a mechanism whereby Z government could affix the liability on A or Xena Computings, as the case may be, and allow the law to take its course.

So the law needs to define technical terms like hacking, cracking, ISP, subscriber, etc. and then only any action can be taken. So the premises (or the what) or cyber of law is based upon technology or for comprehensible terms, the cyber space where the why, as we have already noted, is the regulation of cyber space. Thus cyber law comes to occupy a place as a distinct and specialised branch of law.