WordCamp New York City Takes Part in United Nations Open Camps Initiative

This weekend, WordCamp New York City takes place at the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology. The event offers everything you’d expect at a WordCamp including multiple tracks of sessions and a contributor day. Behind the scenes however, WordCamp NYC is part of a large initiative that includes a number of open source projects.

On July 8-17, the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology is hosting Open Camps for private sector technology companies, academic institutions, United Nations Member States, and anyone interested in open source technologies. The UN is expecting as many as 6,000 developers and thousands of attendees to partake in the 10 day event.

Open Camp Schedule

Open Camps is part of the United Nations Open Source Innovation Initiative or Unite Open Source. Unite Open Source aims to expand innovation through open source governance, communities and collaboration. It’s also an organization that provides logistical and legal assistance to individuals or organizations that want to open source their proprietary tools.

Mikel King, one of the lead organizers for WordCamp NYC, says a representative of the United Nations worked with him to add the event to the Open Camps schedule. Despite being associated with Open Camps, WordCamp NYC is a separate entity, “In order for WordCamp NYC to be approved, it was a requirement that it stayed separate,” King said.

As governments across the world start to require that custom software development be open source, events like Open Camps become an incredible opportunity for government contractors to establish key partnerships. If you’re attending WordCamp NYC this weekend, be sure to arrive early as the United Nations building has more stringent security than a typical venue. To make the process as smooth as possible, read through the building’s security guidelines before arriving.