The Hackers Camp at PICNIC and the launch of Open-CI

Mediamatic has built the PICNIC website you are visiting, and the PICNIC Network that is such an important part of it. The network is a lot more than an easy way to round up 10.000 creative types and spread the buzz for PICNIC, as you will discover when you visit the event.

Last year, the PICNIC delegates took 1500 pictures in the connected picture booth, shared stories over an interactive tea cup, and not least of all got free beer from the PICNIC drink station. We met up with Mediamatic Director Willem Velthoven to discuss the plans for PICNIC'08.

First of all, who/what is Mediamatic?
"Mediamatic is a cultural organisation and new media agency that is dedicated to the innovation of cultural practice and social networks. We run our own public programme and we develop project for clients."

Last year Mediamatic offers PICNIC delegates some fun and intriguing services. An RFID-tag was added to the PICNIC badges, and linked to the delegates profile on the PICNIC network. A team of top notch hackers, developers and dreamers got involved and came up with cute, fun and relevant new services. Remind us!.

"Last year we had the first version of the hackers camp where we built some cool physical interfaces for the PICNIC social network. We had the Photobooth, Badger, The Friend–Drink station, I–tea and of course a whole range of inspiring designs that we only could realise later."

Mediamatic also developed the PICNIC network. Right now it is a place for people to show themselves, and to find like-minded professionals. But I understand you are working on more functionalities for this network and others. Tell us more!

The PICNIC network is part of the pilot Open-CI network that we are developing. Through the smart application of a set of open standards, we are creating a "federation of social networks" in which users can move freely. This means that you will be able to use your PICNIC account to engage with activities and people on other social networks as well! You can for instance register for a workshop on the Creative Cities Amsterdam Area website and befriend a member of the Mediamatic.net website without being forced to make a new account there.

Open-CI supports a rich representation of you on these other websites. And you can freely move your account between participating websites. It's quite revolutionary!

So people can take their profiles with them? Wat makes this special? Why would they want that?

"Well, at Picnic we'll demo a simple drag-n-drop interface for moving your account between social network websites. When these websites adhere to Open-CI standards, all your semantic links like your contacts, event participations, comments etc will keep functioning between the networks. This is perhaps not the most important possibility of Open-CI but it's a really cool one....

You'll also be able to merge two existing accounts into one and choose your favorite home base. For instance you, Monique, have an account at PICNIC but also a rather skeletal one at Mediamatic.net. From now on you could just use your PICNIC account to register for a Mediamatic event, and your profile would still appear on the participants list at mediamatic.net. And you can clean up by merging the empty Mediamatic profile into your PICNIC profile.You will have less profile updating to do and get a better overview and better visibility.

This way, in the future we'll all have less but richer accounts that are better connected to our contacts and activities...."

Wow, that sounds efficient. I want it! But I guess this only works on websites made by Mediamatic?

"No that would be foolish. Then you would still be held hostage by your social network provider. Actually Open-CI uses a mix of established and emerging open standards like: OpenID, OAauth, Jabber, Atom, Semantic Web etc. We've open sourced the special components that we developed for finding people, sharing data and and keeping the federated networks in sync. So anyone can join!"

Cross my fingers than that LinkedIn and Plaxo will join soon, as that's where I reside these days. Apart from integrating social networks, what do you think is the most interesting and important trend at the moment?

"For us the most interesting trend (still) is the potential of user generated content an communication in social networks. Especially the way this can be blended with encounters in physical space is very exciting. It redefines the way organisations work and provides fantastic new social infrastructures".

Back to PICNIC. What sessions and speakers, other than your own, do you look forward to?

"I hope to find time to attend the Surprising Africa session. Also Can You See What I Know by Virtual Knowledge Studio sounds very appealing. And of course the open communities event, the Hot100, and of course all those wonderful speakers...

But the best part of PICNIC is not a single thing, or session or speaker. It's more the euphoria of everything and everyone coming together and exchanging that makes me a PICNIC fan."

Thank you!

Willem Velthoven is the founder and director of Mediamatic. Here are his pictures.

Mediamatic will organise the Hackers Camp at PICNIC. The hackers have been selected but Mediamatic is still still welcoming volunteers to assist in running the various applications during PICNIC.