Temple gathering to look at technology, news

The BarCamp "unconference" trend, which rejects structured schedules in favor of discussions and impromptu presentations, is well-established among Philadelphia's young, creative crowd. TechnicallyMedia, the company behind tech blog TechnicallyPhilly, has organized its third annual BarCamp NewsInnovation event for Saturday.

The "unconference," focusing on journalistic innovation and the future of news, will take place at Temple University's Annenberg Hall, 13th and Diamond Streets.

As at other BarCamp events, people will register to attend and may present on the topic of their choice at a time they may choose from a large interactive schedule.

Inspired by West Coast tech culture, BarCamp events are collaborative gatherings without formal structure that are designed to promote group discussions.

This year's iteration of BarCamp NewsInnovation will be slightly different. The organizers are trying out their first scheduled shared session - slightly "anti-BarCamp," TechnicallyMedia cofounder Sean Blanda acknowledged - led by Wall Street Journal outreach editor Zach Seward.

Past events have had as few as 110 sign-ups, but this year at least 300 people have registered.

This year's conference will take place in conjunction with the first "Open Gov Hackathon," during which coders, designers, hackers, and journalists can come together to build applications using open-government data from the City of Philadelphia. Hackathon projects will be developed during the day, then presented to a panel of judges. The grand prize will be a trip to the Glue Conference for Web-application developers in Broomfield, Colo., in May.

BarCamp NewsInnovation caps TechnicallyPhilly's Philadelphia Tech Week, a series of events that began Monday. For more information, visit http://bcniphilly.com/