I’ve done a tiny bit of investigation, and as alluded to previously, there seems to be a higher concentration of Code4Lib-like activity around Bologna and Padua. And this sort of “event” is intended to be smaller and more informal rather than larger and more structured. It requires a time, a place, and a dozen or more people. Agendas are akin to the agendas of THATCamps or “unconferences”:

  * meet
  * drink coffee
  * introduce ourselves
  * in short presentations (less than thirty minutes),
    share experiences surrounding computers in libraries
  * eat lunch
  * discuss shared topics of interest
  * maybe go on a tour of something interesting
  * maybe hack
  * maybe install
  * maybe listen to additional experiences
  * take a group photograph
  * go home
  * document the experience
  * done

The shared experiences can have anything to do with the work attendees do. Some of the topics of interest might include: library catalogs, digital humanities in libraries, linked data, balancing open source software, the definition of libraries in an Internet environment, open data (GLAM), institutional repositories, APIs, etc.

But the primary purpose is face-to-face networking. 

—
Eric Morgan
University of Notre Dame
United States