The Eclectic Tech Carnival is a gathering of women with a critical interested in Free Information and Open Standards technology. The event creates an opportunity for women to network, exchange skills and have fun! It’s been held at least once a year since 2002, each time in a place where there is a group of women intersted and willing to host and organise it. Its roots are in the Genderchangers hardware and FLOSS courses.
Women from all over the world organise the /ETC through mailing lists, IRC chat and IRL (in real life) meetings. While the main focus is to attract local women to participate, the reality is that women (and gender minorities) travel from all over the world to participate in the Eclectic Tech Carnival.
The week-long festivities includes workshops on installing open source and free software, taking a computer apart, building websites, soldering, playing puzzle games, learnign to programme and discuss the meaning of it all. In addition there are art exhibitions, presentations and performances.