So let’s do a thought experiment.
Let’s imagine there’s a mill town. A place where there’s a big factory, and there’s always been a factory as long as anybody can remember. It doesn’t matter what they make; maybe they make cars, and maybe they make university alumni, but either way it’s a factory atmosphere.
Safe, fundamentally conservative, basically bad for innovation and secure in its traditions.
Now suppose there is a subculture of people in the area who have, through the years, invented something new. People who, oh, I don’t know founded weird-ass things that local people don’t pay attention to: slashdot, Extreme Programming, wikis, social network modeling, stuff like that. Stuff everybody else in the world considers “theirs” now, but which in fact originated geographically near this sleepy little mill town.
I know it’s a stretch, but consider it’s an imaginary thought experiment. Noplace like that could exist, surely.
Now suppose the mill was shutting down. Hell, the whole damned state was shutting down too.
But you live there, and you would like to save it from becoming a completely boarded-up crack house kindof neighborhood.
How would you take the people who live there, who until recently have been protected, safe mill workers and wingtip-wearing marketers used to selling metal or MBAs, and bring them up to speed? People who have never understood Open Source, or agility, or any of the things you imagine are absolutely crucial to life &c?
How would you take the under-represented technically creative minority and get them to understand they don’t have to move to Portland or Cambridge or Sussex or Shanghai to get a leg up? People who have never realized you can’t just write a better git or a Ruby gem for WoW character naming and make a living?
In other words, how would you build a new community? With these people who never actually talk to each other?
But who are about to be out of a job. It being the worst economy in the damned country at the moment.
If you wanted to run a meeting, would you come right out and cater to the assumptions aand prejudices of the geeks right away, and spout MARKETERS NEED NOT APPLY U OLD MORONS? For example? Or would you come right out and say NO BLACK T-SHIRTS ALLOWED YOU MUST BE ABLE TO USE A PUTTER AND MS EXCEL TO ATTEND?
I think both those groups, and a lot of others, are easily scared. They can all stand on their hind legs and generally make themselves understood amongst themselves, and so they think they’re what you’d call Civilized and Sophisticated. And Correct. And when they get their version of sophisticated correct civilization stepped on by Outlanders, they’ve trained themselves to rebel.
So maybe what you might do, in this thought experiment, is (1) weed out the most egregious, bigoted and self-righteous control-freaks among each group right up front, and then (2) gradually morph the meeting event into something that attracts the open-minded and sane population.
You might, say, let the people who imagine BarCamp is Way Better than actual Open Space wander off and fly away far, and in the end keep the people who are willing to come see what they can do with each other.
Now of course this is a thought experiment. It’s a Central Control Model, and the cabal who planned such a thing in real life would be Illuminati-grade politicians who should be working at the Trilateral Commission, not some little mill town.
But say it plays out that way in the end, not because there’s a cunning mastermind behind it all, but because it’s the way how group decision-making and community formation happens in real life… well, that would be indistinguishable, wouldn’t it? And even useful. Because as it happens that the groups of people we like to refer to as “communities” benefit from driving off the most bigoted obstinate individuals among them.
And even though individuals in those communities may not get or plan it that way, it’s a natural emergent property they have. It just works, and often as not nobody actively decides to do it.
More generally: sometimes it’s better to just try something, and adapt as you go. Every time you take a little iterative step, you prune the set of possible worse alternatives, and you also make some progress towards a goal. And discover the goal as you go.
So, in this thought experiment, starting from BarCamp as an example of what people have done, and then testing and fixing it… that would be a productive way to try to save said mill town.
Thus: Sorry we’re not doing it right. Have fun wherever it is you decide to hide instead. I hope you find what you’re looking for there.
I don’t think anyone is saying that ArbCamp can’t and shouldn’t happen. I think people are saying that it takes some level of balls to attach it to a concept like barcamp. barcamp didn’t invent its model, the thing thats unique to barcamp are the values. Suggesting that something is based on barcamp is to suggest that its based on whats unique to barcamp. In this case, its simply not. It’s just taking advantage of the “brand” that folks have worked hard to create, and well, that’s fairly insulting.
Josh Hallett’s blog* format (blogOrlando.com, for instance) is a great example of the unconference format modified for business folks and corporations. Instead of geeks/programmers/techies, you’ll find primarily PR reps, marketers and bloggers (more of the mainstream crowd). It’s still a free event (with sponsorships, there’s not much need to charge), but he’s found that its a lot easier to get bigger names when the format is predetermined and defined. The focus on conversation is still there, it still has a low barrier to entry (cheap/free), and it still kicks the crap out of the standard conference format. It’s been incredibly successful and has grown into a multi-city event.
If you’re looking to see the format modified for the mainstream folks, that’d be a successful example to check out.
One of the most amusing things (to me) is the notion that we need to have openness, emergent scheduling, social dynamics, demographic preferences and stuff like that explained to us. As in “look, we did it once, and so now you should do it that way forevermore”.
One would prefer it if the Code of BarCamp was more what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rules. And I have a strong sense that’s how the people here are willing to treat it.
Maybe what we’re doing with ArbCamp is not a revolution staged by technical geeks at the expense of marketers. Maybe it’s not a subversion of The Time-honored Ancient Rites of BarCamp by wingtips and wannabe carmakers. If you’d like to read some real ranty goodness, have a peek at the shit strewn by 67.159.44.138 at ArborWiki.
If we’re lucky, it’s not anything folks like that expect it to be. And nor are we.
To prescribe a method, you should understand the clients’ goals. At least that’s what I’ve heard.
BarCamp is a kind of hammer. blog* is a kind of hammer. OpenSpace is a kind of hammer. Best not to think that every one suits every nail, nor that they can’t be disassembled and repurposed into something better as contingencies call for it.
Best, at least, not to assume it. That’s the tactful way to live in the world, I think.
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We get it. You’re stealing the idea and slapping a price tag on it. You admit it, you copy and paste your blog post to other people’s blogs as a comment, enough.
In almost every situation, there’s a way to create a solution that benefits everyone with almost zero hurdles to jump over. You’ll find that some sponsors don’t want to jump over this one hurdle (you’re not allowed to give a sales pitch). That’s OK, because there are thousands of potential sponsors.
I think BarCamp Orlando even had an “exclusive” staffing agency slot, so that only one staffing agency appeared on the t-shirt. Those businesses were not trying to get on the shirt and the website as direct advertisement, but as a bit of marketing that placed in the minds of the unconference participants “we support the community, and we’re showing this to you by buying your lunch and a t-shirt”.
It’s not hard. Really.
Ryan, two quick points.
First “you copy and paste your blog post to other people’s blogs as a comment”: I posted a comment to Alex’s blog, waited three hours for the anti-spam email notification, and decided to try to edit the comment into something useful instead of leaving it trapped in Alex’s spam-trap. Eventually the confirmation email came through. I’d be happy to delete the copy, in hindsight.
But maybe what you’re assuming isn’t what’s actually happening here.
Second, let’s just ask a simple question: What could I do, who am not an “organizer” of ArbCamp — but as a geek and businessman and academic and consultant, who will be attending — what can I do to make you happy? Exactly what?
Because by accusing “us” (whoever “us” is) of stealing a name and doing other stuff you dislike, well you’re not communicating a whole pantload of constructive criticism. You’re bitching, and pissing, and moaning, and acting more or less like a child.
Which, in some abstract space where we all actually present stereotypic behavior all the time, would kind of explain a lot about the reaction so far.
So what can you tell me, who is just going to the damned thing, and who is arguably willing to do stuff to make you happy, what do you want me to do?
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