I spent the weekend at BathCamp, and, well, have only just recovered. We (some museum people and I) came up with the idea of running a BathCamp over a few drinks in Montreal. Mike Ellis announced it a few weeks later, and then we spent a few months sorting out venues, sponsors, and all the other logistical stuff.
Looking back, I think it went pretty damn well. We had a really great bunch of people turn up, some great talks, and a fun evening do, which included a trip to a local pub for a welcome bit of fresh air.
Despite the organisational hurdles, one of the things that surprised and delighted us about organising BathCamp was just how successful and popular the BarCamp format is. Between the 5 or so organisers, we only knew about a quarter of the attendees. Everyone else who came did so purely on the back of the BarCamp name and formula, which is pretty good for a meme that’s only 3 years old. Especially as BarCamps are totally decentralised and anyone can organise one.
Bath was nice too. We choose Bath purely because Mike lives there, and he was passionate about doing something outside of London. Since then, I’ve moved from London to Manchester. There’s already been a BarCamp Manchester this year, but I’ve already been to a GeekUp Manchester event, which are held regularly.
One thing that was discussed at BathCamp was the possibility of holding a ‘MuseumCamp’ for the cultural heritage sector (museums and art galleries), which Curators could come along to as well as ‘techies’. Indeed, this was one of the original ideas for BathCamp, but we decided to drop it and go with a no agenda policy. One problem is that we weren’t sure how to persuade Curators it was worth giving up a Saturday. Although perhaps it could be held actually in a museum?
Other BarCamps that look interesting include Social Innovation Camp. There has already been one of these, and another is scheduled for 5th-7th December 2008, with a call for ideas now open. I’m sure I have more than one idea that would be applicable to this event, so fingers crossed I’ll be there!
Mia said:
I’m very up for a DigitalHeritage or MuseumCamp, but then I would be. I get so much out of face-to-face contact with other cultural heritage geeks, and I’d love to learn from curators, educators, marketers, specialists, visitor assistants, etc, too. Perhaps it could be before an MCG meeting and a summary could be reported back, much liked the mashed museum days.
Maybe we could try to find some solid examples of actual benefits or projects that have come out of bar camps to help convince managers to send their staff along.
I know there was some debate about whether it should be in work time or in free time, but having it in work time makes it a lot easier for people to fit into their presumably busy lives and also helps with their expenses. I imagine attendees would still be a self-selecting group with enough initiative to come along.
Ruth said:
I’m absolutely up for helping out on this.
I kinda think the opposite to Mia in terms of work time/free time: If we want to encourage museums to pay their staff’s expenses, then we’d need to avoid taking them away from work as far as possible.
Also, the format works well at a weekend because you don’t feel as pressurized to come away from it with a Formal Learning Objective achieved. There’s more room for play, and for free thinking, and going to sessions that might be at the very edge of your understanding, rather than playing safe all the time…
Feels more like a giant sleepover if you do it at the weekend, too – and you feel more inclined to enjoy yourself – well, I did anyway.
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Mia said:
I think it’s important that we don’t expect people to shell out from their own pockets, however it’s done.
We could start polling possible participants about whether work/non-work week/weekend works better for them – a lot of it probably depends on how far they’d have to travel and how many personal commitments they have.
Frankie Roberto said:
Just to update this comments thread, Mia has created a digital heritage ning (ad hoc social network) to look at how we can start organising a MuseumCamp.