Stepping up barcamp.org

[Frederic Baud]

All,

I would like to start a discussion on the future of barcamp.org. My
feeling is that barcamp.org has achieved representing today a commons
of great value. It may be time to ask ourselves if everything is in
place to preserve this commons and possibly expand it.

In face of this interrogation, I'd like to share a series of personal
thoughts just to set things in the context I'm having in mind:

1) because of its success, it is getting more and more time consuming
to maintain barcamp.org with the current tool
2) I don't know what would happen if the current technical platform
ceased to being available
3) I don't think there is an easy route from the current situation to
a new one, and that moving forward would involve a quantum leap,
requiring significant involvement from many people
4) I feel we lack a governance structure that would be needed for
making successfully this quantum leap and that we may need to set a
non-profit organization up in order to

Actually, I wouldn't like to see the conversation starting right away
on the previous points and on the different possible solutions for
each of them. I believe it makes more sense to start discussing first
what's the current purpose that barcamp.org is serving and what could
become the new goal to pursue.

So please, to get this conversation going, share here your reactions
and feeling on what barcamp.org should try to achieve.

Sincerely,

Frederic

[Emma Persky]

Errr,

Governance structure. Really?

One of the core values of BarCamp is that it is decentralised, and
doesn't require any overarching structure. Individual BarCamps and
their respective groups of planners should be free to create (or not)
any structure they feel is necceassry in order to run their individual
BarCamp.

I think having any form of structure beyond what exists would actually
hinder the movement rather than further it. People right now grab on
to the idea and simply run their own camps. I have been to barcamps
where no one there has ever attended another barcamp, they have simply
heard of this great phenomenon. If there were some structure, these
people would be put off...

Emma

[Christopher St John]

On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 6:42 AM, Emma Persky <emma....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Errr,
>
> Governance structure. Really?
>
> One of the core values of BarCamp is that it is decentralised, and
> doesn't require any overarching structure.
>

Dirty little secret: there's generally a few people (not me lately) frantically
organizing the Wiki to keep it usable by everybody else. In theory that
could be decentralized, but in practice it's not. That may have something
to do with PBwiki generally lacking the sorts of tools that are available
in, say, Wikipedia, but then again maybe not.

-cks

--
Christopher St. John
http://artofsystems.blogspot.com

[Emma Persky]

Oh, I know, but having a group of people cleaning up a Wiki and having
a governance structure are *very* different...

Emma

[Pete Prodoehl]

I see the purpose of barcamp.org as a central informational site which:

1. explains what BarCamp is
2. has a schedule of upcoming BarCamps (or related *Camp events)

I know there is more than that, but those are the primary purposes for
which I see the site being useful.

Since it is a wiki, there's also the whole "battle the spammers" part of
barcamp.org, which I think we can all agree is something we'd prefer not
exist at all.

Pete

[Eric Skiff]

Barcamp.org is also a place that I can, as a barcamp organizer, quickly set up a "sub-wiki" for my event that lives on the barcamp.org domain. That lowers the bar for entry for new organizers and helps new events stick to and learn from the ideals of earlier events, in my opinion.

-Eric

--
Eric Skiff
http://amplify.com
718-809-8692

What I'm Reading: http://rigeekulous.amplify.com | Twitter: http://twitter.com/ericskiff | NYCResistor: http://NYCResistor.com

[Frederic Baud]

All,

Thank you for your answers so far. Please keep contributing.

At this point, I'd like to add some of my own views on what
barcamp.org achieves today, even if at a modest level, and what that
could make us think as wider goals to aim for.

On top of what has already been said, I also use barcamp.org to:
- look through the "Recent activity" stream to get the pulse of what's
going on around the world.
- look more specifically at some BarCamps' pages to get exposed to new
ideas and get familiar with the names of people pushing those ideas
- for some of the subjects that are closer to my center of interest,
to even get in contacts with people across the globe, sending them
emails and following them through the different social media

While I believe that barcamp.org already serves as one of those
valuable places allowing innovators to gather and create relationship
in the different geographies, I also think that it could achieve more
and in particular create more transnational exchanges. While the local
initiatives are a necessary ingredient to get a thriving innovative
ecosystem, I also believe that the new means of communication lead us
to think things also at the global level. barcamp.org could thus
become one of these aggregation places of a new type for innovators
living in a new world.

Please, I'd like to get your feedback and get the ball rolling with
more views on the subject.

Thanks,

Frederic

[JFXBerns]

Good Topic!

Actually, very apropos to the topic I am preparing for our Barcamp
this weekend on Effective Open Collaboration Models!

And you start the conversation at the right point: What Is the Purpose
of Barcamp.org?

Here are my thoughts:

1) An information repository and platform for sharing knowledge for
people that want to start / grow Barcamps--or other "camp-style"
events. A primer on what is Barcamp. How to organize a Barcamp.
Howtos. Sample checklists, budgets, descriptions of how Barcamp
works. Success stories. Failure stories. Places where people can
ask and answer questions. "Templates for Success" that people can
copy or extend or fork. A place to share ideas and best practices to
help organizers organize the best possible Barcamps.

2) A place where Barcamp organizers can connect. Increasingly, I am
seeing Barcamps not as many isolated islands of people sharing
knowledge locally, but as a globally community of PEOPLE that have
common passions. In Southeast Asia we have a very large group of
people that travel regionally to meet, to share, to connect. Barcamp
is no longer a local event; it's a global (dare I say it) movement.

3) A place to list the times and places of upcoming Barcamps. One
place where people who are looking to get involved (locally, globally)
can find people and events in their geographic areas of interest.
Heck--even a place where sponsors can connect with event organizers to
toss some money at them!

4) Lastly, and in my opinion, least importantly, a place where people
can create a website to coordinate their event. It's probably useful
for a small subset of people that are just starting out to have some
place to quickly and easily set up a site and use it as a starting
point to build a group around. However, given the broad range of
cheap / free (and often more suitable) tools out there (buy your own
domain, build a Drupal, WordPress or MediaWiki site of your own, post
to a free wiki service), this is possibly the least necessary function
of Barcamp.org and it also seems to be the one that causes the most
grief.

How to Do This?

Let me draw a parallel between organizing a Barcamp and organizing
Barcamp.org:

When we organize a Barcamp, we do organize: we plan, we prepare, we
make decisions. We create a solid platform for people to
participate. We build the stage, they do the dance. Or Sing. Or
tell bad jokes. Up to them, we just build the platform.

But building that platform does require organization, trusted
individual who take action and money to cover the cost of
infrastructure.

So, to create a "governance structure" to support the shared goals of
the people on Barcamp.org, is not, in my opinion, any divergence from
the spirit of Barcamp. It's a step that, as Frederic points out, MAY
make a quantum leap in the effectiveness of what Barcamp.org is trying
to achieve--but we won't know that until we define what THAT GOAL
is.

A legal entity that can accept donations to fund infrastructure and
some structure to insure that the goals and aims of the participants
are realized could be a good thing--if the goals we decide on require
that structure. Maybe the goals won't. Structure is a tool to
achieve a goal--not a law, nor a demon.

"But" you say, "what if some bad / evil / corporate guys go rogue and
try to CONTROL Barcamp.org! What if I don't agree with the way they
do it?"

Well, FORK them!

Yeah, use the open source solution: when the organization fails to
meet the needs of a large percentage of the contributor / user base--
then fork it.

Mambo -->Joomla.

NCSA httpd --> Apache Web server.

BSD --> NetBSD --> OpenBSD (and a lot of variants).

XFree86 --> X.org

Mozilla --> Firefox

A good idea--once it is open and free--never dies--it just gets
forked. The examples above all live on as different--even better--
alternatives to the original.

But notice: if you look closely at those cases: they all have a
governance structure that has been a key to their success.

So, let's clarify what the goals are and see if creating some
structure makes any sense. I am not saying it does... I am saying
that, if the community defines what it wants, we need to look at
structures (or anti-structures) that make sense to achieve the goals.

[Frederic Baud]

All,

Thank you for all your comments.

We may have to give the questions a little more time and see how
things evolve in the coming months.

In the meantime, I created a page on barcamp.org to list the people
committed to keep the site as functional as possible (please go to
http://barcamp.org/SiteMaintainers). While things have been working
rather well so far and all the barcampers know all the work Chris and
Christopher have been doing for barcamp.org, I just figured out that
it may be good for new comers to find a list of people they can talk
to if they need assistance.

I only included my name for the moment and left everyone to register
for themselves. Please anyone interested in helping, put your name
there. I think in particular it would be good if we could reach a list
of maintainers covering the different time zones (at least America,
EMEA, Asia).

Cheers,

Frederic