RecentChangesCamp format change is something that bothers me. I don't like the idea of speeches. In a small group of 50 people, having a set aside time for speeches creates social pressure counter to the point of Open Space that makes it difficult for people to leave and be butterflies. Beyond that, finding speakers that can connect with that and that an educator using PB Works, a wikiFur person, a Wikian, a WikHowian, a university student using a wiki to write their dissertation, a collaborative culture researcher, a PHP developer writing their own wiki program can all connect to seems difficult. I think possibly the only person off hand would be Ward Cunningham, and while it might be interesting to hear Ward speak, it would likely not provide the previously mentioned attendees any actionable information.
Open Space has been the facilitation style used for every RecentChangesCamp in three different countries. The format is why I continue to support RecentChangesCamp and why I worked with people to make it happen in Australia. (And we're still trying for New Zealand. And possibly a second one in Australia this year. Definitely one next year in Canberra, happening probably the weekend before the major Linux conference happening in Canberra.) It provides people with solutions to their problems. I've yet to encounter a single person who has had a problem with this format. (One exception of some one who did not read the pages to find out what the conference was about.) It is a method that works for the conference with this name.
If we want a RCC like conference with a different format, I'd request the conference change its name in order to avoid "brand" confusion so we don't have two fundamentally different conferences with different formats and different audiences sharing a name. It would almost make clear to the PB Works, a wikiFur person, a Wikian, a WikHowian, a university student
using a wiki to write their dissertation, a collaborative culture
researcher, a PHP developer writing their own wiki program people that the conference will be less about developing solutions that work for them.
Also, I'd really like the American RecentChangesCamp planning page back on Meeting Words, instead of on WMF space. For people who use wikiHow, Wikia, PB Works, meatball wiki, and other wiki sites and software, it sends a message that the conference is WMF centric. It isn't. (Australia's RCC pages are on Wikiversity mostly because of the quirk of UC's public space being there and because the RCC wiki went down in the middle of RCC in 2011, and we just stayed there.) Beyond that, two competing WordPads is really confusing.
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