None of the Cork organisers are aware of that. Barcamp South East is next, not sure the date but Keith wants to do one again. I'll be volunteering two talks.
If the postcards arrive with a picture on it I'll see they're included in an upcoming exhibition in November in Kilkenny in the local Arts Office (Postcards From The Edge).
What feedback did you have in mind @lexia - survey style approach (online)?
Hmm - I don't know. I'm just floating the idea here.. What do BCG attendees think? Online form would prob be the best.. Should have been done at end of BCG session.. Anyone else have ideas?
Having been an attendee twice and an organiser once, I'm happy to provide any feedback/advice that's wanted. I've offered this several times, but never been taken up on it.
Keith's been on to me and is actively looking for feedback and suggestions, give him a holler Elly, he'd be delighted with some suggestions. He'll read this no doubt so Keith, nice suggestions from Mrs Babes here: http://blog.ellybabes.com/2007/08/24/barcamp-galway-sat-22nd-sep/
If you can't be bothered reading it boils down to "wikis are shit, people can't use them, we need a nice sign-up form". Unfortunately the people that promised to code the sign-up form for future camps never came good on their promise. Irish anythingCamp attendees and people on these channels can often be full of lots of good suggestions, but they rarely get put into practice. I would if I could, but I’m not a coder or designer and don’t have the necessary knowledge.
Another thing to remember is that Michele from Blacknight bought barcamp.ie at my suggestion to make it a portal for all future Irish Bar & PodCamps (& similar). We need a volunteer to design something for that too, an easily maintainable page that can quickly be updated with the details of any upcoming camps.
Michele also has barcampcork.com, barcampgalway.com, barcampdublin.com, barcampbelfast.com and a few others that are free for use by any BarCamp planners. He has offered sponsored hosting for these too on several occasions.
Bernie is good at dragging his students along to these things, but maybe he should offer an automatic pass for his course for the first one to actually give a talk - they're always there at the back staying quiet...
Ozone & Aiden were to contact Niall from BK to work on it, I gave them the spec document as they wanted, Blacknight offered any help necessary, then there was nothing more on it...
I didn't want to harass them as it was a volunteer project and Ozone went to the US for his new job training, but it would really help if someone could implement my idea. Would make the organisation easier for everyone else in future and remove the 'wiki or not' discussion that happens each time - which distracts from the real issue of how to get more newbies to attend.
And also the simple fact of having permanent (sub)domains would also mean that people could stay permanently subscribed to the RSS feeds and therefore automatically be notified each time a new BarCamp is organised in that location.
@lexia - I'd rather see a minuted round-table discussion (or recorded conference Skype talk) than an online form to get the first lot of ideas down - mainly organisers with a few attendees thrown in. But having an online / hard-copy form for people to fill in directly after the event would be a good. But that's just my opinionated opinion! :-)
The PodCamp guys effectively hid the wiki from most attendees. They also used traditional channels very effectively to attract people from outside the echo chamber. We can all learn a huge amount from what Bernie and the crew did there.
And remember that assumption is the mother of all fuck ups. Don't assume people will go because they filled in a form or Wiki three weeks ago. Email them a week and a day before.
In planning the events, @kenmcguire figured out some very compelling things about jaiku back channels complementing skype calls then having the composite folded into action steps.
Thanks for the heads up Elly :-) I was delivering training today so just back from that. AFAIK Cork is next - spoke to Tom Raftery last week before meeting with Tom Corcoran and Ken McGuire and TomR said yes that Cork would be doing a Barcamp after the IT@Cork gig in November.
Also spoke to JamesC (eirpreneur) and he declined the slot after Cork for Limerick. So as Ken said we are looking at end of April date - to be confirmed depending on venue. I will link TomR into this so he can contribute.
And when I surface from the current non-stop working state I will very happily solicit more feedback and opinions - some of which has already been discussed for our barcamp :-)
PodCamp did it all very well and had a great, professional-looking site with a easy-to use sign-up form.
I was delighted with the day as well, apart from two small things:
At one point the speaker for a session in the main room in the afternoon didn't turn up. We tried asking the organisers, but Krishna was the only person who was running the talks apparently, and she was giving her own talk in the 2nd room, so we were left twiddling our thumbs for an hour.
Secondly, when we arrived the schedule showed a book-signing by Neville Hobson being held in the main room with no competing sessions. Luckily, in adding to the schedule we were able to run a second session alongside this. I know that Neville had traveled over specially from the UK for PodCamp, but force-feeding people his book was not a good idea IMHO.
Aside from those two minor issues, however, it was a brilliant day that everyone enjoyed thoroughly.
Damien, you are totally correct - average attendance is usually 70% of signed-up attendees. Having people's email addresses would be a great way to send reminders and allow people to reply back if they can no longer make it.
@ellybabes Those quiet students have some refreshing opinions too, so it's a shame they are not heard. They are much less susceptible to PR and tech hype, for example.
@topgold - PodCamp KK certainly has a lot to teach the other organisers about the technology that can be used and how it can be used to best effect during the organisation phase.
We're angling to get a subscription to OnlineMeetingRooms.com and then to pull together the Galway, Kilkenny/southeast, Dublin, and Cork barcamp planners into an hour-long archived session. We know we need to do more than put suggestions on a postcard to @kenmcguire.
I think @ellybabes points out the ultimate looseness of a barcamp schedule in that a main speaker went missing for an hour and the book signing was inadvertently posted to a room, not a corner. We hadn't heard anything about people thinking they were force-fed a book signing so it's good to know about that undercurrent.
Don't have the speakers name any more, but the session was the one on in the main room opp Krishna (in the breakout room), called: 3:15 - Local chambers of commerce (old vs new media)
@ellybabes looking back I think it was the scheduling of that talk that caused some confusion in that the speaker actually never arrived at PodCamp and wasn't noticed until that late stage of the day.
@topgold - absolutely - not one of these unconferences has gone off totally smoothly, whether it has been wifi problems, speakers not showing, whatever. I don't mention these things just to be bitchy, instead simply to raise the issues so that others can comment and perhaps for them to be taken into account at future sessions.
Mum has already expressed interest in attending PodCamp 2008 and even though I don't podcast, I'll certainly be there again, it's a great opportunity for networking, sharing and learning.
I've been trying and failing to create a channel called #barcampirelandplanners that we can use in conjunction with the session you have suggested - how do you create channels on here? Anyone know?
Never mind, I read the instructions and got it sorted. If people want to subscribe to the channel and publicise it amongst other organisers, that would be great.
I mooted a BarCamp in Cork earlier this year when I hadn't heard of anyone else organising one. I had been unaware that Dublin and Galway were organising BarCamps and when I heard I ceded to them immediately and provisionally scheduled Cork for late this year/early next year.
Keith approached me just before the Kilkenny PodCamp (still bummed I missed that) and asked me when Cork would be as South-East was looking to organise another. I suggested Late January.
If no-one has any objections to that, will we go with that? Say the 26th of January?
@ellybabes, @conoro. Re previous discussion about implementing custom barcamp software. Myself and @ozone spent a couple of hours one evening working on this. Then he was off to states and I was busy with finishing work, relocating, barcamp Galway and other stuff and since it was never going to be done for barcamp Galway it went on the backburner.
It might be possible to resurrect it if the organizers of the next barcamp were interested. However they probably have their own ideas on how they want to do this. The podcamp system seemed to work well and might be an easier way to go.
@aidanf - sorry for the previous comments, I didn't realise that some work had already been completed.
Cork is the next BarCamp on the schedule, so it would depend if they wanted to use the barcamp.ie framework that I suggested... subdomain cork.barcamp.ie is there for them. Would keeping them all under the one domain help with SEO too?
47 comments so far
Hearing Cork late january?
2 years, 1 month ago by kenmcguire
in sep 08 in kilkenny. book now and join 200 others.
2 years, 1 month ago by topgold
None of the Cork organisers are aware of that. Barcamp South East is next, not sure the date but Keith wants to do one again. I'll be volunteering two talks.
2 years, 1 month ago by DamienMulley
South East is the only one I've heard mooted too. Dunno what happened to the Cork one that Tom had proposed.
And the next PodCamp in Kilk obviously!
2 years, 1 month ago by conoro
@keithbohanna should be listening to this chatter.
2 years, 1 month ago by topgold
BarCamp South East being touted as April 2008 in Kilkenny, discussions between myself, @keithbohanna and Tom Corcoran recently.
2 years, 1 month ago by kenmcguire
Will there be a round of feedback getting from past attendees before BarCamp SE? And I'm not talking paper forms there..
2 years, 1 month ago by lexia
feedback on postcards to Whip Wrestlers, KK Music, 1 Hen & Stag Lane, Kilkenny.
2 years, 1 month ago by topgold
If the postcards arrive with a picture on it I'll see they're included in an upcoming exhibition in November in Kilkenny in the local Arts Office (Postcards From The Edge).
What feedback did you have in mind @lexia - survey style approach (online)?
2 years, 1 month ago by kenmcguire
Hmm - I don't know. I'm just floating the idea here.. What do BCG attendees think? Online form would prob be the best.. Should have been done at end of BCG session.. Anyone else have ideas?
2 years, 1 month ago by lexia
Having been an attendee twice and an organiser once, I'm happy to provide any feedback/advice that's wanted. I've offered this several times, but never been taken up on it.
2 years, 1 month ago by ellybabes
Sorry, to clarify, attendee of 2 BarCamps, attendee of 1 PodCamp and organiser of 1 BarCamp.
2 years, 1 month ago by ellybabes
I guess the organisers would have to listen to any advice given. Part of the deal
2 years, 1 month ago by lexia
Postcards. How quaint and analog. Will the next Barcamp also have strings and tincans instead of wifi?
2 years, 1 month ago by DamienMulley
Postcards. Enter a draw for an iPhone. Sponsored by Cubic. Pat doesn't know that bit.
2 years, 1 month ago by topgold
Keith's been on to me and is actively looking for feedback and suggestions, give him a holler Elly, he'd be delighted with some suggestions. He'll read this no doubt so Keith, nice suggestions from Mrs Babes here: http://blog.ellybabes.com/2007/08/24/barcamp-galway-sat-22nd-sep/
2 years, 1 month ago by DamienMulley
@topgold Ah he'll be fine with it. Not a worry. :)
2 years, 1 month ago by DamienMulley
Oh and here's some of my unsolicited advice given previously: http://blog.ellybabes.com/2007/08/24/barcamp-galway-sat-22nd-sep/
If you can't be bothered reading it boils down to "wikis are shit, people can't use them, we need a nice sign-up form". Unfortunately the people that promised to code the sign-up form for future camps never came good on their promise. Irish anythingCamp attendees and people on these channels can often be full of lots of good suggestions, but they rarely get put into practice. I would if I could, but I’m not a coder or designer and don’t have the necessary knowledge.
Another thing to remember is that Michele from Blacknight bought barcamp.ie at my suggestion to make it a portal for all future Irish Bar & PodCamps (& similar). We need a volunteer to design something for that too, an easily maintainable page that can quickly be updated with the details of any upcoming camps.
Michele also has barcampcork.com, barcampgalway.com, barcampdublin.com, barcampbelfast.com and a few others that are free for use by any BarCamp planners. He has offered sponsored hosting for these too on several occasions.
2 years, 1 month ago by ellybabes
Damien, you beat me to it... There was good info & discussion in the comments on your post too: http://www.mulley.net/2007/08/23/same-old-faces-barcamp-galway-please-change-this/
Bernie is good at dragging his students along to these things, but maybe he should offer an automatic pass for his course for the first one to actually give a talk - they're always there at the back staying quiet...
And here was my idea that we still need someone to implement: http://ellybabes.com/images/barcamp_ireland.pdf
2 years, 1 month ago by ellybabes
@DamienMulley - I dropped Keith an email with the link to this Jaiku and an offer of help.
2 years, 1 month ago by ellybabes
Whatever happened to the implementation of your idea by the Galway guys Elly? It sounded like a done deal and then all went quiet.
2 years, 1 month ago by conoro
Ozone & Aiden were to contact Niall from BK to work on it, I gave them the spec document as they wanted, Blacknight offered any help necessary, then there was nothing more on it...
I didn't want to harass them as it was a volunteer project and Ozone went to the US for his new job training, but it would really help if someone could implement my idea. Would make the organisation easier for everyone else in future and remove the 'wiki or not' discussion that happens each time - which distracts from the real issue of how to get more newbies to attend.
And also the simple fact of having permanent (sub)domains would also mean that people could stay permanently subscribed to the RSS feeds and therefore automatically be notified each time a new BarCamp is organised in that location.
2 years, 1 month ago by ellybabes
@lexia - I'd rather see a minuted round-table discussion (or recorded conference Skype talk) than an online form to get the first lot of ideas down - mainly organisers with a few attendees thrown in. But having an online / hard-copy form for people to fill in directly after the event would be a good. But that's just my opinionated opinion! :-)
2 years, 1 month ago by ellybabes
The PodCamp guys effectively hid the wiki from most attendees. They also used traditional channels very effectively to attract people from outside the echo chamber. We can all learn a huge amount from what Bernie and the crew did there.
2 years, 1 month ago by conoro
And remember that assumption is the mother of all fuck ups. Don't assume people will go because they filled in a form or Wiki three weeks ago. Email them a week and a day before.
2 years, 1 month ago by DamienMulley
elly, you are right. an interactive feedback session is best. the more means of giving feedback the better.
2 years, 1 month ago by lexia
In planning the events, @kenmcguire figured out some very compelling things about jaiku back channels complementing skype calls then having the composite folded into action steps.
2 years, 1 month ago by topgold
Thanks for the heads up Elly :-) I was delivering training today so just back from that. AFAIK Cork is next - spoke to Tom Raftery last week before meeting with Tom Corcoran and Ken McGuire and TomR said yes that Cork would be doing a Barcamp after the IT@Cork gig in November.
Also spoke to JamesC (eirpreneur) and he declined the slot after Cork for Limerick. So as Ken said we are looking at end of April date - to be confirmed depending on venue. I will link TomR into this so he can contribute.
And when I surface from the current non-stop working state I will very happily solicit more feedback and opinions - some of which has already been discussed for our barcamp :-)
keith
2 years, 1 month ago by keithbohanna
PodCamp did it all very well and had a great, professional-looking site with a easy-to use sign-up form.
I was delighted with the day as well, apart from two small things: At one point the speaker for a session in the main room in the afternoon didn't turn up. We tried asking the organisers, but Krishna was the only person who was running the talks apparently, and she was giving her own talk in the 2nd room, so we were left twiddling our thumbs for an hour.
Secondly, when we arrived the schedule showed a book-signing by Neville Hobson being held in the main room with no competing sessions. Luckily, in adding to the schedule we were able to run a second session alongside this. I know that Neville had traveled over specially from the UK for PodCamp, but force-feeding people his book was not a good idea IMHO.
Aside from those two minor issues, however, it was a brilliant day that everyone enjoyed thoroughly.
Damien, you are totally correct - average attendance is usually 70% of signed-up attendees. Having people's email addresses would be a great way to send reminders and allow people to reply back if they can no longer make it.
2 years, 1 month ago by ellybabes
@ellybabes Those quiet students have some refreshing opinions too, so it's a shame they are not heard. They are much less susceptible to PR and tech hype, for example.
2 years, 1 month ago by Festoon
@topgold - PodCamp KK certainly has a lot to teach the other organisers about the technology that can be used and how it can be used to best effect during the organisation phase.
2 years, 1 month ago by ellybabes
We're angling to get a subscription to OnlineMeetingRooms.com and then to pull together the Galway, Kilkenny/southeast, Dublin, and Cork barcamp planners into an hour-long archived session. We know we need to do more than put suggestions on a postcard to @kenmcguire.
2 years, 1 month ago by topgold
I think @ellybabes points out the ultimate looseness of a barcamp schedule in that a main speaker went missing for an hour and the book signing was inadvertently posted to a room, not a corner. We hadn't heard anything about people thinking they were force-fed a book signing so it's good to know about that undercurrent.
2 years, 1 month ago by educast
@educast - that undercurrent might only be me now, I didn't really discuss it with anyone else...
2 years, 1 month ago by ellybabes
What speaker went missing for an hour?
2 years, 1 month ago by Festoon
Don't have the speakers name any more, but the session was the one on in the main room opp Krishna (in the breakout room), called: 3:15 - Local chambers of commerce (old vs new media)
2 years, 1 month ago by ellybabes
@conn, any ideas?
2 years, 1 month ago by topgold
@ellybabes looking back I think it was the scheduling of that talk that caused some confusion in that the speaker actually never arrived at PodCamp and wasn't noticed until that late stage of the day.
2 years, 1 month ago by kenmcguire
@kenmcguire - you could be right, it's a risk at an unconference like that, a speaker may not show and that may not be noticed.
2 years, 1 month ago by ellybabes
All in all, @ellybabes and Grannymar would come again, right?
2 years, 1 month ago by topgold
@topgold - absolutely - not one of these unconferences has gone off totally smoothly, whether it has been wifi problems, speakers not showing, whatever. I don't mention these things just to be bitchy, instead simply to raise the issues so that others can comment and perhaps for them to be taken into account at future sessions.
Mum has already expressed interest in attending PodCamp 2008 and even though I don't podcast, I'll certainly be there again, it's a great opportunity for networking, sharing and learning.
I've been trying and failing to create a channel called #barcampirelandplanners that we can use in conjunction with the session you have suggested - how do you create channels on here? Anyone know?
2 years, 1 month ago by ellybabes
Never mind, I read the instructions and got it sorted. If people want to subscribe to the channel and publicise it amongst other organisers, that would be great.
barcampirelandplanners
2 years, 1 month ago by ellybabes
Guys,
apologies for coming to this discussion late.
I mooted a BarCamp in Cork earlier this year when I hadn't heard of anyone else organising one. I had been unaware that Dublin and Galway were organising BarCamps and when I heard I ceded to them immediately and provisionally scheduled Cork for late this year/early next year.
Keith approached me just before the Kilkenny PodCamp (still bummed I missed that) and asked me when Cork would be as South-East was looking to organise another. I suggested Late January.
If no-one has any objections to that, will we go with that? Say the 26th of January?
2 years, 1 month ago by TomRaftery
Try to deconflict the Corkcamp from the Mulleycamp, also penciled in for January: http://slink.in/5465
2 years, 1 month ago by topgold
Watching this thread fork over to #barcampirelandplanners H: http://slink.in/5466
2 years, 1 month ago by educast
@ellybabes, @conoro. Re previous discussion about implementing custom barcamp software. Myself and @ozone spent a couple of hours one evening working on this. Then he was off to states and I was busy with finishing work, relocating, barcamp Galway and other stuff and since it was never going to be done for barcamp Galway it went on the backburner.
It might be possible to resurrect it if the organizers of the next barcamp were interested. However they probably have their own ideas on how they want to do this. The podcamp system seemed to work well and might be an easier way to go.
2 years, 1 month ago by aidanf
@aidanf - sorry for the previous comments, I didn't realise that some work had already been completed.
Cork is the next BarCamp on the schedule, so it would depend if they wanted to use the barcamp.ie framework that I suggested... subdomain cork.barcamp.ie is there for them. Would keeping them all under the one domain help with SEO too?
Cork organisers, it's over to you...
2 years, 1 month ago by ellybabes