You have a full plate of options at Web 2.0 Expo New York this fall. From keynotes and workshops to sessions and bootcamps, your brain will have a lot to get through. We designed our free “unconference” Web2Open to help you digest all this information – as well as to help you get in touch with the experts and industry professionals you need to know.
The PodCamp Foundation is running Web2Open for us this year, and much of the content found at a typical PodCamp will be featured. (PodCamps are community-driven “unconferences” attended mostly by new media enthusiasts and professionals including bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, social networkers, and anyone curious about new media.) PodCamp Foundation co-founder and jack of all social media trades Chris Broganspoke with us recently about PodCamp, Web2Open, and what to expect from both.
Kaitlin: There have now been close to 100 PodCamps since you and Christopher S Penn founded it in 2006. It’s clearly popular, and as you say, averages about 200-250 per event. How did you get the idea to do this in the first place?
Chris: I attended a different podcasting event in the spring of 2006, and thought it was too stuffy and non-participatory. And then, Christopher S Penn and I were hanging out at BarCamp Boston and realized that the BarCamp format (the unconference) would work really well for podcasting and media making, and so Chris and I made PodCamp and launched it in September 2006. We liked what the BarCamp model meant to education and interaction of peer groups. We wanted to do for online media making what Chris Messina and Tara Hunt and the gang did with BarCamp for the software tinkerers.
Kaitlin: Is there a particular business model for setting up a PodCamp?
Chris: PodCamp is not for profit. We have six rules (found at PodCamp.org), and one of them is that it’s not about making money, and that the ledger has to be open so that everyone can inspect where the money went. Our model? Connect everyone. Deliver Value. Find worth outside of the event itself. It’s working like a charm for me.
Kaitlin: What’s the content of a typical PodCamp? Does it lean toward a particular focus, say, more technical or more marketing?
Chris: It’s a really perfect blend. We get folks setting up sessions about how to record audio, or how to start a videoblog, or which social networks do what for you, and then there are several sessions about how to make money or the importance of a personal brand, or the future of journalism/education/health care. It’s really morphed. It’s about being human with these digital tools and what that means to us as media makers and participants in the social web.
Kaitlin: On that note, is there a particular discussion that you think PodCamp organizers and attendees should focus on more or that you’d like to see explored more in depth?
Chris: I want to see us get back to the DNA of disruption. PodCamp and the tools and mindsets it represents are these things that I feel we could do so much more with once we all get over ourselves as “getting it.” Meaning, I think we’ve only yet begun to explore how the cool kids with the best nerd tools can actually do something meaningful, and that’s what I want to see happen next.
Kaitlin: The PodCamp community is a diverse one; as the PodCamp website says there’s “bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, social networkers, and anyone curious about new media.” Why should a Web 2.0 Expo attendee who doesn’t directly work with social media technology go to the PodCamp during the Expo? How does it affect what they’ll do when they go back to work after the Expo concludes?
Chris: Makers and Web 2.0 participants will get this right away. It’s a good question for interview’s sake, but truly, once you see what we’re doing, we’re writing a human kind of code. Instead of talking about SOAP protocols, we’re talking about how to get humans to spread messages, or how to best create and represent data, etc. It will make instant sense, I feel.
Kaitlin: Could you discuss briefly how the content of PodCamps is chosen? Is it community driven?
Chris: We do it a hair different than BarCamp and other pure unconference models. We set up a wiki normally, and we let people recommend sessions, but some of our events are a bit more curated. There’s a reason. We use the curation to make sure that folks get the right mix of vitamins and minerals, and then we create some open spaces and encourage spontaneous sessions, so that we can grow some organic, shared experiences.
And yet, community is the power core of all of it. We said at the first PodCamp that we just started the story. Everyone there owned the event, they ran it, they were the cleaners, the security, the hall monitors, the fill-in presenters, the AV team, everything. We still do it that way, and it’s my favorite.
Kaitlin: Speaking of community, why do PodCampers focus on community so much and community learning? Is this model better than the traditional lecture-hall style of learning where we listen, for example, to a professor and take notes? Do attendees learn any better through participation and discussion?
Chris: This is a decade-old question. We’ve already seen Wikipedia. We read Wisdom of Crowds. We definitely see our participants (not attendees) as a better learner than a typical “sit there and watch the smart person” experience. I get this in my head every time I stand on stage for a keynote. I feel like, “everyone here knows so much more than me. If I listened to them and just synthesized, we’d all get more out of it.”
Participants learn much more. They share their take. They hear from those with a bit more experience. They put it all together in a way that makes meaning to themselves.
Kaitlin: So based on that, do you think Web 2.0 Expo attendees will get more out of the conference by checking out Web2Open/PodCamp and diving into the group discussions and community-driven sessions? Why?
Chris: I think that Web2Open/PodCamp types will benefit to getting a mix. They’ll hear big ideas at the Expo, but they’ll get the chance to dig in and collaborate at Web2Open/PodCamp, and they’ll come away with a much deeper integration of their ideas once they connect to their fellow participants.
Kaitlin: The third anniversary of PodCamp just passed and in that relatively short span of time over 90 PodCamps have sprouted up throughout the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, and South Africa to name a few. Does PodCamp have any further colonization plans? In Asia perhaps?
Chris: Podcamps are run by the people. Anywhere there are people, there’s the chance that someone wants to start their own event. I might just spread some more seeds, which will show people how to do it again, and then we’ll see the next sprouting. Good idea. Thanks!
Kaitlin: Do you like the way PodCamp is evolving? Do you have any expectations or hopes for what it will turn into?
Chris: I like that it’s a living experience. I don’t have expectations or hopes, except that I hope we continue to spread the DNA of Disruption everywhere.
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Web2Open is free to all Expo attendees regardless of the package you registered for; it’s also open to those who received a free Expo Only pass using the code webny09opn. (Register here if you haven’t already!)
Web2Open runs concurrently with the Expo and emphasizes participation and conversation over presentations. It also gives you and other attendees the chance to meet up with various Web 2.0 experts. For instance, conference goers got to chat face-to-face with Clay Shirky, Kara Swisher, Matt Cutts, Saar Gur and Tim O’Reilly at Web2Open’s “speed dating” event last year.
Oct 30th, 2009 |
