BarCamp is pretty unstructured, but it’s good to have a bunch of things happening throughout the day. We had some ideas on the wiki;
- Panel
- Presentation
- Goldfish Bowl
- Soap box - Just stand on a box and spout your wisdom.
- Half-Geeked - Half-Baked, but tech focused.
- Demo new stuff
- Debates
- Games
- Competitions
- Races
- Rolling story
What else could we do? Any ideas???
If you have an idea, just prepare it and run it sometime during the day. Ideal time frame is about 5-10 minutes. Keep it nice and simple. Least props required the better. Keep it legal, keep it clean and keep it tech.
February 25th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Hold a “bear pit”. It’s the opposite of a soap box, where someone stands up and spouts off about something. Instead someone stands up and asks a question and the audience collectively answers the question.
Some variations:
- Make a rule that the questioner cannot join in the discussion apart from clarifications to the question. This might prevent them from arguing back if they don’t like the answers.
- Make a box on the floor big enough to hold one or two people. If someone wants to speak they need to be standing in this box. That might stop people from shouting over each other. Alternatively use one of the networking protocols to determine who talks next (token, CSMA/CD, …)?
- The audience is allowed to boo anyone out of the box if they start monopolising it.
I’m making this up as I go, so no doubt others can improve on this idea (or come up with a better name).
February 26th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Hey, I like it.
Can you run one on the day?
March 9th, 2007 at 3:38 am
Sorry for the belated reply but events overtook me and I didn’t get a chance to respond or attend on the day. If I make it to a barcamp, yes I’m happy to have a go.