My contribution for this quarter
1 comment September 16th, 2006
I am going to try to organize a Roots Camp for my local community. I’ve begun this process by creating a wiki page on the Roots Camp wiki.
A Roots Camp is a derivation of a Bar Camp, with a political focus. A Bar Camp is an open version of a Foo Camp, which is a participant-driven conference. Although the history of open conferencing can be traced back to the 1980s, it was Tim O’Reilly’s first Foo Camp in 2003 that sparked the current interest. In these events, the “expert” and audience of a formal presentation are replaced with active learners entering the conversation with equal power. Participants gather at a big white board prior to the conference (or get things started on a wiki before the big day arrives) to write the topics they want to discuss, inviting any others to join in. Some topics draw no interest, but those that do often are treated to an enthusiastic and productive debate among those with sincere interest in the conversation.
My community Roots Camp will take place on the weekend of November 18 (tentative) along with others around the country. At the time I started editing the wiki page yesterday, there were a bunch of starter cities but only two — Washington, D.C. and New York City — with any content or ownership from local citizens. There is a lot involved to getting one off the ground … including finding a site, arranging for food and swag, promotion, materials. With two months at the start of a big political season, though, my expectations are pretty high.
I urge you all to set up Camps in your own hometowns and get people talking about the philosophies we hold dear. This is the kind of outreach Freetrader chatted about, and it is a tangible and realistic thing to do.