This afternoon, some RootsCamp people will again meet online to chat. I think the emphasis will be on hearing reports from the weekend camps, one of which took place in New York. I wrote about lessons learned elsewhere, but looking at the NY pictures sparked a new insight.
More public photos available on FlickR
Even though whiteboards aren’t really “high tech” anymore, there is something very appealing about the use of bulletin boards and old-fashioned pushpins to get the same function. There is a strong urge for tech-types (the biggest users of this X-Camp format) to gravitate toward use of computers and projectors to manage the scheduling and the conversation. That can put emphasis on polish instead of substance, and give deference to the person with the Power Point or other technology instead of opening the floor for some egalitarian dialogue. Pen. Paper. Pushpins. Simple.
Our Bloomington RootsCamp only had enough people to (grudgingly) break up into separate discussion groups once. I think there are real advantages to doing so, in that the smaller groups faciliate more inclusion of diverse voices and the group leaves with more “work” done. However, one of the noted plusses of our small gathering was that the structure didn’t dictate the conversation — we allowed the group to figure out its own preferred organization and went along with it. Now that some kind of tradition has a foothold on the process, I wonder how receptive the “veterans” will be to using the Big Board in future sessions?
