Eva P Svensson via OSList wrote:
> Dear friends,
> Today I heard a woman talking about setting up a meeting using BarCamp as a
> method. I asked her to explain to me what it was and when she did that I had
> a hard time finding the differences between that and Open Space. One thing
> was that, as she explained it, the time slots were 45 minutes then 15 minutes
> pause then new 45 minutes and so on. Otherwise it seemed more or less like
> copy and paste from Open Space. Anyone who knows more about it?
> :o)
I have attended a good number of Barcamps and OST meetings, and I
believe I even vented my frustration about BarCamps on this list before. :)
To make a long story short, a few points of how BarCamps are different.
(This may be just my limited sample of Barcamps held in Germany in the
last 4 years.)
* No circle at the beginning
* A ritual "say your name and your three #tags" instead before things
start (stopping the flow, boring the hell out of everyone, etc etc)
* When announcing a session, one asks for a raise of hands to gauge
interest.
* The "Facilitator" then allocates you a room ("thank you for announcing
your session so cutely. Here's a room for you.")
* and sometimes STICKS THE PAPER INTO THE SCHEDULE FOR YOU (you don't
get to choose the room for yourself: they do it for you!)
* Facilitators generally make looong remarks about BARCAMP before things
start and ask for a raise of hands, how many people have attended
BARCAMPS before, and how many (more is better)
* Facilitators inform people that BARCAMP is AMAAAAZING because: YOU GET
TO PARTICPATE! WOW!!1 They make the event more amazing by talking about
how amazing it will be (preventing anyone from getting to work).
* Much of the butterfly conversation is about BARCAMP and how AMAZING it is.
* There is usually no issue, but a "theme" for the event; what gets
posted are not "issues" but "sessions". (In the Barcamps I attended, not
a single session was posted that had a question mark in it.)
* "Sessions" are often teaching, delivered by extroverts
One a more serious note:
Barcamp differs from OST culturally, in the sense that it is often used
for what I'd call "participatory teaching / knowledge sharing events":
In Germany, they seem to become popular with companies now, as a way to
save education budgets ("our staff can now share knowledge with
eachother! Using BARCAMP!! ITS CHEAPER THAN SEMINARS!!!!"), whereas OST
functions... hm, better? more naturally? - as a problem solving...
thing. Or so.
Or, very simply and more personal: Everytime I hear someone say
something along "Barcamp is not so different from Open Space, is it?" I
get quite mad, because I have often seen amazing things happen in Open
Space events, and never seen anything amazing happen in BarCamps.
YMMV.
Martin
--
Martin Röll, Görlitzer Str. 25, 01099 Dresden, Germany
+49 178 4984743, @martinroell, http://www.roell.net
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