Minutes of Spring HacktionLab 2010
Minutes of HacktionLab meeting Oxford 10th/11th April 2010
Hacktivist Booklet
TODO
Planning for BARNCAMP 2010/02
Objectives
We brainstormed this and picked out some highlights:
- Happy Gathering
- Shared work & shared knowledge
- Raising awareness of free network services
- Barndance
- Sunny
- Openness
- nonjudgemental to different ways of working
- creating an inclusive and outwards-facing gathering, publicity & attendance
- Movement building - bring together, socialise, network, strengthen & reinforce
- Empowerment - putting the tools in peoples' hands
- Knowledge sharing - peer-learning
- Pipes of Peace
- Paradigm adjustment facilitation - with respect to knowledge of free software, DIY ethos, community orientation
- Socialising - nice carrots
- Healthy tech - rocket stove, nature walk, foraging
- (Self)-discipline - being up on time, keeping the show on the road
Geek segregation Vs integration
There has been much talk of the possibilities of either having 2 parallel stream of activities (for geeks and 'learners'), versus integrating everyone. We did a SWOT analysis of these possibilities:
| STRENGHTHS: public centred, accessible, probably better gender diversity | WEAKNESSES: could alienate some hacktionlabbers, could be simplistic |
| OPPORTUNITIES: more people, new people, get rid of nerd gag, fresh ideas generated, broader exchange of knowledge | THREATS: disgruntled nerds, people might not do workshops |
| STRENGTHS: segregation, choice, more inclusive | WEAKNESSES: segregation, facilitation harder |
| OPPORTUNITIES: diversify workshops | THREATS: spread ourselves to thin, tech overtake, divisive nerdery, could be seen |
After discussion we agreed that we will have a single-stream event, i.e. no segregation of nerds. We hope to have two spaces running workshops in parallel, which people will book.
Target Groups
- People & Planet
- Schnews
- hacktionlab (part of)
- seeds for change
- climate action groups
- people that attend barcamps
- people that attend social media cafes
- student activist groups
- no borders
- indymedias
- visionon.tv video activist groups
- NUJ new media members
- radical social centres
- permaculture groups
- radical roots
- travellers
- campaigners (NGO)
- Oxfam fundraisers
Wording of call-out
To be decided
Children
Nobody wants to exclude young people or their parents, but if kids are disrupting the workshop, their parents need to take them out of the space. If several parents are present, one of them could volunteer to facilitate a kids' space. Nobody present at the meeting was planning on bringing kids, so nobody was allocated to this role.
Date & location
- Highbury farm 11-13 June 2010
- any alternatives? discussed and discounted 2
Cost
- £31 per person, including food and camping
- Deposit must be paid in advance to book a place
Maximum participants: 60
Roles
We agreed that everyone who comes to the event should expect to contribute work during the event, but we need some coordinators to make sure that delegation happens when spontaneity falls short.
| Job | Volunteer |
|---|---|
| Production manager/s (preferably one per day?) | Mike H (+?) |
| Spaces coordinator | Ben G |
| Facilities | Andy Acesabe? |
| Promotion, meeter & greeter | volunteer needed |
| Finance & Bookings | Mike H |
| Kitchen | Becky and John |
| Entertainments/Bar | ?John |
| Workshop coordinator | Mick Fuzz |
| Site management | Woodsy |
| Childcare coordinator | volunteer needed |
Spaces
- The Barn - one workshop space
- John's Marquee - 20'x30' - second workshop space - 4-6 to erect
- Bristol Wireless tent - 6mx4m - Kitchen - 4-6 to erect
Types of workshop
People suggested these types of workshop:
- Show & Tell
- Discussion-based
- Blatant self-promotion
- Lecture
- Task-based (we are going to set up a crab-face group)
- Practical (this is how you use a piece of software)
- BarCamp (including show & tell) will need super facilitation and consent from everyone to be on-time and on-task
We then talked about it and reached a decision: We will have 6h barcamp & 8h practical
Titles of Workshops
These were the first things we thought of. The list needs more work & allocating people to topics.
- 12v theory & practice
- overview of communication techniques
- synfig
- liberating your laptop - dual boot
- food forage
- social media strategy for activists inc. aggregation
- OSS DTP - Gimp & Scribus
- rocket stove
- permaculture ICT
- collaborative authoring
- the leaflet
Timings
Thurs
Probably infrastrucure starts to appear on site
Fri
Evening: campfire, bar open, etc.
Sat
- 10-11 plenary
- 11-13 workshops
- 13-15 lunch
- 15-18 workshops
Sun
- 12-14 workshops
- 14-15 plenary
Total=7h x 2 spaces = 14h workshops