This is a thread that @mixmix shared on Scuttlebutt relating to the organizing of ScuttleCamp. I am sharing it here with his permissions, and removed internal SSB links. Please find original thread on %0sLDBDP12HVLxyoFkQCwNWjnMYX4ZK2AxjO3S1W4XFk=.sha256:
What's the intention / vibe for DWeb-camp ?
seanb asked
Can you say more about the vibe you’re hoping this event will have? (headcount, structure, etc.) I’m definitely into the nature/ocean/hiking/camping rather than a stuffy conference center, but hope it’ll be relatively intimate and free-flowing, rather than rigidly scheduled and so huge that everyone’s anonymous.
@benhylau this a quesiton I'm really interested in as well. Though I personally think the vibe is a proprerty which emerges from the drive / intention / invocation which brings the event into being.
For example, what drove friends and I to run scuttle-camp was to get people in the same space and connect. My hypothesis was that if people could connect with one another, that they would understand one another just a little more, and the groundwork for relationships and collaborations would be laid.
Explictly, I did not expect any particular outcomes to be finalised by the end of the event. I expected seedlings to be perhaps sprouted that we might not recognise for months and years to come.
So, all of the event design was focused towards helping people be comfortable, well fed, hace space to relax, space to have little conversations, and different formats in which to communicate - riverside rapping, organised sessions, pair walks, small group workshops, storytelling, dancing.
Having a longer term view, we also recognised that the currently soil that we're sprouting ideas in is not as rich and diverse as it might be in our ideal future. We designed communicatoin and allocated resources to invite certain sorts of people:
those who are committed to scuttlebutt
we didn't advterise this on the www, we only advertised on ssb
it was in NZ ... you have to really care to come this far
more marginalised people who might find it harder to attend than the average tech guy
Diversity and Inclusion
We ended up spending a lot of time working on Diversity and Inclusion. This looked like:
reaching out to contact people who might not have considered attending
communicating a lot and adapting to meet peoples needs (emails, calls, many rounds of these in several cases)
routing funds towards helping with travel costs
With the help of community we sourced a bunch of names to contact. We had limited funds, so we prioritised this list thinking about things like :
is this person a gender other than male?
is this person from a non-english speaking country / less globally rich country?
could this person be a bridge to an adjacent value-aligned community?
As we spun this process up, we had several community members approach us privately and donate significant funds to supporting the work we were doing.
I am incredibly proud of what we were able to offer and that we could grow some many peoples mana. The event would have been totally different, and so much poorer without this work. Although it took a lot, it gave so so so so much more. I cannot recommend committing to diversity and inclusion enough.
MY MAIN ADVICE is that this diversity and inclusion took time and money. Many times, the people we were contacting had other commitments and challenges in their life which meant it wasn't as straightforward as just "saying yes to receive money and jumping on a plance". They had family commitments, or visa challenges, or other vitally important work that they would be putting down to attend this conference which might just be a "fun event" for others.
Ways to adapt to meet that need:
set aside money for scholarships early,and ask sponsors for this money up front now). We delayed offering scholarships until we had money in hand, because we didn't want to kick anyone in the teeth by changing plans on them
start these conversations early, as for some people it can take months of planning and visas to be able to attend
set aside a lot of time to allow patient, respectful, and caring communication
In case you didn't see it, here's a thread where we broke down the money side of scuttle-camp: Wrapping up Scuttle-camp. This was for 50 people
This is a thread that @mixmix shared on Scuttlebutt relating to the organizing of ScuttleCamp. I am sharing it here with his permissions, and removed internal SSB links. Please find original thread on
%0sLDBDP12HVLxyoFkQCwNWjnMYX4ZK2AxjO3S1W4XFk=.sha256:What's the intention / vibe for DWeb-camp ?
seanb asked
@benhylau this a quesiton I'm really interested in as well. Though I personally think the vibe is a proprerty which emerges from the drive / intention / invocation which brings the event into being.
For example, what drove friends and I to run scuttle-camp was to get people in the same space and connect. My hypothesis was that if people could connect with one another, that they would understand one another just a little more, and the groundwork for relationships and collaborations would be laid.
Explictly, I did not expect any particular outcomes to be finalised by the end of the event. I expected seedlings to be perhaps sprouted that we might not recognise for months and years to come. So, all of the event design was focused towards helping people be comfortable, well fed, hace space to relax, space to have little conversations, and different formats in which to communicate - riverside rapping, organised sessions, pair walks, small group workshops, storytelling, dancing.
Having a longer term view, we also recognised that the currently soil that we're sprouting ideas in is not as rich and diverse as it might be in our ideal future. We designed communicatoin and allocated resources to invite certain sorts of people:
Diversity and Inclusion
We ended up spending a lot of time working on Diversity and Inclusion. This looked like:
With the help of community we sourced a bunch of names to contact. We had limited funds, so we prioritised this list thinking about things like :
As we spun this process up, we had several community members approach us privately and donate significant funds to supporting the work we were doing.
I am incredibly proud of what we were able to offer and that we could grow some many peoples mana. The event would have been totally different, and so much poorer without this work. Although it took a lot, it gave so so so so much more. I cannot recommend committing to diversity and inclusion enough.
MY MAIN ADVICE is that this diversity and inclusion took time and money. Many times, the people we were contacting had other commitments and challenges in their life which meant it wasn't as straightforward as just "saying yes to receive money and jumping on a plance". They had family commitments, or visa challenges, or other vitally important work that they would be putting down to attend this conference which might just be a "fun event" for others.
Ways to adapt to meet that need:
In case you didn't see it, here's a thread where we broke down the money side of scuttle-camp: Wrapping up Scuttle-camp. This was for 50 people