Building Community by Intent and Accident in Two Movements

dcamp_proposal.markdown

Awesome :)

I see you've broken it into the Abstract, Details and Pitch. Here are some thoughts:

• You should discuss how it is economically viable, and how it isn't required to have keynote speaker X for people to want to come. They'll want to come because they are part of a community.
• I think I would add something in about some of the results of the community that has been built. People love feel good success stories. You can talk about the careers it has launched, some of the amazing friendships that have formed and the sense of family it has created.
• Also, that Dcamp is not a replacement or alternative to regular conferences but something completely different.

This looks good. Are you looking for feedback in terms of what things you should include?

+1. I like that at the start of DCamp I was an attendee, then become a participant, and made so many good friends along the way.

Right now, I'm more looking for feedback on how to make the proposal not suck so that we can spread the signal. ;-)

In other words, fork it, PR it, comment on it, knock yourselves out.

Fog background this started here:

https://twitter.com/elight/status/435484829954883585

https://twitter.com/noelrap/status/435486889244512256

https://twitter.com/avdi/status/435491296933732352

https://twitter.com/avdi/status/435492041917620224

https://twitter.com/allie_p/status/435498649737760768

Failure to embed tweets

@seanmarcia Good stuff!

Two big things that DCamp brings that I don't get elsewhere.

Compulsory social interaction. But in a good way. Kitchen Duty, Code Retreat, the fact that you CANT go anywhere in the evenings. This just increases exposure to people you would not normally get to know. This is massively valuable in building community. It is immersion community building. Add the right balance of participants and you have an amazing community.

Somehow DCamp has kept an arching theme between conferences that I have a much harder time quantifying. I think it is something along the idea that it is a commune, and people feel like they are supposed to chip in (as opposed to most other gatherings where I might feel awkward doing so). Not sure if that is right, but best I can think of now.

I think the first question, and subsequent questions, should hang out there a little longer. How does a conference become a community? How does an attendee become a participant? How do a group of strangers form lifelong bonds in only a few days?

I would like to see a talk about what was intentional, what wasn't, and how both came together to create an unconference that has a lasting impact on those who attend.

Lastly, I would like to see concrete steps others can take to start their own conference-turned-community. What parts of the formula are flexible? What parts shouldn't be messed with?

I believe you envision a future where there are more events like DCamp and everyone who wants to can have this kind of experience, and I think this talk (or panel, etc.) should paint a picture of that vision.

@tehviking This is exactly the kind of input I was looking for. I've had similar thoughts. Great synthesis of them here!