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Those of you who have come to previous years of Northern Voice will notice one big change this year: on Friday, we aren't holding a MooseCamp. Both Friday and Saturday will be chock full sessions. (The schedule will be up soon!)
For those of you who are new, and there are many... MooseCamp was a day of free-form un-conference, where attendees got toegether on Friday morning and suggested talks they wanted to present, which were then voted on and scheduled right then for a day of ad-hoc but excellent community-driven sessions.
We're all very sad at MooseCamp's end, and that we won't be able to draft Boris into wielding a marker and a bunch of sticky notes. But it is for the best of reasons. We simply had so many good speakers, topics and panels this year, that it wasn't possible to keep MooseCamp and still have time for all that we wanted to bring to you.
We also had to ackowledge that, over these past 6 years, many other unconferences (and "real" conferences) have sprung up in Vancouver that filled the MooseCamp niche, or at least gave alternatives to those wanting a MooseCamp experience. We feel exceeding lucky to live in a city where unconferences are so frequent and successful.
Never fear, the spirit of the conference remains the same: we want to be as open a platform as possible for people to share their personal blogging knowledge. And I have a feeling we'll still be seeing a lot of meese at this conference.
Please, share your feedback. Let us know what you think and we'll take it into account as we plan next year's conference (OMG, did I just say next year?)
Well that kinda sucks!
Just so I am not accused of airing my dismay solely on twitter I'll say the same here. I love NV. Have been to every one. I love and appreciate the volunteers that make it happen. And appreciate how much effort you put into this. But canceling Moosecamp sucks in my opinion. And the excuse that there were too many good submissions does not hold water. The program committee's job is to make hard decisions; like past years, those that didn't make the cut were free to pitch for Moosecamp, and people could vote with their feet. If that is too difficult a choice, then maybe consider outsoucing the entire program choices to the community. It's been done before; the "little conference that could," TTIX, has attendees vote on all submissions using a souped up wordpress site.
For my money, Moosecamp was never even really "camp-like" enough, still too many lecture-type sessions, but at least it was a nod in the right direction. With this decision, IMO, NV took a step *away* from what made it great. I am really sad about this.
Anyways, will still come, will still participate, and undoubtedly will still have a great time. Maybe I just have to learn to except change...
Thanks
Thanks for your opinion. To my thinking, the main reason to phase out MooseCamp is that there are now so many other unconferences and likeminded events in town: BarCamp, hack days, Mental Health Camp, ChangeCamp, TransitCamp, VinoCamp and so forth. I'm not convinced that there's the same demand for MooseCamp.
I do know that our audience is considerably less technically-minded (that is, there are fewer hardcore geeks per capita) than they were five years ago. So, the hacker ethos of MooseCamp seems less germane.
That said, if you can demonstrate enough interest (as I see you've started on the wiki), I'd lobby the organizing committee to book an extra room for people who want to run a mini-MooseCamp in parallel to the scheduled sessions. That's not a guarantee--I'm just one of the ten(ish) organizers.
appreciate that
Thanks Darren, this is a fair response. We'll see what happens; I'm sure a large part will be determined by the formal schedule once it finally gets posted, as there are indeed many great speakers coming and many folks may be happy enough just attending talks.
I do resist a bit the idea that camps are just for geeks - while they are often associated only with technical sessions, I see them as more defined by their active participatory, hands-on and result-oriented nature. And the very logic that the audience at NV is not as geeky as it maybe once was actually supports the case for a camp-style event in that many may not have experienced it before, even with all of the ones you mention, and the experience itself, apart from the specific focus, can often be transformative for newbies.
Either way, you and the rest of the organizers have my sincerest thanks for the work you put in, as NV has become a real highlight of the year for many of us, and I'm sure this one will be too. Cheers, Scott
Atrium space
The atrium is huge, so groups can also congregate in bits of it for spontaneous and/or semi-planned sessions. This is arguably even more camp-like, without walls and doors ;-)
thanks Lauren
A space like a corner of the atrium was all I was ever hoping to get, and indeed it may turn out to work better than a specified room.
I hope I made it clear in my comments above and in communications directly with the organizing committee how much I *sincerely* appreciate their efforts. I just got told the language I've been using around organizing something to make up for the lack of a moosecamp may have been perceived as being hostile to what are a great bunch of hard working volunteers. That kinda hurt, and if that is the case, I'll drop any plans for some hands-on camp sessions and slink off back into my hole. My lament for the loss of moosecamp and efforts to organize something in its stead was only meant to acknowledge how much I'd enjoyed that aspect in the past; if it was taken any other way, I SINCERELY apologize.
Cheers, Scott