I was out running this afternoon and began thinking about all of the intelligent people from Puerto Rico and the Caribbean that I see in my Twitter stream on a daily basis…and thought, “Wouldn’t if be great if we could get together and learn from each other?”
Earlier this evening I sent out a Tweet just to gauge interest and to see if people might want to meet up and do a PodCamp for Puerto Rico and the greater Caribbean.
This post is meant to serve as an initial sounding board and we can move it to a more official location if this PodCamp idea gains some traction.
First, here are some questions for all of us:
- What date would you like to hold the meet up? (I would prefer after hurricane season and before Christmas. Perhaps, the first week of November?)
- What topics would you like covered?
- Are you interested in speaking?
- Do you know of a location (with VTC technology) where we can hold it?
That is all I can think of for now. PLEASE leave your feedback and ideas below! If need be you can always get me on Twitter @mark_hayward or email me direct mark_w_hayward AT yahoo.com.
I think its high time I stop talking so much and start doing some more. Gonna start reading about the concept and post back something useful. For now, I just wanted to say that I am interested in more than just cheerleading this. Lets see what I come up with
Mark,
You would need to get a team of people who go beyond thinking outside the box. I have already given you a few names that I think would be of great assistance. After Hurricane season is a good idea especially for potential guest speakers outside of Puerto Rico. I think the folks who are tech savvy might know of places that you can use for the PodCamp.
I can start surveying what spaces are available on the University of Puerto Rico. But I think the guys that made “El Encuentro de Blogeros” possible in Caguas could lend a hand too. If we could start making some rounds and getting an open committee trough FriendFeed to make this happen. November is a nice date if we can get this started as soon as possible.
Some folks had a few questions as to what PodCamp is so I grabbed a few bullets from their website:
“PodCamp isn’t just about podcasting! If you’re interested in blogging, social media, social networking, podcasting, video on the net, if you’re a podsafe musician (or want to be), or just someone curious about new media.”
Here are the six PodCamp rules as outlined on their website:
There are 6 rules which govern what may or may not be called a PodCamp. If your planned event meets all 6 and accepts the terms in the PodCamp Foundation License, you can call it a PodCamp:
1. All attendees must be treated equally. Everyone is a rockstar.
2. All content created must be released under a Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
3. All attendees must be allowed to participate. (subject to limitations of physical space, of course)
4. All sessions must obey the Law of 2 Feet – if you’re not getting what you want out of the session, you can and should walk out and do something else. It’s not like you have to get your money’s worth!
5. The event must be new-media focused – blogging, podcasting, video on the net.
6. The financials of a PodCamp must be fully disclosed in an open ledger, except for any donor/sponsor who wishes to remain anonymous.
I can help with location and equipment. Caguas is perfect as they have made a conscious strategy to support new trends and technologies. I can possibly even get some press coverage when the time is right.
If its ok with you I can Twittersquat podcamppuertorico and podcampcaguas. Will give them to whomever needs them later.
Sounds great, Gabriel! Once we have a location semi-sorted we should (hopefully) be able to pull the rest together.
I guess it will be trying to get a handle on how many of us might attend…20, 30, etc.
Caguas does sounds great. I will concentrate on talking to some key persons on the UPR that are working on wikis and web 2.0 to let them know. I can help with logistics, promotion, etc.
I’ll have some location possibilities later today, we should pulse the interest before deciding to size it properly
Sounds great, Ezequiel!
I am very interested in this event, but I am wondering about the intended audience. I would really like for this event to help expose all the old media types to the advances that have been made, and the community efforts that are springing up around new media. On top of that, I would expect lots of connections to be made between all of those who participate in blogging, podcasting and video but haven’t met personally yet.
The last thing I would like this to become is another tight-knit event limited to self-promotion and look-at-me within a small group of high-profilers (this should be a given, though, it’s rule #1 of PodCamp!). We really need to expose all of this knowledge to the world outside of our web 2.0 social bubble.
Hector: I think we can achieve what you are saying here. If I can manage to bring some people from the University that are doing stuff but are not connected to the “high profilers” and we can use the web to cast the net around our social networks, we can make this have a broader appeal without hurting the principles of what a PodCamp is. Make it a REAL meet and talk, instead of exclusively a meeting of the usual suspects.
Ezequiel,
Well I am glad that I wasn’t quickly shot down… I tried not to sound too harsh. That is great, I hope you are successful in signing up some new people onto the PodCamp.
I have some contacts at UPR Mayaguez, but my time over there was pre-Web 2.0, so it might be hard to find some compatible speakers. However, I am helping my employer to slowly adapt new media friendly policies (status: big, painful uphill battle) so I’ll see if I can get some people to come, although I think it would be hard for them to keep it non-promotional. But it would be nice for the company to at least attend so that they can get out of the corporate bubble, even if just for one day :)
First of all, thanks to Addis for sending me a quick note on this as I’ve been pretty busy the last couple of months and a little disconnected from the twitters and facebooks and the like.
This sounds like an awesome opportunity to engage a whole bunch of great people that are currently working or have a lot to offer in the new media space and I would love to help in any capacity that I can.
Count with me and Kaput Media to help with this project.
Hector – “We really need to expose all of this knowledge to the world outside of our web 2.0 social bubble.” That is amazingly well said! The main reason I was hoping to get us all together was to learn, exchange ideas, and perhaps, spread the power of social media…..
Ezequiel – Being that I am on Culebra and don’t know the usual players, I’ll leave it up to you guys to decide how you want me to participate. Meaning, if you thought me being an outsider would help…awesome! If not, I am happy to come and speak or whatever you’ll decide.
Albizu – Thank you for your support. I just hope we can pull this off as I am really looking forward to meeting others in the PR/Caribbean Web 2.0 space.
Mark,
I would like it if you got to speak at the PodCamp! You may be in Culebra island, but I believe you have more experience than most of us in using various social networks to reach out much farther away than mainland Puerto Rico. That’s one kind of experience I would like to hear more about.
Mark, great initiative. I work a lot in Latin America in the world of Social CRM. Would love to help and be part of the event. One of the key things I think we need is to bring the business audience to this type of events – small businesses and enterprises – we need to educate them… like Hector Ramos pointed out. I can also reach out to other speakers in the region who can participate and provide content somehow. I can also be a speaker if needed.
I helped organize the Social Media Club in Mexico – and you need 3 key things to start engaging more folks: 1) you need a committee or a team of supporters 2) need to secure the location that is central to most of the audience, and 3) need to think in the content for the podcast that will bring the business audience.
Count with my help on this initiative…
I concur with Hector; your global connections and initiatives are awesome. We can’t have you sitting on the sidelines. Besides, I am directing all people to your site and twitter account.
Hey Hector – If for some reason we don’t pull this off, you can email me anytime mark_w_hayward AT yahoo.com if you have questions or if I can help you in any way.
Hi Jesus – Great insight! When was your Social Media Club meeting in Mexico? Were small business owners receptive and did they attend?
Just found this really good list “Ten Steps to Organizing a Barcamp”
source: http://www.cleverclevergirl.com/?p=10
1. Admit that you want to organize a barcamp, despite not having the spare time, the right contacts, or even any idea what *your* session would be. Go ahead and set a target date (about 6-8 weeks away) after checking http://www.upcoming.yahoo.com for conflcits. It can be changed if there are good reasons later, but no amount of collaboration is likely to pick a better date than you choosing what is convenient and reasonable for you. People will want to know when the event is and it’s much more convincing if you can give them a clean answer.
2. Lay the groundwork for collaboration.
* Create a page on http://www.barcamp.org (or a separately hosted wiki if necessary). See this list for a list of wiki engines and make sure you get some text markup extensions installed (for basic styling of links, lists, images, and headlines). The only necessary pages are: Main page, Registry Page, Planning Page, and Sponsors page.
* Create a googlegroup (or other) mailing list for collaboration between the organizers.
* Set up a method of collecting and organizing email addresses. We’ve used a shared gmail account as a method for people to register, a master list for email addresses, and a way to send out announcements and reminders to everyone registered without it being from our personal email accounts. Update!Google spreadsheets now allows you to take in info via a form. Since we had an attendance cap, we used this to manage the “official” sign-up list. It was about as easy as this kind of thing is going to get. Remember to take in First and Last names, email, website, which days attending, shirt size, food pref (for vegetarian or vegan) and whatever else is relevant to your venue.
* Lastly, I recommend setting up a Skype or IRC chat. Very useful for real-time collaboration without the hassle of in-person meetings
3. Get your graphics straight. Create a logo for your Barcamp (your logo can be as simple as a color treatment of the traditional barcamp logo, or you can do more fun regional things with it if time and creativity permit). Have this artwork in Vector format at 6-8 inches wide (for your t-shirts). From that version, make a web banner version and 1 or 2 flavors of blog badges (170 pixels wide).
4. Tell others that you are organizing a Barcamp. This includes the following, plus any special regional considerations: Post your event to the front page of http://www.barcamp.org, linking to either your barcamp.org page or your separate event website. Post your event on http://www.upcoming.yahoo.com. Try to get linked (or better, interviewed) by any local or industry-savvy online publications. Contact all the bloggers you know, give them the standard boiler plate about “what is barcamp?” the date, and your ready made blog-badges (and tell them where to link to). People will be much more willing to help you if you make it easy for them to do so. ———- The above can be accomplished in a weekend, unless you get too fancy with the site design or the graphics————
5. Network aggressively with the people who respond to the postings. Assign tasks quickly to those who say they want to help. Be direct, be open, and be thankful for their help. Allow people to self-select their tasks as much as possible, but when necessary, a little private encouragement goes a long way. By all means, be genuine about these things, but kind words do tend to ease the way.
6. Assign the following tasks:
* Sponsor wrangler: Drafts a message to send to potential sponsors, follows up leads from others for potential sponsors, collects info, logos (in vector format), and money from sponsors and also sees that receipts (if necessary) are issued at the end. This is your accounts receivable person and it’s a key thing to get right.
* Food Czar: It’s not completely required for a Barcamp, but it’s definitely the standard. You have x number of people to feed for 24 hrs, including a pre-party, a basic breakfast, and a lunch. Obviously, you can only pay for as much of this as you have sponsor money for. See that breakfast and lunch get taken care of first, and then pay for as much of the pre-party as possible. Best to keep the meals simple (but good), have some veggie options, and try to keep costs down. This will be your biggest expenditure.
* T-shirt Master: Not only do people like shirts, but they’re possibly your biggest offering to sponsors since it’s a shared promotional item. Basic shirt is your barcamp logo on the front, all the sponsor logos (tastefully) arranged on the back (I recommend in 1-color only). The range of shirts out there is enormous, but people will appreciate a good quality, non white (or black) colored, well-fitting shirt. It’s a bit more expensive, but providing some women’s shirts (not just unisex smalls) is a really nice touch. (I recommend American Apparel or Bella fine-jersey t-shirts – not the super tight fitted kind). Try to have t-shirts ordered (quanities decided and artwork submitted) 2 weeks before your event. 10 days at ABSOLUTE minimum. Remember, weird things happen in the supply chain. Check in with your t-shirt vendor often if you want to see your shirts on time.
* Wi-Fi Guru: People are going to want wi-fi, and may even need it for their presentation. In order to provide this, you’re going to need a decent internet connection and several routers to handle the traffic. Someone needs to set this up and keep it running during the camp.
7. Get a venue. Yes, it seems like it should come before these other things, but likely, it will have. You’ll most likely find your venue through a personal contact of an organizer or an active/excited participant. If no options have emerged, now is the time to pursue this aggressively. Office spaces seem to be the most popular venues, but it’s important to find a good fit. You need a venue sponsor who “gets it” about Barcamp and who recognizes what they have to gain from exposure to the Barcamp audience. (Therefore the venue sponsor really should have something to gain from exposure to the Barcamp crowd.) You also need to get this space for free. No doubt about it, having to pay for a venue (beyond some extra insurance costs or cleaning fees) is something you really don’t want to mess with.
8. Once you have a venue, release the blogs! Make second announcements with the excuse that you have a venue confirmed. Be shameless about this, finding good people is the most important thing about organizing a Barcamp.
9. Make lists of all the minor things you need to round up: Projectors, paper, markers, pens, nametags, paper towels, garbage bags, toilet paper, surface cleaners, kitchen gadgets for breakfast/lunch, ice chests, garbage cans. etc. Put the list on the wiki and try to get people to bring or donate as many of these as possible. Borrowing is way better than buying whenever possible.
10. Prepare for lift-off: Send out reminder emails 3-5 days before the event and also the day before the event. Ask people to unsubscribe if they’re not coming so you have an accurate headcount. Attrition ranges from 20-30%. Make sure *you’re* well rested before the event. At least for the first half of your opening party, you’ll need to do some hustling around, introductions, and generally making sure people get to talking. Once the ball gets rolling, though, it’s out of your hands – Enjoy it!
Other Notes:
* Logo – Remember that every color you have in your logo is an extra screen and set-up charge for your t-shirts, which drastically raises the price. Think about this when designing your logo.
* In-person Meetings are overrated. Unless you all need to view the space or exchange something in person, keep it online.
* Respect your fellow organizers. Can’t say it enough. Respect their time, and appreciate what they contribute to make this happen. You’re all volunteers.
* If you’re not a details person, put one in charge.
* Speaking of details, don’t forget to have multiple people assigned to trash duty and general clean-up the day of the event. Yes, it’s unglamorous, but it has to get done.
* Don’t over-complicate things. Don’t let other people over-complicate things. This is surprisingly hard. People have lots and lots of cool ideas that they want to execute to make your Barcamp awesome. That’s great as long as it doesn’t sidetrack the organizers. Try to get things accomplished in the order in which they are absolutely necessary. If you have a location, shirts, food, sponsors, etc locked down, then people can go nuts with the extras.
* Don’t get anyone’s company books involved. Too messy. Either deal in all cash or get a special paypal account. At the end of the day, you don’t want to be holding extra money. Best to get people to sponsor things like chair rentals, a meal, etc, and never touch the money yourself.
* Announce the official flickr tags at the event so it’ll be easy to see everyone’s photos afterwards.
* Encourage everyone there to get involved and stay involved.
* Don’t get too slack about the “everyone must participate” rule. It’s not just about attendance, it’s about knowledge transfer. Make sure people don’t think that it’s just a tech thing – creative talks are well received as long as they’re well thought out.
* Don’t forget to enlist people to help set-up and clean up afterwards. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from the general attendance. Spread the work and it will go much quicker.
* Remember: this is supposed to be fun. Keep it that way.
Hey Everyone – I have just created a PB Wiki for PodCamp Puerto Rico:
http://podcamppuertorico.pbworks.com/
All you need to do to add information is to create an account. I am going to be off the net for the rest of the day, but if someone is inclined and wants to start adding information, by all means please do so.
Also, I have created a shared google doc so we can add our email addresses and suggestions:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVLP5w0bbsNTZGdoYnMzNjlfMTFnajZ2c2pkOQ&hl=en
I will check back in later today.
Hi Guys,
Count me in for anything. I agree with a lot of what Héctor stated, specially about the self-promo and tight closed groups. I haven’t felt welcomed to attend previous events due to the same issues.
I am a not-very-active member of the SME (Sales and Marketing Assoc.) but can get access to their email addresses in order to promote the results of the event. I say ‘results’ because I don’t see many traditional marketers attending. However, If we can create a successful event, take pictures, record some stuff, write some blog posts, etc… we can create a simple site and promote it to this group of people. Help them get in the bandwagon.
BTW, the next Power Lunch from the SME is Social Media-related. The speakers are Bernardo Fiol from The Big Think Group and Guillermo Paz from Popullicom.
Another interesting place could be http://www.seriouslycreative.com/Home.php
I’ll keep posting.
Edgardo
Hey Edgardo – thanks for your thoughts! If it helps, I am a complete outsider. :-)
Do you guys have any suggestions as to how we can make an event as ‘open to all’ as possible?
Mark: We should try and look for some good sponsors on the good side and assuring the locale will be free or a verly low retn so we the event is free.
Registration should be hassle free and maybe limited to people that want to set up boots or speak.
Have a sort of open mic area where impromptu presentations can be handled?
And we are now discussing only in english but this should be a bilingual event.
Typo here! We should try and look for some good sponsors on the good side and assuring the locale will be free or a verly low retn so we the event is free.
I meant: some good sponsors on the FOOD side and to assure the locale is free or a place with a very low rent. This way the event can be a free one (as it should be.)
Sorry for that, I was typing too fast…
Continuing on Ezequiel’s locale considerations, I’ve created a new “Venue” page on the pbWiki so that we may continue the conversation there and better gauge everyone’s opinion.
Hi Ezequiel – If we can have a better meeting in all Spanish then lets go for it.
My Spanish is horrific! But, as long as folks don’t mind, if I present, it will be in English but if the rest of the meet up is in Spanish it’s perfect because then I am forced to get better. :-)
Mark:
I think we can do both! Some in english, some in spanish and maybe even have some translators. We can iron the details later, but I think we could have an offering in both languages.
Hey everyone, just left a comment on the pbworks page but wanted to check in here too. :) Any help I can bring let me know.
I’m willing to assist in any way possible as well. Already left a contribution on the wiki. :)
I agree that presentations should be mixed both in English and Spanish, since this makes it more interesting for attendees (some prefer one language over another). I don’t think it’ll be an issue to make presentations in English, since (I’m assuming) the developers, entrepreneurs, and others interested in New Media who attend will at least understand some English.
Thanks for the excellent idea and motivation, Mark, and thanks to everyone else for supporting PodCamp Puerto Rico!
This is Puerto Rico we mangle both English and Spanish, a mixed language event is cool and very relevant to our reality. I love the enthusiasm and I know we will do something cool with the amount of interested talent.
Great! Let’s do this!
I attended the Barcamp in Gurabo a couple of months ago and it was a great experience. Can’t wait to have a similar event take place and meet others in the web industry.
I am now following you in twitter, mine is @torlanco
BTW, odd coincidence are you the Mark from Palmetto Guest House? I was planning on staying there a month ago but had to postpone my plans :(
Hi Francisco – Yes, I do own Palmetto Guesthouse and I hope to meet you on Culebra someday when your plans allow. :-)
Mark, love it!
I’m starting the Social Media Club of Puerto Rico and would love to help this activity in any way I can. The @Asopymes_pr group has helped with locations this year. Seems like Caguas is a popular place to hold these types of meetings as it is “central”.
I can also offer up space in the IBM building in Hato Rey. I would love to be a speaker. Some topic ideas:
– Best practices on Podcasting
– Reaching the right audience with your podcast
– Basic requirements for podcasting
– Tools to make podcasting as easy as 1-2-3
We can also hold it in Culebra and I can offer up my pilot services ;)
Mark, add Me to the growing list of willing hands and heads. The sooner We get this first one done, the sooner We can polish the rough spots and prepare a second and third event. Let’s not be shy about trumpeting this effort, either: there’s more of Us out there than We think, though not as many as We wish. Events like these will help Our wish come true.