Events/MozCamp+Template

this is an early attempt at templating MozCamp+ events that extend our community beyond the traditional audience of developers. feedback deeply desired.

Vision - MozCamp+

One day (or 1/2 day) event with discussion, demonstrations and collaborative scheming by people who want to keep the web open. Hosted by Mozilla.

Audience

People who share Mozilla values and may even have their own definition of 'the open web' ... but don't have a way to 'get involved'. This might include:

• Firefox fans and people who informally evangelize for us
• Students, including campus reps but beyond
  • especially students in comp sci, design, media studies
• Bloggers, especially those in semi-tech areas (e.g. digital culture)
• Free culture, creative commons type
• Web designers and people in the web marketing space (going beyond tech people here, so not just people we normal reach w/ developer evangelism)
• People who would normally go to BarCamp, CaseCamp, etc.

These are the people who sit in the 'community of interest' (or 'values') layer here:

http://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2008/07/07/concentric-circles-of-community/

and here

http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/more-on-mozilla-communities-circles-and-maps/

We want to move them into our 'community of action' by giving them new ways to participate.

Goals

Help people move from the Mozilla 'community of interest' to the 'community of action' by ...

• Giving them a chance to talk about the open web with likeminded people, what it means in their lives and their communities
• Proving a view of what Mozilla and others are 'doing next' to keep the web open, offering people an 'insiders' view
• Creating concrete opportunities for people to start participating in Mozilla and other open web projects (e.g. start translating the Manifesto)
• Building better links amongst people within the broader Mozilla community (e.g Firefox marketing person and an add on developer) by inviting them to co-host local events like this
• Creating a sense of 'belonging' to the Mozilla community for people who don't have that yet

There is clearly a movement building piece here, which I am not quite saying yet. But that is what I am imagining. This includes everything from stiring people up, to giving them something they can volunteer and work on to getting their name in a database so we can contact them later.

Session ideas and topics

A good chunk of the sessions could be self organizing and local. However, things you'd expect or might even template are:

• 5 minute speedgeek / lightning presentations on different Mozilla and open web projects of interest to people. Everything from Firefox to audience specific add on packs (like F-Y-FF), platform projects like Miro ... and maybe even local open source or open web projects (CC, EFF, eg).

• Inspiring, TED-like talk middle of the day about where the open web is headed, what the threats are

• Hands on workshops by whatever Mozilla community people are around. Localization. Marketing. Manifesto. Add on development.

• Discussions or workshops on how to promote the open web locally. Working w/ city council. Working w/ schools. Evangelizing to the media.

• Small sprints or hands on projects with specific local relevance, like localizing the Manifesto or coming up with an open web strategy for a local NGO, school or government department. Need the right local people around to make this happen.

• A strong party and social component where people just get to know each other and have fun.

• We also need to merge in the Mozilla Labs Concept Series stuff. It sounds like there are lots of similar pieces. Aza and Atul: hack away at above to include what you guys are doing both format and content-wise. Of course, you can still do stand alone stuff. But good to know what this thing looks like w/ Labs plugged in.

Format

Like BarCamp, but better facilitated and more theatre. Or, maybe like BarCamp + TED + Burning Man. Which means:

• BarCamp = participatory and conversational

• TED = A small number of very excellent, very short curated talks from community leaders on big picture issues and emerging technologies

• Burning Man (or maybe Maker Faire) = there is a hands on community component where people build or write things together. Web sites. Add ons. Manifesto translations.

These would happen on the day before or after a MozCamp or local team meeting. The idea would be to take advantage of the fact that many Mozilla people are in the same town, to connect them to a broader public and to bring more people into the edges of our community.

Also important: these can be low or no cost other than the venue and food. The idea is you just throw a party when Mozilla people are in town and see who comes.