from command and control to barcamp

Influx Insights — 2007-08-22T23:09:08Z

It’s interesting to observe how the participatory environments that exist on the Internet are now making their way into life outside the web.

Previously autocratic structures are now opening themselves up just a little and inviting participants in. However, how many of these are just token gestures to please the audience or is there a real desire to encourage outsiders to contribute new thinking to established, autocratic structures?

For the last century, museums have been heavily crated and edited experiences. The thoughts and ideas of a leadership group of so-called experts, manifests itself in the selection of art, and even its placement. As a visitor, you may feel like a liberated explorer, but you are really examining what some experts believe you should be looking at.

For the last few months, London’s Design Museum, has experimented with an interesting concept. Design Overtime, it’s an invitation for the museums visitors to get active, and be engaged and involved. The museum stays open until 10pm and activities are organized in addition to the current exhibition.

The latest exhibit is all about the design of cause-focused communication, so for the Overtime evening, held this coming Friday, visitors can rant at a “Speakers Corner”, write a letter of protest in a typing pool, make badges and design flyposters.

It’s an interesting step to make a museum visit a more engaging and interesting process, something that helps the visitor get more from the experience. However, it’s not changing the fundamental structure of the curated experience, perhaps that will happen later.

Another seemingly interesting example are the YouTube debates, which, if we are being honest with ourselves, are something of an illusion. It’s great exposure for the brand and perhaps the first time America’s political process has been so visibly sponsored by a corporation. In reality, it’s a sleight of hand trick, an illusion that there’s a new participatory process happening, but it’s the same thing in new clothes. The subjects weren’t random; they were “hand picked” by a nameless “someone” with extreme caution and care. In fact, it was really no different from a public Q&A or Town Hall meeting that would have happened pre-You Tube.

Then there’s Barcamp, is a relatively new form of conference that’s rapidly gaining traction in the tech and media community. Conferences are a lot like museums; some nameless experts or a few of them hand pick the experts they think you should be listening to, you sit and listen, talk to a few people and leave.

Barcamp is the new order. It operates on a very different set of principles and is structured around the concept of “Open Space", where the participants show up and organize the event around what they want to say and want to hear, not what others tell them they should do.

Here’s a video that explains the Barcamp concept

Scott Beale’s photographs of last weekend’s Barcamp 3, held in Palo Alto.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

For designers with ADD, they have their own Barcamp equivilant called Pecha Kucha. It’s a four year-old concept that’s rapidly gaining traction. There are now Pecha Kucha nights in 80 cities around the world. It has a very specific rule set- each presenter can only present for a maximum of 6 minutes and 40 seconds or 20 slides, up for a total of 20 seconds each.

These examples illustrate how the force of democratization is playing out in different arenas. While the Design Museum and the YouTube debates represent an opening up of existing structures, Barcamp is an new entity that's tailored to deliver to a new participatory culture.

It's clear that there's a turf war emerging across all institutions and categories between incumbents and new entrants. The challenge for the incumbents is how fast can they open themselves up and will their changes by enough for the participants and for the new entrants, how quickly can they gain critical mass and traction.

Posted by Ed Cotton

Influx Insights Tag Feed: designmuseum

from command and control to barcamp