FAQ: Organize your own MozCamp+ event

MozCamp+ is an event anyone can put together, anywhere in the world which brings together people who are passionate about the open web..

This FQA list has been specifically compiled to help you hold a MozCamp+ event in your local area. The guide will help anyone who is currently thinking about holding an event, but needs more explanation on how to get started. Or if you have already made up your mind to create a MozCamp+ in your town or city, we hope this Q&A will give you further support.

Doc Status - v 0.01 - January 20 2009

This is the first version of this document. We'd be glad for anyone to add / revise the content. * Please do change the document status to reflect the revision date and version number

Audience

People who live and work on the web, but who do not yet have a channel celebrate and protect the things that keep it open. These people 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 areas related to tech (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, DemoCamp etc.

Many of these people share Mozilla values, or have their own definition of the open web. But they don't yet feel involved in Mozilla. They should.

--

As context: 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 create a bigger 'community of action' by giving people new ways to participate.

Goals

Build a 'community of action' that makes it possible for a broader number of people to get involved in Mozilla by ...

• Giving people a chance to talk about and understand 'What is the open web and why does it matter?'
• Providing an update on where the Internet is headed as we move to mobile and into the cloud, and sharing an intimate view Mozilla's plans in these areas.
• Introducing topics like values, freedom, privacy in relation to Internet to those who never thought about them.
• 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 a Firefox add-on developer) by inviting them to co-host local events like this.
• Sharing hands on skills that give people a richer Internet experience: how to use wikis, blogs, how to search and control their privacy.
• 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, although it's tough to describe that. But that is what is at the root here. This includes everything from stirring people up, to giving them something they can volunteer and work on, to getting people organized and connected so they can continue to talk later.

Session ideas and topics

• Events/MozCamp+Topics

Format

Like BarCamp, but better facilitated and more theatre. Or, maybe like BarCamp + TED + Maker Faire. 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

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

In many cases, these would happen on the day before or after a regular MozCamp or local team meeting that was only for Mozilla people. 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.

Customization

One of the most important elements of this recipe is customization. Think of how extensions can modify browsing experience.

Depending on what people shows up, what is important on the web at the time of the event, animators have to customize their event to serve the goals of MozCamp+.

We want to help by providing a platform for ideas, event themes, and place to leave feedback from previous events. We should allow preparing several flavors of the event, techie, informational, educational etc.

After each event we should get a kind of report from it together with feedback on what did work and what didn't, suggestions on improvements and what to avoid in the future. It should replicate itself and auto-improve over time.

For this customization model to work, we will need clear agenda and presentation templates, and a wiki that makes organizing easy. We can borrow alot of ideas from http://www.barcamp.org/. We will need a site like this soon.

Scheduled Events and 'Strawman' Agendas

<link to MozCamp+ events that we've schedule, or even to strawman agendas that show what this would look like in a particular city>

• 4 events simultaneously in Poland are in early drafting stage (looking for people etc.)
• A version of this event will happen either the 4th or 6th of March in The Netherlands, with support of the Dutch Gov't. Contact: Barbara Hueppe and Tristan Nitot