Planning

Critical first steps:

• Let people know about the planning mailing list (see below).
• Set up a wiki (see below).
• Pick a date and location in San Francisco, CA.
• Frame the invitation.

Mailing List

click here to get the email address

To subscribe, send mail to click here to get the email address with the subject, "subscribe", then follow the instructions in your email.

Wiki

Several groups have offered to host/skin wikis:

• Wagn.org [1] - offered by Grass Commons' Ethan McCutchen
• Confluence - offered by Atlassian's Stewart Mader
• Socialtext.com [2] - offered by Socialtext's Ross Mayfield
• In 2006 Portland used OddMuse
• In 2007 Portland used MediaWiki
• In 2007 Montreal used MoinMoin

SisterSites among the RCC wikis would be Really Nice.

We've had some generous offers of donations of wiki hosting and meeting space from a couple of companies. I think these have been very thoughtful and community-minded and I absolutely appreciate the magnanimous spirit in which the offers have been made. We have not in the past, and I don't think we can in the future, hold RecentChangesCamp without the support of wiki companies. I don't think that's a division that we want to make in the wiki community.

However, I think we may want to be very careful having any one wiki company do something for RCC2008 that only one company can do. In particular: hosting the event's wiki and/or hosting the event itself.

We don't have any members of the wiki world who are so community-insensitive that they'd abuse the rôle of host ("Welcome to WikiCo.'s RecentChangesCamp"), but if we want the event to be open to all wiki developers, participants and practitioners, it may be good to have our main virtual and physical space be on "neutral ground".

I do want to contrast this with sponsorships of money or other in-kind donations, since at least theoretically all players in the wiki space can contribute, while only one can host the wiki and only one can provide the space.

It's not my decision to make, but I'd just like to suggest that if we decide to use such a generously-offered resource we do so thoughtfully and with eyes open. --Evan 12:27, 23 October 2007 (PDT)

Theme

Sister spaces, sister cities, sisterhood, yaya sisterhood, sister sites, joining, being on the same team, cross-pollination. Sister support. I got this idea from Ted talking about Abbe and Ward's passion for sister sites. I don't know how sister sites works in practicality, but we need a theme and Bay Area could benefit from the Portland sister camaraderie. -Kristin 10-17-07

I like the idea but I'm concerned that the literal interpretation of the word "sister" would overwhelm its metaphorical uses. If we use this, we should be prepared for a heavy focus on women in technology (and probably in Wiki technology) and solidarity between same. I'm willing to be part of such a conversation and I get the metaphor, but let's be ready for the literalist response. And let's be honest: there will be a lot of men who will think there's no place for them at such an event. --Evan 12:18, 22 October 2007 (PDT)

I can see Evan's point. What if instead of using the term "sister" it was something like "wiki solidarity" or "wiki unity" instead? NicoleWillson 22:38, 22 October 2007 (PDT)

Some themes I'd love to see:

• Overcoming success. As a wiki movement, we've had amazing success and wikis have become an essential tool for public and private groups world-wide. What challenges does that bring for wiki as a movement? How do we transcend the achievements of the recent past to look beyond for wiki's future? There are other groups and movements who've had similar experiences (early success) and would have a lot to share.
• Open communities, open societies. Open, open, open. Open Source, Open Content, open standards, open decision making. All that stuff. The bracing wind of openness.

Invitation

What about History? How did we get here? Tell our story.

What about not? ;-) That's interesting information but not the way to ignite interest in the event. I don't want to go to an "old boys network" event -- I want to go to something new where my contribution is as valuable as any others. Let's take our limited opportunity to connect with people and use it to communicate what RCC 2008 is going to be like, not what RCC people have done at other events in previous years.

Since this is potentially a distracting document, I've started RCC2008/Invitation and maybe we should work on it there. --Evan 12:06, 22 October 2007 (PDT)

Long Time ago in a galaxy far, far away there was a trip to WikiSym in a Wikivan. We couldn't make them do Open Space, so we decided we could roll our own. That's when Recent Changes Camp came about in 2006. Collaboration. Independence. Initiative. Look Ma, no hands. Can I do it? If you really want to.

I say Story! Yes. Story is part of the myth of the event, and it does make it powerful. It gives a sense of why we come together. This short paragraph here is lovely to start off. We could add on, in the same voice, a very short statement of success resulting from coming together. "In our quest for OPEN, we were not alone! Hundreds joined us. Will you?" --Jean

Sponsorship

• AboutUs $3,000
• SolSeed.net $1,000
• wikiHow $3,000
• SocialText $3,000
• Atlassian $3,000 or more
• Wikia $3,000

Thank you sponsors!!! Your contribution helps make this event as smooth, fun, and productive as it is. Very grateful. --Jean

Date

Best to align with previous RCCs for time of year: first weekend in February. Let's take the opportunity to own this weekend for RCC.

In 2008, this will be Friday 1 February -> Sunday 3 February 2008.

No known conflicts with federal or state holidays, "major" Web or tech conferences, nor BarCamps worldwide.

NB: Feb 3, 2008 is the day of the SuperBowl. Probably not an issue for most people, but maybe for some.

It seems to me that this has been the case in the past for RCC! It's possible to move to another weekend, of course. A strong candidate would be 16-18 Feb, which is a three-day weekend for Presidents' Day in the US. --Evan 11:10, 23 October 2007 (PDT)

Location Ideas

Page on the WikiSym wiki about the facilities used for WikiSym05, 06, 07, RCC 06, 07 & RoCoCo07 - maybe helps us with what we'd ideally like? http://ws2007.wikisym.org/space/What+worked+and+what+didn%27t+with+the+facility

From a budget perspective, we spent about CDN$5500 for facilities for RecentChangesCamp Montreal 2007, out of a budget of about CDN$13K. --Evan 11:50, 25 October 2007 (PDT)

1. Google- anyone have a lead on free space here?
2. UC Berkeley
3. Stanford
4. Computer History Museum - Was a good location for Mashup Camp. Anyone know how to get it?
5. SRI - Eugene would this work?
6. SocialText - Has a little history hosting BarCamp, WikiWednesday and other Camps in a neutral Ohana way. Space and wifi are free, no real scaling limitation.
   • I'd like to see some buy-in from other wiki companies in the Bay Area (especially ones we haven't seen at RCC before) on the idea of having RCC at a wiki company's headquarters. That means either Google or ST. My main goal of having RCC in the Bay Area is to attract some of the Ohana members who haven't been coming to other events. I'd hate to unwittingly put up a PricklyHedge that inhibits participation. Also, I'd like to make sure that our hosts understand what having RCC at their office means: hundreds of people in their space for a full three-day weekend, well into the night. --Evan 11:43, 6 November 2007 (PST)
   • While there are some real negatives of hosting RCC in a non-neutral space, I think the benefits of hosting this at SocialText could outweigh the negatives. I've been to similar open space events at Socialtext before and the location works very well. They have a big open room and several smaller meeting rooms with wifi and power cords everywhere. They have done this before and know what needs to happen for this to work. The location is in downtown Palo Alto, walking distance to restaurants, Stanford, and the Caltrain station. Regarding the potential negatives: I've never seen Ross, Liz or anyone at Socialtext try to take undue advantage of their location to push their corporate agenda on any attendees at previous Bar Camps, D-Camps, or similar events that they have hosted. My home wiki, wikiHow, might be considered a competitor to Socialtext since they host the Wired How-to wiki - but I'd still support RCC located at Socialtext's offices. Would be great to hear pros/cons from more direct Socialtext competitors too. --JackHerrick 10:31, 21 November 2007 (PST)
7. Any actual SF locations?
   • Citizenspace.us -- I think Wiki Wednesday's happen here. It's probably too small, but the CS folks might want to be interested/involved. --Evan 10:57, 22 October 2007 (PDT)
   • Fort Mason -- fantastic place in Presidio with lots of nooks and crannies. Not sure if any of the theaters or such would be appropriate for a meeting of this size. Especially interesting is the conference center, which seems about the right size.
     • I just got an estimate of US$4800 for the weekend of Mar 21-23 for this centre, but there's no availability for Feb.
   • UCSF Med school in Cole Valley so probably not much organizational affinity, but nice location
     • Lone Mountain Conference Center has "rooms at Lone Mountain and on our main campus [...] ranging in price from $70 - $825." Size is tight; typically 1-200 capacity. We should probably be able to get 2-3 rooms, but we might be tight for opening/closing circles.
   • Usfca.edu Nice central location near Haight Street, probably reasonable prices, some possibility for org affinity
   • Sfsu.edu Better affinity, kind of out of the way, hard to find food unless you like Olive Garden
   • Newcollege.edu -- hippie/crunchy, probably would love our story, nice location in the Mission District, not sure of space
   • Any of a number of high schools or other schools around the city. Probably will all be in session, though!
   • As an out-of-towner, I'd prefer spending my time in San Francisco instead of the South Bay. --Evan 11:45, 6 November 2007 (PST)
8. Other ideas?
   • As a grade schooler, we got to camp over night at Fort Point.
     • Interesting, though we'd better check on this one. Fort Point is closed several days a week, last I checked, because of retrofit work on the Golden Gate above.
   • Regardless of location, perhaps we could plan certain "field trips" around the area. The Internet Archive is housed in the Presidio, for instance.

Number of Attendees Estimates

• List your guess here so we can do a "wisdom of crowds" consensus estimate.

1. 200-300. Will be larger than previous RCC's due to large SF tech population. Or should we try to keep crowd size limited to focus mostly on wiki communities? - JackHerrick 17:57, 18 October 2007 (PDT)
2. No clue, but the last wikimeet here, on less than one week's notice and no fixed agenda, had upwards of twenty people in attendance, and doubtless many of the "maybes" would bother to turn out. Dvortygirl 21:57, 18 October 2007 (PDT)
3. 150-200. I think there's a big SF tech community, but that also means that RCC isn't as big an event on the SF landscape as it is for Montreal or Portland. My guess is that we can't expect a huge turnout from non-wiki people. --Evan 11:51, 22 October 2007 (PDT)
4. 173 (none of this "range" stuff) - Ray | talk
5. Jack is spot on if we do a modest amount of outreach, Evan is right without outreach. Given that you are all generally right, consider that there will be more fly-by attendees than usual. So either set a commitment for attendees or you will have 150 at lull and 300 at peak. RossMayfield
6. My team would be almost 20 on it's own, so I'm thinking 300 :-) Gil

Past Lessons

• http://2007.recentchangescamp.org/What_to_remember_for_future_events

Past events

• 2007 RoCoCo - Montreal
• 2007 RecentChangesCamp - Portland
• 2006 RecentChangesCamp - Portland

Evening Activity Ideas

• film: Lady in the Water -- Kristin Webb-Tomson (how can there be a show and are there copyright issues? What if we invite M. Night Shyamalan) I think this movie talks about Open Space and wiki. (Wha...? I think it does not, except maybe in a really metaphorical sense. --Evan 10:49, 22 October 2007 (PDT))

There's also the film: At the Second Traffic Light. Last I heard it costs $500 for the filmmaker to come and show the film and facilitate discussion. Not that we need a discussion facilitated. This film talks about prejudices and overcoming those challenges in order to get a new perspective on the people around us.

• A wiki skill share. NicoleWillson 22:46, 22 October 2007 (PDT)

WikiWiki Bus

• How do we get people from Portland to Bay Area? Rent bus? Rent train car? Where to stay? Want energy of staying together. Late night talking important etc etc
  • The Coast Starlight leaves Portland at 2:25PM 31 Jan 2008 and reaches Emeryville (in the East Bay) at 8:25AM 1 Feb 2008. There's no train directly to San Francisco, but there are Amtrak-chartered buses from Emeryville to various places in SF.
  • Driving from Portland to SF directly is about 10 hours.

Volunteers