Ryan Sholin

Let’s go BARcamp on the API CEO meetup

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Ryan Sholin
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⚠️ This post is more than five years old. Links may rot, opinions may change, and context might be missing. Proceed with cautious optimism.

Know what Foo Camp is?  Know what BarCamp is?

OK, now that we have that out of the way, Jason Kristufek is calling for a “summit” of future-of-news hotshots/thinkers as a counterpoint to the recent American Press Institute mostly-executives meeting of the minds.

Sounds like a BarCamp to me.  Like Jason, I’m not entirely sure we can wait six months until the API 50 meet again. [UPDATE: One CEO says the plan is to meet again much sooner than that.]

Here’s what I think should happen at this sort of gathering:

  1. Talk about what’s working in your organization, whether it’s a tool, a story form, or a way of getting reporters, editors, or ad salespeople to use new tools and story forms.
  2. Talk about what’s missing in your organization, what you need help with, what you wish were easier.
  3. Break into birds-of-a-feather groups based on those first two data points, where the haves help the have-nots.
  4. Ideally, build prototypes to show off back home.  If what you need is a niche social network, you should walk away from this meeting with something to show off in a meeting when you get back to your newsroom. (Whether it’s a live, branded Ning site or a Drupal install on your laptop.)
  5. No panels, no keynotes, maybe some short, Pecha Kucha presentations to get through points 1. and 2.

But that’s just me; what do you think we could do if 50 of us got together for two days?

Comments

3 responses to “Let’s go BARcamp on the API CEO meetup”

  1. stk Avatar
    stk

    If this is going to happen between December 7th and January 7th anywhere in the US, drop me a line. Seriously — I only planned to come over as a vacation trip, but I’d rather be part of something like this.

  2. Tom Altman Avatar
    Tom Altman

    I’m thinking a distributed un-conference. We can figure out a way to have a few (5 or less) satellite locations which we could all link together via the web for the keynote. Then workshop locally and then back together for a re-cap. Could be very cool…I’m in either way.

  3. Digidave Avatar
    Digidave

    I’ve always wanted a barcamp for journalism. My CopyCamp didn’t exactly work… I hope this does.

    One thing, however: It shouldn’t take place in one city only once. We should find a way to have three of these. One on each coast and one in the middle.