Re: [Dfey-nw-discuss] Idea for slaughter: techweek

[Paul Sutton]

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Tim Dobson wrote:
> Hey everyone,
> 
> DISCLAIMER: This is simply an idea I've had that I'd like to bounce
> around a bit.. Not a plan. Not a promise. Not any form of commitment to
> the idea. This is just an idea that I'd like to throw out there for
> comments and suggestions.
> 
> Please please tell me what you think, especially if you think I'm wrong
> or something could done better.
> Feel free to point out difficulties (and possible solutions if you have
> them), though lets try and look at improving the idea than getting hung
> up on the obstacles.
> 
> --------
> 
> You are used to the idea of during the summer holidays (or other
> holidays) of working parents being eager to "get rid" of their children
> as much as possible. So you may have been to things like summer camps or
> scout camps or basically going out into the outdoors and doing all sorts
> outdoor pursuits with some sort of community group, away from your parents.
> 
> Usually these kind of things are residential where you go and stay
> somewhere and then have people minding you however sometimes these are
> simply early morning to late afternoon things.
> 
> For instance, there was a "kids week" at a sailing club I used to go to,
> was a voleenteer run thing - it charged something like £12/day for 5
> days or something but essentially the parents dropped you off as they
> left for work at about 8.30am and then picked you up at like 8.30pm. All
> food, equipment, clothing etc was included in the cost. You'd basically
> be taught to sail better during the day, have lunch, do more sailing etc
> etc and then in the evening learn more about the theory of sailing.
> Over the course of the week you'd get to know the people on "kids week"
> quite well, you'd learn some new skills and on the last day, there'd
> usually be some sort of special event - a race perhaps, or a *really
> fun* game or something.
> Finally parents would be invited to a final event where the young people
> would be presented with any prizes or qualifications for the progress
> they'd made during the week.
> 
> It was a really fun and enjoyable way of learning to sail better, not
> just because (dinghy) sailing is fun(!), but because you were doing it
> with a group of like minded people at your level, had good teachers and
> it was something you were interested in.
> 
> From a parents point of view, it rocked. For *only* £12 a day (cheaper
> than Alton Towers/childcare/spending money to go into $nearest-city)
> they got rid of their child to a place where they were certain that
> their child wouldn't be vandalising bus shelters, playing Grand Theft
> Auto a playstation all day or mugging old ladies. For parents, I now see
> what bargin it was.
> 
> -----------
> 
> I want to try and apply the same sort of concept to technology and young
> people, especially (but not exclusively) free technologies and see if we
> can come up with an version that could work.
> 
> Whether it would be residential or simply "all day" is largely
> irrelevant at this stage, there are advantages & disadvataes to both,
> but we can weigh these up later.
> 
> So I feel it's important to learn about the advantages of that free (as
> in freedom) technologies give to one, however I also feel that everyone
> should make their own decision to use free technologies in their own
> time, therefore I feel actively banning non-free technologies or
> stigmatising those who use them out of ignorance is counter productive.
> I would like to make it very clear that I think free technologies have a
> key role to play in how it would be run.
> 
> ## The event itself ##
> 
> Rather ironically, this is the bit where I have the largest blank space
> in this idea, however I see it more as an empty canvas for other people
> to fill rather than an issue.
> 
> I was thinking of suggesting that "techweek" as I have named the event
> for the time being, should be 5 days long or possibly 5 with somesort of
> awards ceremony or event on the 6th day.
> 
> It could,possibly be a bit like Young Rewired State where everyone
> chooses areas of interest, self organises into groups and hacks on a
> project, it could be different.
> 
> It could be more skills orientated with different workshops each day
> aimed to teach everyone a set group of skills. We need to beware with
> this of it feeling too much like a lesson.
> 
> It could be cool to have a *short* talk and discussion with an inspiring
> (freedom-aware) person whose done something noteworthy & relevant each
> evening.
> 
> I'm not sure whether it would be practical or not, but I was thinking it
> could be cool to structure the week a bit like Scrum
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_%28development%29 )
> 
> I'm not really sure how this bit could or should work at all, so ideas
> of all kinds would be appreciated!
> 
> ## Mentoring ##
> 
> There should be experienced and friendly advice always to hand whatever
> the event is centered around.
> 
> I'm not sure it matters whether the mentors are outspoken advocates of
> free technologies so long as the event and what the mentors are
> mentoring about is focused in the right direction.
> Ie. If a mac centric, iphone developer can help someone write & compile
> C on KDE, and if they aren't outspoken against free technologies, I
> would suggest there is no issue with them providingg mentoring.
> 
> I think that if we asked reasonable things, the technology community
> would rise to the challenge and volenteer their time.
> 
> ## Marketing ##
> 
> It's crucial that it sounds attractive to parents AND young people. Both
> of these groups have different ideas of what sounds attractive.
> 
> If we were to assume that the parents had no concept of what free
> technologies were and indeed, did not NEED to know, but still wanted to
> send their technologically minded daughter or son, then we would be on a
> winner.
> 
> It's perhaps unlikely that the yooung people I was thinking of targeting
> have a *good* idea of what free technologies are either, so it has to
> sound fun and exciting from a youth perspective, (not just from a free
> software "its good that we do this, just no-one turns up" perspective).
> 
> ## Logistics & finance ##
> 
> Worry about these later. We can deal with these problems when it comes
> to them.
> Until we know what we need to get, there's no point wasting time looking.
> 
> ## Health & Safety ##
> 
> I'm passing over this for the time being - it's a matter of making sure
> you can tick all the boxes. Once we know what we're doing we look at
> what boxes we need to tick and how we can tick them.

CRB Cheks and from July this year all staff or new staff will need to be
registered with the ISA,  however i just got a crb through and it now
runs the checks against the new lists,  (waste of time really I am clean :)


> 
> ---------------
> 
> I do apologise for this email not being laid out in the most logical
> coherent manner, it's a shame I don't have thoughts that present
> themselves in logical, coherent manners.
> 
> I'd just like to re-iterate again, this is simply an idea in progress -
> not a commitment to try and make whatever we come up with happen at all
> so I'd really appreciate it if people didn't suggest that I might be
> running an event like this or circulate this email to other lists. :)
> 
> All and any feedback appreciated. :)
> 
> Tim
> 
> 
> 


Sounds a good idea,  you may want to get some advice from people like
BUNAC - British University north America club, as they send people over
to US summer camps, some of which are technology related, I think US
students can come over and work here, so if you fancy some guys from
caltech or MIT teaching its probably do-able :)

I know a few camps here offer computers here as an option but that is
part of   a range of subjects,  its a good idea to offer more than just
computers,  or at least have sports as part of the camp. partly as after
a days coding people may want to relax,  and do something less thinking
intensive.

Perhaps YMCA would be able to do something, again you need to convince
them what Free software is first, I have had Zero luck with my local
YMCA :( all i want to do is promote dfey to the young people using them.

I worked on a summer camp and the format is great (worked at one in
canada).,  lots of fun, i was just maintenance staff as my visa didn't
cover working with kids,  so was fixing stuff around the camp,  getting
food orders, going to the local dump with garbage, (they have bears at
the dump btw), etc.  so just as fun,

I think camps here may teach things like animation etc,  again probably
using expensive proprietary software.

not sure about programming, perhaps visual basic and web design using
dreamweaver,

if you want to teach using a text editor and hand coded html/php/css
that is different.  geting people to do that is gonna be harder, unless
we teach each other and just have adults on hand to supervise and help
(but they need to know their stuff but think they are super know it alls)

anyway I would think it would be a good idea,  and a good way to promote
free software

this is a uk based camp they don't do computers though

http://www.supercamps.co.uk/activities/index.asp?ID=2


Paul






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