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FAQ

Page history last edited by MobileActive Admin 13 years, 12 months ago

Doc Status - v 0.01 - 5/19/2009

This is the first version of this document. We'd be glad for anyone to add / revise the content.

Thanks to Crystal Williams for inspiration, who wrote 'Ten Steps to Organizing a Barcamp'.

Why organize a Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Camp?

 

There are lots of good reasons to organize a Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Camp. Exploring how mobile technology is and can be used for social change work around the world. Building up a community of people in your community who want to build, deploy, and use mobile tools for their work affecting social impact. Or, just getting together with like minded people to chat.

 

Why is MobileActive.org Involved?

 

We have been working on how mobile tools are and can be used for social development and social change since 2005, building a knowledgehub and global community of people passionate about the same thing. We want to have a broad conversation about the future of mobile apps for social development and change, and we want to build stronger local communities amongst people working on developing, using, and improving upon mobile technology to advance social goals. 

 

Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Camps are about these two things. We strongly believe that conversation and community matter in this field to realize the full potentiall of mobile tech for social good.

 

How do I get started?

 

Organizing an M4Change Camp will involve some coordination but the event should be fun and from the very format of the event, others will volunteer to help you. M4Change Camps are all about sharing and participating. We are here to help as well wil templates, sample materials, and a registration platform for you to use, if you want to.

 

Find a Venue 

 

Most M4Change camps are between 50-100 people, depending on the community.  We have had good luck with some great partners, such as Google and Vodafone, as well as local universities. 

 

It will help to find a venue owner who understands what you are trying to achieve. You should aim to get the location for free if at all possible, however, you may be asked for a deposit against damage, have to take our insurance for the day and even cover the cost for a cleaner (unless can /want to do this yourselves).

 

This can be one of the most difficult choices. Do ask for help with recommendations. Hopefully someone will come forward with an idea and even 'donate' a venue.

 

Advice on the location set up:

 

Ideally, (and this will depend on the type of event you want to hold), the venue space will have both the possibility to have a larger meeting room where you can meet as one group. And the additional possibility to have “break-out” areas/rooms, so smaller groups can collaborate and discuss in a quieter setting.

 

Good check list to keep in mind:

  • Is there a wireless internet connection? How fast is it?
  • Its better if there isn't any furniture which is nailed down, participatory / collaborative events are much better when you can organize the space how you want to and move chairs around.
  • When can you get access to the event? You may need a few hours beforehand to get things set up and the same time or even longer to clear things away.
  • Bathrooms! Are there plenty of them for the amount of people you want to invite?

 

Select a date

 

Once you have selected the venue, nail down the date.  It's good to plan about 6 weeks ahead of time.  Try to check there are no special events going on in your town or city, and maybe check there's no major sporting event on TV that day too! However, you may want to consider selecting date when you know an another event is taking place to mix your attendees from locale people and new visitors from out of the area.

 

The best way to choose a date is really what works for you, and your community. Check in with a few other people who you have already identified who may be able to help with the organization. But don't worry too much about finding the perfect day, it is quite certain some people will come, and some people will not be able to make it this time. Hopefully, they will join the next one!

 

As soon as you know the venue and the date -- the two hardest things! -- planning becomes much easier.

 

Communication Planning

 

Its a good idea to set up a group email list so you can communicate with your fellow organizers and/or attendees easily. They may not always be checking the wiki page, and you may well need to ask for help, or communicate news and updates. You can also use this list to remind people a week before and the day before of the event taking place.

 

Add your event to the Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Wiki

 

Add your event to the Mobile Tech 4 Social Change wiki under "Upcoming Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Camps". This will allow you to be able to promote your event, and also provides a space for your event collaboration wiki. If you don't already have an account on the wiki, you'll need to create one in order to edit this page (and any other page).

 

Start by creating the page (we can help with this!) with information such as date, location, and agenda.  Feel free to expand the wiki as you see fit, maybe take inspiration from other M4Change Camps that have already happened. Just remember simple is better, people will struggle to find all needed information if it is several pages deep.

 

Create an agenda

 

  • Check out our Sample Agenda - Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Camp page for some talking points to get you started. 
  • Its also fine to have your event come together in an organic form. With a smaller group, you might want to create a schedule when you arrive for the event (just make sure participants are prepared to come and share / speak)
  • Your sessions can be brainstorms, more technical discussions, inspirational talks, or strategic or tactical discussions aboutusing mobile technology in social change work.
  • Find more materials for inspiration Session Ideas and Slides you can use. 

 

Participants

 

You should welcome anyone interested in promoting the open web to join you at MozCamp. Some likely candidates include:

  • local nonprofits/NGOs
  • Students, especially students in comp sci, design, media studies
  • Bloggers, especially those in areas related to technology and digital culture
  • Mobile developers, both nonprofit and commercial
  • People who are interested in digital media, digital culture, and using technology for a greater good

 

Registration

 

We strongly encourage you to use some sort of a registration platform for your M4Change Camp.  We have an account with Eventbrite, which we have used for many M4Change Camps that you are welcome to share.  We also encourage you to charge a small fee to cover food costs for the event.  Alternately, you can seek local sponsorship for food and other related costs. However, we have found that charging a small fee to cover direct food costs will also have people 'put some skin in the game' and decrease attrition and no-shows.

 

Other Logistics

 

Once you have selected a date and found some people to help you organize the event, you should feel less pressured as you assign / people volunteer to take on certain responsibilities. It would be a good idea if one person could work on each one of these tasks.

 

Food & Drinks

You don't need to have food and drinks at your event at all, but its certainly nice to offer something to your participants. Before getting started, check with the venue if you can you bring in your own food/catering, or must you use the venue's catering facility?

 

You'll seen posted everywhere - most people like a decent cup of quality coffee - if you get this sorted out ok, you'll be on the right track! In terms of costs for catering, this will vary from location to location - a good range in US$ would be about 20-25 per person per day. This would include breakfast and a light lunch and drinks (coffee/ tea) for the day. You will want to let people know up front that there will be a cost for food or you can have people pay when they register. Try to keep the costs for this as low as possible.

 

Wi-Fi

As mentioned above in making sure the venue has wifi - the types of people who are going to attend a M4Change Camp are sure enough going to want and expect a wifi connection. Nominate a 'Wi-Fi Master' who will set up a stable system, and can keep it going smoothly through the day.

 

Materials

Name tags are almost essential - allows people to break the ice and make connections. A large white sticker is a good start, make sure the name is written in bold capital letters - use only the first name. For an event with 50-100+ participants you may want to consider printing name tags in advance. In either case, having names on display will make introductions easier - people will soon be chatting.

 

If you are going to include brain storming and breakout session at your M4Change Camp, it would be a good idea to have an array of materials on hand:

  • 1-2 Flip charts depending on the number of attendees
  • Post-it notes
  • Pens / highlighters
  • Note pads
  • White board if possible
  • Extension cords
  • Masking tape

 

Technical Equipment

  • USB sticks - for sharing information / documents
  • Projector - if possible to organize at least one projector would be advised for group presentations or demonstrations
  • Additional routers might be needed to get a solid Internet connection

 

Communicate

 

Where to post?

  • Post your event on local mailing lists focused on nonprofits and/or technology, the MobileActive.org mailing lists,
  • Also think about adding your event on your social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Xing among many others
  • Consider listing you event on BarCamp.org

 

Blogs and the Press

  • Blog about the event, and encourage other participants to also blog
  • You may want to consider letting local bloggers know what you are doing, and invite them to attend. However, whilst it is important to let people know the event is happening and secure a good attendance - getting press coverage should not be the main objective of a Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Camp. 

 

Seek every opportunity

Work really hard with the people who respond to your postings, and ask those who want to help to take on tasks as soon as possible. Allow people to choose the tasks they want to help with wherever you can. Be as open and honest as you can, and don't forget to thank people for their hard work. Let them know it is appreciated.

 

Get ready

 

It would be good to send an email reminder one week before the Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Camp event ou may also want to send a note to all the day before event, as a gentle reminder.  Eventbrite and other registration systems lets you do that through their systems very easily.

 

Encourage people to let you know if they can no longer make it. Attrition is greatly reduced when you charge a nominal fee (if the event is free, expect about a 30% no-show rate)

 

A week before, a loose agenda should be finalized and participants who said they would help out should know what they will be doing, and are all ready to go. All the hard organization work is done.

 

Last but not least - have FUN!

 

Document!

 

Don't forget to save your event for posterity!

 

Use the 'tag'- m4change -- to make sure your event is included and found.

 

  • Find someone who is willing to be Wiki Gardner and Documentation Wrangler
    • This person's job is to help (and chase :)) people so that content gets posted in the places listed here
    • Next to event organizer, this is one of the most important jobs at a  Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Camp (and we have not been very good at that to date!)
  • Take photos, post, and tag m4change to Flickr
  • Blog about the event and tag with m4change
  • Tweet away on Twitter using the tag m4change
  • Share your slides with others on Slideshare, using the m4change tag.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

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