Theological BarCamp: has its time come?

Here I am feeling so innovative — it must be the Day Job — by talking up Open Space Techology, Unconferences and BarCamps, and then Dan Harper very gently reminds me (us) that he’s been down that road before about a year and a half ago:

My thoughts on organizing a theological bar camp are here:
http://www.danielharper.org/blog/?p=163

Organizing it and running it seem pretty straightforward to me — just an organizational overlay over standard event logistics.

While my post generated absolutely no interest among the religious liberals who read my blog, I still think it would be a good event. Indeed, a decade ago I helped plan one or two UU young adult conferences (this was back when I was a young adult) which had some resemblance to this idea. It’s one of those things where if people actually tried it, they would realize that it’s so much better than the standard, dreary General Assemblies and district conferences.

I even commented at the time but it slipped my mind.  He’s right, you know, and very persuasive at his site. (Read this earlier post, too.) So, what about it gang?  Please comment.

5 Replies to “Theological BarCamp: has its time come?”

  1. So here is what was confusing to me initially: I couldn’t tell if barcamp is face-to-face or virtual. But this is a face-to-face thing, right? It just has a virtual presence?

  2. Must’ve missed this the first time it came up. I’d love it…having only just learned this week what “barcamp” means.

    Wanna have it in Salt Lake City?

  3. @Ms. T. BarCamp is live, but is usually planned in the open, virtually.

    Here’s the page for one getting gathered around here.

    http://barcamp.org/BarCampWashingtonDC

    @Sean. That’s the beauty of it. It can be in a number of places, making it more accessible. Also, the lead time to plan one is relatively short and the costs are low.

  4. Huh. Well, now I know what a barcamp is. At our district summer-thing, there’s always someone giving a cooking class. A friend and I always talked about having a “bar workshop” — all about making cocktails and other drinks.

    BarCamp. Hey, we could do both. 😉

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