Blogcamps and participatory culture

Despite blogs having grown naturally in the open web for literally years now, it seems as though central units at UNSW have only just begun to embrace the idea. Meanwhile there have been pockets of significant innovation occurring in the faculties, with a few notable instructors having pushed the boundaries of possibility for years as well.

And yet from the perspective of the bulk of the uni community, the notion of blogs and their affordances is still largely enigmatic, or worst still unknown completely. So amidst the current planning for a launch of a centrally-sponsored blog pilot project, I (along with others) have realised there is a tremendous need for increased awareness of the organic, social nature of the new media ecosystem, what this entails in practice, and in particular, considerations of and for community and network-development.

The bigger picture

From a technical standpoint blogs are very simple tools. Their true value lay in their capacity to fuel and empower the wider holistic, social, educational, individual, communal, intellectual, participatory, creative and other elements. However in the early days of blogging this reality isn’t necessarily clear to new bloggers. Neither is there an immediate sense of network or community in the blogging process. Both need time and energy to cultivate and grow.

While some bloggers will see an immediate value and opportunity in use of blogs, and therefore actively engage with the new media ecosystem, others will greatly benefit from the experiences of others.  Others still will effectively seek an answer to the question eternally asked of educational technology: “What’s in it for me?”

A brief word on New Media Literacies

While I can’t quote specific sources on this, I’ve seen the notion of new media literacies poo-poo’ed a fair amount recently, and disparaged as a Web 2.0 catch-phrase that’s thrown about without consideration – and yet the idea behind it is of critical importance.

Higher education in particular maintains strong ties with traditional hierarchical structures, and an emphasis on delivery and retention of information, as opposed to devolved or distributed power to and leadership by the learners. As a result, students arriving at university, and the staff who instruct them, continue to operate in an old paradigm where instructor is accustomed to being the centre of a clearly delineated classroom, acting as a gateway to what is learned, how it is learned, and the information that is covered; while students remain on the periphery, relegated to a role of consumption, memorisation and retention of information. Likewise, the walls of the institution are high, with activities and individuals that that fall outside of the auspices of the university considered irrelevant to what occurs within it.

In a very real sense universities are still walled gardens, with socio-educational roles woven into the fabric of the academy to the extent they’re no longer questioned by its participants. The prospect of breaking this mold, and venturing outside the walled garden into a landscape that is inherently personalised, diverse, unbounded and democratic requires a fundamental awareness initially of what has changed, and in the longer term an ongoing exploration of the possibilities that emerge from a participatory culture that recognises the academy as a part of, not apart from, the world outside.

Blogcamps

All of these factors have led me and others to realise there is a core need for wider activities that seek to foster the the growth of networks, development of new media literacies, and sharing of creative ideas. The importance here is, unlike the implementation of blog platforms, the efforts to cultivate more holistic elements needs to come from the culture itself. It can’t be forced or coerced from the outside, or the top down; it needs to grow from the ground up. Importantly the discussion also needs to extend beyond the traditional walls of the academy to connect local bloggers with the diverse, wider community.

So the thought occurred to me this morning that a blogcamp (a barcamp for bloggers) would be the ideal first step. Quoting liberally from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcamp):

Structure and participatory process

BarCamps are organized and evangelized largely through the web, harnessing what might be called a Web 2.0 communications toolkit. Anyone can initiate a BarCamp, using the BarCamp wiki.

The procedural framework consists of sessions proposed and scheduled each day by attendees, mostly on-site, typically using white boards or paper taped to the wall. This is a form of the open-space approach and has been dubbed, with another play on words, The Open Grid approach.

While loosely structured, there are rules at BarCamp. All attendees are encouraged to present or facilitate a session. Everyone is also asked to share information and experiences of the event, both live and after the fact, via public web channels including (but not limited to) blogging, photo sharing, social bookmarking, wiki-ing, and IRC. This open encouragement to share everything about the event is in deliberate contrast to the “off the record by default” and “no recordings” rules at many private invite-only participant driven conference

In keeping with the notion of what Mat Wall-Smith calls a “flat ontology,” blogcamps would provide a forum where anyone and everyone are encouraged to participate and can play an active role in the evolution of a nurturing, networked culture. This would include students and staff from all educational levels, as well as people from outside the educational sector.

In my view, in order to be effective and nurturing, blogcamps should adhere to a few key principles:

Blogcamp Principles:

• Open participation – all are encouraged to contribute and discuss
• Open content – freedom to mix, rip, burn, and share
• Flat heirarchy – leave your title, position and role at the door
• Community governed – led by group consensus
• Inclusive – recognition of accessibility, equity, diversity, and equal opportunity

Challenges

These are just my preliminary thoughts on all this.  In the longer more will be required to cultivate the participatory culture and flat ontology than barcamps alone.  They are merely what I perceive to be the first step.

However successful a grass roots approach may prove for drawing together a diverse community of bloggers and creative thinkers, ultimately no lasting change can occur within the academy until the affordances and realities of a participatory culture are internalised in some form. This, I suspect will be the greatest challenge, as there will be stakeholders with a vested interested in maintaining existing structures.

To be honest I don’t know the best course of action to take just yet. I’m hoping some discussion will emerge around this idea. Ultimately it may prove that we are moving a mountain one spoonful at a time. The importance is to just keep shovelling.