MediaCampLondon #2 or the cute tag of #MCL2 is taking place December 13 at the client venue of SAE London. And “hats-off” to them too, opening their doors to a bunch of geeks such as these is incredibly generous.
How come?
Well the thing is the event is FREE, doesn’t cost anything at all, the venue provides free wi-fi all day long, free access to the presentation equipment and generally is highly supportive of providing a platform to aid education in some of these emerging, and non-formalised areas.
The event is an unconference, which basically means that nobody is lectured to or pitched, it’s a little more interactive, and well to be honest many of us academics have run our edu workshop that ways for decades to be honest. However, it is a funky term, a somewhat fashionable phrase which brings in the gEeK sQuAd, and rightly so, no?
I have heard some criticism that it’s not a true “unconference” or shouldn’t use “camp” in the title as it involves some small planning before hand (yes we open the wiki well in advanced), but fact of the matter is that many people enjoy the planning ahead, they know what to expect and can decide if the agenda interests them. You’d have to be an utter stickler to not understand that morphing and re-mixing of ideas is a good thing. We’d never have colour TV if we stuck to the original concept of black & white. Plus I do maintain this somewhat unstructured approach has been prevalent in academia for years and years, probably out doing the original barcampers to be honest.
I digress though and wish to thank SAE for being so generous, it’s not everywhere you can find a host willing to engage in this manner, I also want to say that the most fundamental point of a MediaCamp is education and facilitating positive change, don’t forget that, it’s important.
See you there, London is Calling?