I Am A Grassroots Skeptic: Reed Esau Part 3
PART III – THE SKEPTICAMP COMEBACK
Previous Post: “Part I: Becoming a Grassroots Skeptic”
Previous Post: “Part II: The Genesis of SkeptiCamp”
Ideas are cheap. Even good ones aren’t that difficult to come by. But making good ideas succeed requires careful execution, and perhaps a bit of luck.
After the experience of the first three SkeptiCamp events, it wasn’t clear to me whether open conferences could be successfully adapted to skepticism. Were we trying to push BarCamp too far?
To try to answer that question, I hunkered down and researched the topic with the goal of understanding the key challenges facing SkeptiCamp. I discovered literature on social collaboration and the “Long Tail,” which proved useful in understanding recent developments in the skeptical community, how its members contribute and how we might grow our numbers.
The product of my efforts was a 17-page essay entitled “Raising Our Game: The Rationale to Embrace SkeptiCamp,” which takes a critical look at the prospects for the success of the open conference model in contemporary skepticism. It speaks to challenges such as quality control, and points to specific benefits that might be gained based upon the experiences of BarCamp.
Much to my relief, the essay proved a success.
The Skepticality podcast picked up on the piece and invited me to what would be my first podcast interview. Interest increased as various members of the larger skeptical community deemed open conferencing worth a try. We saw a total of seven SkeptiCamps in 2009, with Denver and Vancouver repeating (and growing in size), and new events in Atlanta, Phoenix, Columbus, Edinburgh and New York City.
2010 brings a large “Skepchicamp” in Chicago that should not be missed by those living in the region. We expect many of the cities from last year to repeat, and we hope for expansion onto a new continent, most likely Australia.
In spite of last year’s success, SkeptiCamp remains a work in progress. Overcoming the challenge of quality control looks to be within reach, ensuring that events remain substantive, especially as average skeptics become more confident about asking tough questions of speakers. However, there are other challenges that if not overcome will doom the idea and cause it to fade into obscurity.
One such challenge is in our willingness to collaborate. As solitary organizing efforts SkeptiCamps are feasible, but are not likely to be sustainable. Volunteers will remain scarce if the organizing burden falls disproportionately upon the shoulders of a few individuals. Meeting this challenge will ultimately be a joint undertaking. Though I will continue to promote SkeptiCamp, my role in its development is drawing to a close. Working out the remaining bugs will largely happen through the efforts of grassroots skeptics like yourself, hosting events of your own, experimenting with variations and sharing your experiences with others.
Rich, Crystal and I embarked on this speculative venture in open conferencing because we had an itch to scratch. Should the idea prove unsustainable and fade away, that’s unfortunate, but failure is a common price of innovation. But what if SkeptiCamp does gain a toehold and thrive? How far can it reach? Where does it fit into the future ecosystem of the skeptical movement? Those are good questions. Regardless of how it plays out, we grassroots skeptics may be able to learn from BarCamp culture to find useful ideas and worthy goals to feed our future projects. Specifically, the success of BarCamp hints that we can benefit from projects that:
- create “glue” to bind together our other efforts
- change our expectations of what it means to be a skeptic
- provide a diverse range of opportunities to contribute that fit into our lives
- promote learning and the sharing of information among ourselves
- provide value to informal groups of skeptics
- reach remote geographical locations and knock down language barriers
- provide a path for the individual to grow as a skeptic, and to become better informed
Though challenges remain, there is a good chance they will be met and overcome by those who believe in the promise of open conferencing and what it can offer to skeptics. To the extent that these efforts provide value to the skeptical movement, I’m honored to have been the first one to have stumbled across the idea and given it a chance.
And that is why I am a grassroots skeptic.
Category: Skeptical Groups
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[...] UPDATE: At the Grassroots Skeptics site, Part I, Part II and Part III. [...]
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