[Robotgroup] Dorkbot last night

Fri Apr 11 21:36:28 PDT 2008

thought i'd chime in!  forewarning that this is a REALLY LONG  
rambling, foamy-mouthed soapbox email... something else geeks aren't  
good at is self-editing -- skip to #5 for the part requiring dramatic  
music or just  hit delete unless you want to get sucked into this  
misery.

First: thank you Andre for the compliment about the gongs!  Besides  
Eric Archer and myself, also working on them were Darcy Neal, Justin  
Telepak and the Robot Group's very own Rick Abbott.

I want to also thank everyone for coming out last night (or any other  
dorkbot for that matter) and being so generous with your feedback.   
allow me to respond to some things and see if you all have anything  
else to suggest (since, let's face it, the RG is a major constituency  
of dorkbot)

1. venue change

I am totally sold on switching venues around more.  Last night felt  
very fresh and invigorating to be doing a dorkbot in a different  
location.  I also felt that the arrangement (i.e. chairs, lecture- 
style) encouraged a different tone than the far more casual "mosquito  
bites and wandering around -- paying attention if you want to" style  
at Cafe Mundi.

downtown parking will always be an issue, but I felt that was  
mitigated by the validation available for 2 parking garages no more  
than a block or 2 away from the museum.   (we could have placed the  
validation sticker / stamp at the door by the tshirts and been more  
proactive about getting people to take care of their tickets... turns  
out that if you parked under city hall before a certain mystery time  
and left after a certain mystery time, then they waved you through...  
no jedi mind tricks needed.

we'll be exploring various venues for upcoming dorkbots... art  
galleries, other cafes, etc etc.  any suggestions?

2. Presentations and level of technical detail

Our primary goal for dorkbot 2008 is to raise the level of discourse  
at these events (and on the mailing lists, website, etc).  I think  
last night showed we're definitely moving in that direction.  All the  
presenters were briefed on what we were expecting:  we used words  
like "intellectual salon" and "academic presentation."

Now I don't think I'd have the hubris to suggest we'll ever get  
University Conference style paper presentations (and in fact, I'd  
think that would be most undesirable and Not Fun), but I do stand  
behind how the presentations went last night.

most of the speakers did a fantastic job of raising the bar... phil  
macnutt (the modular synth guy) and craig newswanger (midi drums),  
are two really good examples of what I hope to see more of this year  
-- clearly well prepared, offering more methodology and background;  
roughly half their time spent talking and the other half presenting.

...and as much as we deride powerpoint slides... man, those were  
really well done and added quite a bit to their talks (we told them:  
bring slides, but limit text and include more pictures)

I wish we had put craig on earlier in the evening so he didn't feel  
so rushed.. he had a LOT of technical beef in his presentation  
(schematics, chip numbers, etc. etc)  that he didn't get to discuss.

brings us to....

3. number of presenters and time

we had probably 2-3 more presenters than was comfortable last night.   
mea culpa.  the museum slotted us for 2 hours (at mundi we tended to  
go for 3-3.5 hours).

When we search for speakers every month we usually email and call 6-7  
presenters and expect that only 2-4 will respond with a "yes."  this  
time around we were scrambling (we learned about the news cameras and  
music focus just a couple weeks ago) and emailed a whole bunch of  
people at once and, lo and behold, they all said yes.

It's a good problem to have... but we're aware trying to cram to much  
in a night is difficult.

4. finding speakers

HELP:  this is actually a place where you all can help out.  Probably  
the single most difficult and stressful thing about dorkbot is  
finding solid presenters every month.  We tend to fall back on the  
ol' reliable robot group, geek group, john funk, marvin,  
thingamagoops, etc. etc. etc.  We know that they are all great  
presenters, hold the audiences attention, and will show up ready to  
go and be reasonably self-sufficient.  That's awesome.

However, I'm starting to feel like we need to expand the reach a  
little bit more to find new people and communities to bring to the  
table or else we risk burning everyone out and just getting stale.

I think we'll probably do a marketing push in the next week or so  
with a "Call for Presenters."

if you know anyone doing anything weird or interesting with  
electricity, it would be great if you could point them our way.  a  
virtual introduction between that person and  
dorkbotaustin at dorkbot.org is perfect.  we can take the sales pitch  
from there!

5. logistics and the details

psst.  the dorkbot-austin overlords are NOT professional events  
planners.  we're going to miss stuff.

we looked at hiring an events planner for dorkbot-sxsw, but realized  
that, oh yeah, we actually have an operating budget of ZERO and we  
couldn't afford their rates.

the reality is that dorkbots are always going to be rough around the  
edges.  I would even go so far as to say that dorkbots are that way  
BY DESIGN.

Here's the thing:  dorkbot is and always will be a diy event.  if you  
like dorkbot and care enough, then pitch in.   PA missing and hard to  
hear a speaker?  go grab one from the front and bring it back...  
you'd be applauded.

nobody "owns" dorkbot.  nobody really "runs" it.  dorkbot doesn't  
even exist except in the moments when that weird collection of 100+  
people show up and start talking.

I think of myself and the people who work on dorkbots (presenters  
included) as "instigators" and nothing more.

Douglas Repetto (dorkbot-nyc and dorkbot founder) often talks about  
dorkbot as a distributed, bottom-up community... a self-organizing  
entity.  every dorkbot in all 50+ cities is run independently with a  
minimal amount of infrastructure (ex. the mailing list managers and  
space for a website, if we want it).  you will probably never see a  
dorkbot going for a 501c3 or electing officers or collecting dues or  
anything like that.

not that there's anything WRONG with operating with a formal  
structure... it's just not mission critical for dorkbot.

last night was a really tangible example.  very often at dorkbots, we  
(myself, nick, rodney, chase, rich, etc) find ourselves there a few  
hours early trying desperately to move tables and get stuff hooked  
together, etc. etc

I must say I was shocked and quite moved when I walked into the  
museum at around 530 yesterday and find all the chairs all ready to  
go and several presenters already setting up and plugging in without  
any of the "organizers" there yet.

it's an evolutionary step in any group when people volunteer and  
pitch in - specifically for clean up (again -- last night, audience  
members helped stack chairs w/ no prompting)

pretty remarkable these things come together at all, now that I think  
about it.

6. theme

So, yes.  the theme of the night was overtly "music."  Several things  
drove us in that direction: the CBS news crew was there working on a  
piece about "new musical interfaces."

we had been talking to the Childrens Museum for a while about doing a  
dorkbot there, and since they have that sound/music series right now,  
it was a nice coincidence.

I definitely felt like a theme was useful as a focusing tool for our  
hunting for presenters.  I do agree, however, that one of the fun  
things about going to a dorkbot is not knowing what to expect!

So I doubt we'll do more than one or two themed dorkbots a year.

(ideas that random people brought up: LASER night, strange things  
with food and electricity, DIY video games and interfaces)

----

okay.  that's it for now

david

On Apr 11, 2008, at 3:37 PM, Andre Lamothe wrote:
> I attended dorkbot last night, saw a few members there. If I was  
> more quite
> than usual, forgive me, I had food poisioning and just trying not  
> to pass
> out, but still wanted to attend. It felt like a raptor was in my  
> stomach.
> Anyway, my thoughts are that I wish there was more electornics  
> things there
> and a little more technical discussion. I feel its really focused  
> on music
> which is fine, but that to me would mean a musical gathering, not  
> general
> electronics, robotics, computers, games, etc.
>
> What do you guys think?
>
> Also, the electromagnetc gong display was VERY impressive, you guys  
> (forgot
> your names) did a very good job! Top notch work.
>
> Now that I see the kind of crude displays they have there, I think  
> that
> there is a LOT of opportunity for roboteers and developers to make  
> more more
> engaging displays. The gong display was by far the coolest in the  
> place.
>
> Andre'
>
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