Barcamp, continued

Another reaction to the Barcamp-style event I attended last week...

Ten years ago, I founded a concert series called SALON: live classical and jazz music concerts in people's living rooms. It occurs to me that the Barcamp forum has a lot in common with the structure I have developed over the years.

- User generated. The audience all chip in donations for the musicians, so no one person is stuck with the bill. The audience and host bring food, so no one person is stuck cooking.
- Grassroots. The events occur in private spaces, not rented venues.
- Egalitarian. No cover fee is charged, and no one makes money off of the event (except the musicians; the point of the event is to support them).
- Organizer driven, not organization driven. The events happen whenever a few people and I decide to make one happen. If there's demand, the events happen more often. If I get busy with other things, there are fewer events. With no bank account, no state filing fees, no articles of incorporation, no advisory board meetings... there's no overhead to support. The SALON events just happen when they happen.
- Community oriented. Participants come into the community and keep coming because of a shared interest -- in the case of SALON, it's music. This common ground is strong enough to keep the community together & drives continued demand for the events.

The SALON format also has much to experiment with from the barcamp world:

- User generated content streaming to the internet during performance
- Audience participation
- Use of social media to promote / manage events
- Worldwide community of users participating, not just one geofocused community

I'll continue to think about this while finishing up the re-release of the SALON home concerts website. Stay tuned.