Background

We’ve been running ThingsCamp events for four years and they’ve always been about getting people together to support each other in exploring the possibilities of connected devices, what they can do for us, how we can have more control over them and, of course, how we can connect with each other and learn together.

As an event largely based around the format of an unconference, ThingsCamp has been heavily dependent on us all gathering in the same place at the same time to share our interest in learning and building things. With a focus on hardware those elements have been even more important: it’s hard to try or demonstrate devices unless we’re all able to be together.

So for us, running another ThingsCamp event while we’re unable to share the same physical space is a huge challenge, but it’s also something that we feel is worth trying. We’d been planning to run another event during the next few months anyway and, given that we don’t know how long the current situation will last we’ve decided to bring that forward and run the next ThingsCamp on April 9th, which also happens to be International IoT Day.

As people rethink their work and lives, many of us have considered what we should keep doing, or stop, what is appropriate, what seems frivolous or what seems necessary. At the same time we’re seeing how different communities are responding to the crisis and it’s also apparent that many people, stuck at home alone or with families, are looking at what they might be able to learn that’s both enjoyable and maybe even useful for their futures.

This combination of factors—people at home looking to find engaging things to do; opportunities to find new uses for technology, and a general need to stay connected with each other—suggests that a ThingsCamp right now wouldn’t be such a bad idea. All we need to do is find a format that will bring together the best parts of the physical events in the context of the new constraints we’re facing.

With this in mind we’re planning to run this next ThingsCamp as a virtual unconference, with some necessary changes to the format. The most important change is that ThingsCamp Online will take place over five days, starting on April 9th and finishing on April 13th. This allows us to make the event more relaxed (times to suit everyone) and get the most from the virtual format.

We’re also going to suggest some possible tracks or themes for this ThingsCamp to provide some food for thought, including:

• Human Connections

• Bringing Outdoors In

• Monitoring Things

• Fun and Games

On top of this there are a whole load of other modifications to make it work online. Let's see how it goes!