One of the things I’ve always loved about social media was.. lol, I guess that most of the events are free. I say this from the perspective of a starving artists who’s often been in a position to have to save up for a $50 book.. who demands crazy processing power from computers, but somehow was on the same Power Mac for… I want to say 8 years?

I’ve generally been forced to perceive things from the bottom of the social economic stratas… but in the social media space.. it really doesn’t matter all that much…

I think a part of the dream, that is somehow at the spiritual core of social media.. has something to do with inclusiveness, democracy, equality.. that sorta thing. We dream of more people joining our party.. I mean isn’t it great that those laps tops are going off to the developing world?

Globalization has this quality to it.. the petter parts of it that is, of being like a vision for told by Marx.. I often think of it like.. a dream that the amount that merit matters relative to power relationships.. seems like social media is in part about changing that relationship. Though maybe there’s some nievety to this thought, I don’t know.

I suppose I say this as someone who’s.. I guess a consumer of radical progressive political thought… the deeper philosophical critiques more then the politics per say.. and when you look at social media from the stand point of those intellectual traditions, and indeed a few others, its hard not to go “holy shit!”

I mean, for those of us who try to wrestle with the shadow side of the American experiment.. what you find your self feeling most proud of are movements with a lot of collective weight behind them.. when the people spoke, and spoke loudly.. and what should social media be, in it’s most ideal form, then the people speaking?

In any event, the charging for $50.. though it might not seem like a lot of money, that sorta depends on how much money you got.. and so it seems at least like a kind of symbolic thing.. that.. makes me at least long for a solution that.. might be different.

I appreciate the reasons for going this way.. and I see the virtues to it… and at the very least I’m interested in how it might change the experience.. I mean maybe there will be ways in which it will be better.. we’ll certainly see.

Another thing I’d add is.. with an $50 admission price.. its harder to drag people to it. “No man, you really really really gotta check this out!”

In any event.. Podcamp is like my absolute favorite event of the year. It’s one of these things I just can’t wait for, you know? So my concern is really out of a deep kind of love of the event and the space, and what it means to me, and it is not in anyway about being critical of you organizer folks… I think what you’re doing, and have done, is awesome.

Likewise, “market forces” also have a role to play; how many people will be put off and away by a fee?

On a bigger scale, can we start returning to financial transactions that are imbued with value not usury, and reclaim that part of the conversation for ourselves as well? I am interested in that.

For our event in Boston, and not as a statement to all PodCamps the world around, we’re looking towards something just a little smaller, but not because more is bad. We just have a preference.

And your other points were also valid, but I wanted to answer the one that directly impacts NYC2, which should be a hoot.

That said, I don’t think Podcamps should charge. I think any amount of money could be seen as a barrier to entry and I think the event being free makes it unique.

I also think we should brown bag it to Podcamps from now on. If you come, bring your own chow or we’ll tell you where you can eat nearby. That’s what we’re doing with PodCampNYC2 this year as getting meals for everyone would cost at least $10K and we also face the same risk of lots of no-shows and wasted food. We have about 950 people signed up to participate at this point. If 50 or 1,000 people show up, our costs remain the same and our only waste will be excess schedules on paper we can recycle.

I think a big issue here is about getting sponsors for a Podcamp. When organizers find local sponsors to get involved they’re moving the Podcamp model forward by reaching to new folks outside of the existing community. Knowing that Chris and Chris are not eschewing sponsors, if 500 paying folks show up, that’s $25K. There’s a possibility that participants alone could eventually cover the budget, and then sponsor money wouldn’t be needed. I think not having sponsors demonstrate their commitment/interest in the podcamp community by feeling that they’re truly making the event happen would be a loss. If they supplement other fees, their value may not be considered as high.

Finally, I’d like to request something-can we agree that if the size of an event doesn’t make it a Podcamp, can we also agree it can be large (500 or over) and still have value? We had great feedback from last year’s PodCampNYC which had about 1,000 people show up. If size truly doesn’t matter, please let’s not prejudge an event that has numbers of any size one way or the other.

John C. Havens
Lead Organizer,
PodCampNYC