OSLIST Digest - 17 Jun 2007 to 18 Jun 2007 (#2007-159)

[Deborah Hartmann]

Bhavesh wrote
>
> ... I felt the theme wasn't particularly powerful or meaningful. It 
> may be better to have no theme, or to use this time more for sharing 
> and exploring between OS facilitators.
>
I've been thinking a lot on this - the BarCamp community tends also to have weak themes, and yet their events definitely rock.

Are there two kinds of events? (or more?) I mean:
a) to solve a given problem / explore a particular issue
b) simply to build a community

Themes can feel contrived for the second kind of event. However, I strongly believe that the theme is a key to "whoever comes is the right people". So... how is a theme selected/constructed when there seems to be no one common issue?

Ex: RoCoCoCamp had a very weak theme... the organizers had a really hard time coming up with one, and then it wasn't clearly articulated or even consistently used in event invitations. But the event clearly had a big impact, to read the blogs and news that came after.

Anyone else thinking about this? What have you done in similar situations?

Thanks
deb

Deborah Hartmann
Agile Process Coach
deborah DOT hartmann DOT net

"Learn the principle, 
abide by the principle, and 
dissolve the principle." 
-- Bruce Lee

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