How to run an ArchCamp

Running an ArchCamp

This short guide contains some basic tips and suggestions for running your own ArchCamp, based on the experience so far of Antiquist. As you'll see it's by no means a prescriptive list. There is no right or wrong way to do this!

What is an ArchCamp anyways?

The first 'ArchCamp' was held in 2006 and it followed the idea of an 'unconference', or 'BarCamp'- the notion that if you get a group of like minded people together and let them self-organise, good things will start to happen. The very essence of this informal approach means we can't really tell you exactly what an ArchCamp is. The basic idea is to arrange a time and a place where a group of interested people can get together to discuss archaeology and computing. They can be people from one camp or the other, or both!

The participants themselves choose the format of the day/session/meeting. There is no agenda, no-one has to submit an abstract. People are asked to come up with something to talk about, perhaps a script or a tool they have developed that they want to share, a neat bit of code they've run across or a problem they want to brainstorm. People talk, share ideas, share solutions and hopefully we create some cool stuff along the way.

We've done all sorts of things at ArchCamps so far, (though my favourite moment is still surveying with a total station a bunch of living archaeo-geeks bundled together over a chair to simulate co-mingled human remains for a software demonstration).

'''Sounds good! How do I make one happen?'''

Where/When: These are your two most important factors. You might have an idea of the core of people that you want to attend: it is a good idea to consult with them over a time and place that works for as many people as possible. We've often held ArchCamps as sessions at some of the larger digital heritage conferences, in particular the main CAA international meetings, and the UK chapter meetings: Antiquistas are normally in attendance and we have a good chance of getting non-members to come along and (hopefully) spread the word!

Conference organisers are generally good about finding us a venue and we traditionally spill over into a bar for beers and burgers once the official session is over. The first ArchCamp happened at pubs in London; the only absolute essential is that everyone can hear each other!

Venues: As well as being able to see and speak to each other ( a 'round table' layout really helps), the ability to have a laptop running with an internet connection makes things lots lots easier. Unless the gathering is very small and you can all see the laptop screen, a data projector is also very handy)- given the nature of what we do, people will want to demo software, show you useful websites and suchlike.

How: There are two stages to making an ArchCamp happen: Planning and On the day

Planning: Once you have your when and where sorted out, you need to publicise the event. If you are running it at a conference, see if you can get the session and a short explanation of your aims into the programme. Use mailing lists and then recruit like mad at the conference - if you run into someone with something cool, invite them along to talk about it! It's pretty easy to run/organise one of these; they tend to develop a momentum of their own if enough people know about it but it is a good idea to have another person help out in case you are busy giving a paper when the conference organisers need to tell someone about a room change, for instance.

Make sure you or someone else can bring a laptop along.

It might be a good idea to have some sort of sign up somewhere: we tend to use the Antiquist wiki. Whilst these events are, by nature, free of any agenda or submissions process, we've in the past asked people to suggest topics or tell us what they want to demo or discuss ahead of the event. It is important to stress to people though, that it's an informal event and they don't have to bring anything per se!

On the day: Someone (or someones) will need to Chair the session and someone will need to take notes; in the past the notes have both been done on paper and updated live on the wiki as the session went along. There is normally a wealth of information, tips, websites, tools and suggestions to keep track of. There is no need for a formal minutes process - in the past we've found it helpful to update the wiki as it went along and then asked the various contributors to go in and 'flesh out' their own sections at a later date.

It's also really useful to take a list of participants to go onto the wiki as well, with contact details of at all possible, so people can get back in touch if they want to collaborate.

There is NO OFFICIAL FORMAT for these events, no magic formula to make it run properly. This can be a bit daunting, so the following suggestions are things we have tried successfully in the past in a sensible order:


 * 1) Intro: a little bit of history about Antiquist and ArchCamps for n00bs
 * 2) Introduce ourselves ('Archaeologists Anonymous'): get each person to say who they are and what they would be willing to talk about
 * 3) Ask people to suggest things (that have been mentioned) that they would like to hear about and put together a proposed agenda
 * 4) Run through the agenda
 * 5) If there's still time open up the floor for people to talk about cool stuff (esp. websites) they have come across. This is a great way to find out about interesting things done by people elsewhere
 * 6) Take a survivor's photo!

There is no time limit (per se), but it's important for the Chair to bring things back on line if discussion gets bogged down or breaks off: go with the flow, but remember to try to give everyone a chance to contribute to the discussion and try to get through the agenda once it has been agreed : you may have to do some time management.

Afterwards: Write it up! Share what you discovered with even more people; Write a wiki page on the Antiquist wiki site (or tidy it up a little if you wrote it at the time) and then invite those who presented something to flesh out their section. Finally, publicise the webpage on Antiquist (and anywhere else). Again, we usually use the wiki for this as it allows everyone to go in and add their own perspective. It's also a really useful resource to point to when you want to pass on the interesting things you heard to other colleagues.

'''Most importantly of all : have fun! '''