PodCamp Jr.
Random joking on Twitter this morning from @douglasderda has caused me to come up with a little idea.
His tweet:
Teaspoon wont be ready to present for at least 2 more years My idea.
Why couldn’t we make a PodCamp Jr. for ages 10-15?
Let’s say we get several people to run 3 or 4 sessions in 4 hour blocks of time (AM and PM) that the kids could rotate through each hour.
Like:
*Internet safety
*How not to be(post stuff) like an idiot on the internet? (Ok that’s not THE title, but you get my drift)
*Where to find good sites to play and connect with other kids on the internet? (We could beg @iTwixie to help out on that one)
*Cyber Bullying
*Some kind of group project for developing something web related.
And possibly run PodTots for the 5-10 age group?
Same idea as above but sessions scaled to that age group.
While the parents are in the “Old Kid” sessions, their offspring sits in on these.
We could get some great feedback and insight from the kids on how they are using the internet and what sites they use most often and why.
(Obviously no live streaming or videos since it’s kids.)
I don’t know. Just an idea.
Simply Put- Random tweets make you think sometimes.
I think this could be a really great idea and offer a lot to more people who can’t currently attend PodCamp. If any of you are serious about spearheading something like this here are the general concerns we’ve had in the past. Which lead us to decide not to offer any type of child care.
Insurance. You usually need a 500k – 1 million in coverage for child care. This could be covered by a rider with the event or a sponsor. Also there might be some facility requirements that we would need to find.
There is always the casual drop your kids off in this room approach, but I’d like to have some of the above details in order personally. Now I’m not throwing this up as a road block but a heads up about what the organizers have discussed in the past. If we could do a JR thing to show kids how to be creative with their computers and stay safe online I’d be ecstatic.
I definitely know about the what if’s. They’ve been in my head since yesterday when that idea got snagged somewhere in the reserve neurons that were firing while I worked.
But I think I know a few people to talk to about the potential road blocks and have some ideas to cut down on the things that would make us nervous. I’d/We’d have about 6 months to figure all that out and another 3 to get it structured and organized, leaving room for 3 months to smooth it all out and work out pop up details. Yes, I am saying I would take this on(but hopefully not alone)- if those that have been organizing these for the last 6 years and anyone else that wants to offer input feels like we should give it a serious go. It sounds as if there is a good base of support for the idea, so let’s get through 6 and chat it up at some point very soon. Sound good?
I’M IN!
Awesome! Remember that next year when I put out the call to help.
I will, I will. I absolutely want to be involved in this. For selfish reasons (less money for me to spend on a babysitter) and for unselfish reasons (too many to list!). And if/when I think of ideas, I will jot them down for future reference as well.
Great! I created a google doc for us to keep ideas together, so we can all check in with information and have a central place. You won’t need to log in, anyone with the link will be able to comment.(I’ll DM it to you) If that doesn’t work, we can come up with something else. Anyone that wants that link and wants to help out on this, just let me know.
Make sure you talk to Missy about being a part of the organizing team next year. Things don’t happen without people to drive them, and the organizers already have too much on their plate year after year.
Absolutely! I kinda realized as I was writing the post that I was taking on responsibility for making this work if we wanted to do it.
iTwixie.com would be a great resource for PodCamp Jr. There’s a great community of kid-tech companies in Pittsburgh to make PodCamp Jr. a huge hit… FUN!
The more I think about it the more excited I get. You are so right- there are some really great resources here in Pittsburgh to invite to make PodCamp Jr. very successful. Thanks for taking the time to comment- appreciated!