SI Camp, rebellion, and Web0.0

Had a fantastic weekend at www.sicamp.org - basic concept was to throw a bunch of geeks and aspiring social entrepreneurs in a building for a weekend to see how far you can get in 48 hours toward using the web to create social value. 6 projects were selected aheadbof time, and they all looked interesting but you know how it is, when you have your own idea waking you up nights, you don't really want to focus on anything else.

So at lunch on saturday i had noticed that several geeks and other people were still floating and hadn't chosen a project to work on yet. I asked the organizer permission to be cheeky, stuck my hand up, and announced i was creating a 7th project and would love some help. I was approached by Angel, a spanish guy with mad Druple skills (i pretended i had heard of Druple before in my life) and we found some space to get working.

The best thing about working with Angel was that he wasn't just a coder; by talking me through the ideas he actually brought out new questions and ideas. Knowing no other way to 'build' a website i set to work with flip chart paper, scissors, markers, and blue tack, building giant mock ups that had components i could rearrnge and change. Once the front pageof the app was 'built', web 0.0 style, angel got me to walk through all the inputs and pages that a user would interact with to get to that stage. Then he started coding while i moved on to mocking up my paper app in photoshop to get some look and feel. Soon a stream of smart people started trickling through to see what the camp was calling the 'rebel' team. We got amazing support and critical thinking from a digital lawyer, marketing and user experience experts, html designers, and more. We worked past 10 pm saturday, and came back bright and early sunday, amidst a london snowstorm with flakes the size of half dollar coins - on my way in i saw a south east asian family taking pictures in the snow in what looked like their first time experiencing a real snowstom. We had until 2pm to ramp up to the pitching to judges.

At 2, we were told we were welcome to pitch but ineligible for the 2k prize money, due to our 'rebel' status. This elicited sympathetic groans from our competitors, which i thought was a great proof of the collaborative spirit of the weekend. Nonetheless the 5 minute pitch, in which i told a user story and walked through the mockups and various apps we had in mind, was great practice and we received really positive feedback from judges and competitors alike about the quality of the idea and presentation.

i've come away frm the weekend simultaneously exhausted and energized, with a stack of business cards and a much clearer picture of what i want to do, and how difficult but ultimately rewarding it will be to accomplish. Long story short, the event was an inspired idea executed well, and i feel ready to get a move on. Big thanks to sponsors NESTA, young foundation, and office of the 3rd sector, and the hard working team that ran the show.