{"id":347,"date":"2007-05-28T06:44:08","date_gmt":"2007-05-28T06:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/28\/femcamp-a-mortadella-party\/"},"modified":"2008-09-01T19:57:28","modified_gmt":"2008-09-01T19:57:28","slug":"femcamp-a-mortadella-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/28\/femcamp-a-mortadella-party\/","title":{"rendered":"FemCamp: A Mortadella Party?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday I attended the (first) FemCamp<\/a> (a BarCamp) in Italy, at Bologna. The location was prime, inside a tech lab for women, TechneDonne<\/a>. <\/p>\n

I’ve heard some say that the easiest way to describe a BarCamp (in Italy) is chaos<\/strong>. They are totally correct. But I don’t see how having low expectations of anything will help it improve. <\/p>\n

Some people are calling it a big success. I can’t say that I completely agree<\/strong>, but I have the eyes of an outsider and a newbie, so I don’t really know what it should be measured against, other than my own experience living and working in Silicon Valley. To speak negatively feels a bit like crashing a party and then complaining about it, but I thought about this quite a lot and I was quite depressed about what I felt ended up being not a waste of time, but a huge lost opportunity. My disappointment was really about frustration<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Frustration<\/strong> because I realize there are quite a few women out there that are doing interesting things, and I don’t even know who they are. The organizers of the event, and especially those from the Technedonne lab, appeared organized and relaxed. But I again had to practice guerilla-like behavior and approach those that I wanted to meet. I was only once approached by someone I didn’t know. I didn’t really see any curiosity in any of the faces I passed, and this is really a pity.<\/p>\n

One thing I noticed is lots and lots of men<\/strong>. I would say from between 30-50% men. Which is a lot for a “women’s” event. Take a look at the FemCamp Flickr pool<\/a> and tell me what you think the percentage was! Michelle aptly described the FemCamp as in danger of becoming a ” mortadella fest<\/a><\/strong>,” a Bologna version of a sausage fest.<\/a> In the States, men have gotten over the curious stage and those that arrive at women’s events are there to contribute, to dialogue and build towards the scope of the event. It was more like curious spectators in a zoo, looking at all the animals. Maybe, if they were lucky, we’d take off our clothes and have a slumber party or pillow fight.<\/p>\n

So maybe there’s a need to ask: Why have a women’s event in the first place?<\/strong> I think it is necessary – to build and strengthen a community, and perhaps discuss and start working on problems that concern women (only). To encourage mentoring, and participation! Where were the signup sheets for follow-up, for participation? I several times expressed my interest in doing something. In Silicon Valley, that would be enough to make you Vice President of some organization.<\/p>\n

A few other Italian bloggers remarked that they never even entered into a session<\/strong> at FemCamp, and remained out in the courtyard or halls talking. In two of the three sessions I attended, men asked questions that in my opinion were not constructive to the topic or even to the theme of the day, but were more to show, “Yep, I’m a man, I’m here and I’m going to exercise my right to ask a question.” <\/p>\n

For example: During the style.it (Glamour, Vogue, Vanity Fair) presentation about their online community, the first question, from a man was, “What about the men? Where are they?<\/strong>” A pretty useless question for the limited time we had. Maybe a better question to ask would have been, “As you continue to spotlight your community’s blog posts as content of the website along with bona fide journalists’ articles, will you also compensate them? Are you looking for new talent among their ranks, and what are you doing to keep them with style.it?”<\/p>\n

Don’t you think?<\/p>\n

In fact, the beauty of BarCamp is that everyone can have a voice. Especially if you get there early and get your post-it note on the board. But there are a few things that aren’t working. Here are my suggestions for a better BarCamp – and I mean suggestions because I want it to be a viable way to congregate and work together.<\/p>\n