Month: May 2015

I was sharing my Geek Camp preparation anxieties with a friend this morning. “It sounds interesting,” he said, “but I couldn’t do it because I’m not geeky enough.” The first year we did Geek Camp, it’s possible I knew more than the kids participating, but every year since then I’ve watched them gain on me in technical and cultural know-how. In the last two years, a few of them have actually lapped me.  Now, I come to geek camp ready to learn. The adults at Geek Camp are here to facilitate exploration and collaboration. Some of us have extra tech skills we will happily share, but there is no “geeky enough” bar set for participants or helpers. We do have some guidelines for exploration, although we try to keep them as minimal as possible. This is summer, and mostly, we just want to have fun. Over the years we have honed the guidelines into the following:   Try new things. This is a chance to try things you may not even know you like doing. If you usually direct, try following someone else’s lead. If you’ve never tried a sewing machine, now’s your chance to give it a whirl. Being a geek involves taking risks and making mistakes. Respect your surroundings and community. We are a lot of people in a tiny space. We also have a cat we...