Announcing the go-ahead of Comics Barcamp at 2d I felt we could have an event to build a solid representative Irish publishing community built on professionalism, knowledge sharing and stripped of accusations of vanity. A platform of organisation for groups and beneficial to individuals. Where everyone is a guest and pitches in.

It failed. I secured a sponsor for technical equipment and refreshments, set up websites, did a lot of promotion. A few folk (eg. Paddy Brown, David Lloyd) have mentioned it, but few are saying anything new or participating.

Friday afternoon 4:30 – 6pm
Saturday 2:30 – 4:30pm, 6:30pm – 8pm

I’ll be in the ICN chat room at these times. By Monday, we should be able to ascertain whether Barcamp is on. At present the most pressing role holes are securing funding for the venue and a logo. Please spread the word. It would be a shame if the first venture of this type failed. A nuisance if my head is on the block.

On the small Google Groups site last night, Paddy Brown wrote,

“I don’t see a great upswelling of communal enthusiasm for it, and I’d have to include myself in that. I can see the merits of the barcamp format, but it seems to me that a successful barcamp would have to have a more specific objective, and an already existing group of people who shared that objective. Without a specific objective it’s just a talking shop. Unless there’s a major upsurge in participation, I think we probably need to step back and rethink. What is it for, what can it do that people want or need but existing events aren’t doing?”

I responded,
“All the evidence points to your conclusions. You know through your experiences with the Wiki and Black Panel, that a lot of people are happy to default to the lone voice setting. A good meta-objective would be the publication of a comic representative of Irish creators run at a profit and available as accessibly as possible.”

The thread continues to describe how this aim might break down to ten or more sessions.