Political parties are a bit of an oxymoron. They are not actually that fun.
The newest version of political incubators are camps: NetChange, Changecamp, Govcamp, Agendacamp. Camps, these big messy open meetings emerged from other sectors, like Torcamp and Democamp works with developers, designers, investors and other interested folk. Even the legendary TEDs qualify as part of these innovative models, I think.
Described as “un-conferences,” here, networking and creativity trumps long debates and secondary motions which mires so much political action.
The idea behind Changecamp’s is to “re-imagine government and citizenship in the age of participation” and last fall it drew over 200 people to the Metro Toronto Reference Library.
Changecamp is spreading across the city now.
On Saturday, June 19th,[June 14th Update: Sometime soon] it will be landing at the Centennial College Centre for Creative Communication in the old east end of Toronto.
Michael Cayley, founder of the east-end Riverdale Rapids ning, and Mark Kuznicki, a member of the Centre for Social Innovation are two of the key leads who cooked up this community-level version.
The camp will be a great chance to meet neighbours and to talk about ideas.
And, as Al Gore reminded us, alone we go fast, together we go far. So, let’s have a chat.
For more info and to register: Go to the Riverdale Rapids events page.
Belonging Community 