I was talking with Kev last night about DevHouse and BarCamp Madison 08 FAIL, and thinking about the idea of hosting Barcamp Madison in Milwaukee at Bucketworks. Kev brought up the idea of doing it just like the original-- two weeks to plan and execute. We already have DevHouse coming up, so why not just combine the two? Combinations could be interesting, but there are some interesting differences between Barcamp and DevHouse that need some integrating.

Barcamp has an Agenda Grid (what I call the thing with rooms on one side and times on the other, where people post their sessions.) Anyone can post any session or presentation to this grid, which is usually displayed prominently on a wall:

Note that, at Barcamp, session times are long--usually an hour, and an entire room is given over to each session. Sessions might be attended by anywhere from 5-30 people, and the Law of Two Feet applies so people can move around and learn different things as and when they wish. These are just a couple of the things we all love about Barcamp.

Barcamp is a social networking and learning event. DevHouse is a productive-party-with-laptops. I think DevHouse could benefit from some of the structures we use at Barcamp.

At ­DevHouse, we want more smaller groups with more frequent law-of-two-feet exercising, and the 'session lengths' becomes a function of the challenge someone is facing. So instead of having rooms, at DevHouse we have tables--probably seating 4-8 people, and have more tables in a closer packed area.

To help people at DevHouse connect, I propose we create the Challenge Grid. Just like the Agenda Grid at Barcamp, the Challenge Grid is opt-in, defines places, but not, in this case, times. We don't need times for DevHouse because each session is really micro and focused around a particular problem:

Like Barcamp, anyone can post a newchallenge to the grid, which tells everyone else both what they're doing and enables anyone else to join in and help. The only condition of using the grid is that you have to be at that table until you get your solution or give up. Then you're free to leave and contribute to someone else's challenge.

You'd add a challenge to the grid the moment you get to the point in a problem where you can't proceed without help.

If the grid were displayed or projected (probably projected, so we can update it from our seats) anywhere, then anyone can easily plug into the DevHouse environment and join a conversation, as well as publicly shout out their challenges to get help moving through them.

Version 2 would involve tracking who was at each table and who helped with each challenge, so we can allocate scores for the night and turn it into a bit of a game. Who was the most table-hoppy? Who helped in the most challenges? Who had the most? What table solved the most? Etc.

These rankings could be fun co-opetition.

What do you think? How else could we help people at DevHouse find and connect with each other? And what if our Barcamps had DevHouses embedded in them--the main Barcamp sessions as usual, and maybe one of the 'sessions' is a DevHouse with this micro-style Challenge Grid as a part of it?

And why not have Barcamp Madison in Milwaukee?