Vancouver’s first transit unconference, as has already been noted by several others in the blogosphere, was a huge success in my opinion. Enormous props go out to Karen Fung, head organizer of the event, and all the other volunteers, supporters, and participants who helped make it a reality.

As I noted on The Early Edition, TransitCamp Vancouver had two big goals, at least in my mind: the first step to creating a transit community and culture in Vancouver, and attempting to find creative solutions to the regular citizen to improve the transit system. It succeeded perfectly in both aspects. While some of your usual suspects showed up, I found that the sessions proved to be very positive, generally speaking. And, when it was first coming together, I was worried there’d be too many from the web community there, and not enough regular joes, but the split ended up being about 50%. In that respect, TransitCamp did bring together people from various backgrounds and areas to begin forming this sense of ownership and community around transit - at least in a far more positive and inclusive way than has ever been seen before.

I think the BarCamp unconference model contributed hugely to the good outcome. One woman I spoke to didn’t expect that she’d be the one at the front of the room, sharing her ideas for transit, but actually felt very empowered doing so. That aspect, at the beginning of the day, of having participants propose ideas for TransitCamp, really set the tone for the rest of the event.

In addition, leadership did come for everywhere, with all participants speaking out and sharing when necessary, but no one really controlling the discussions. Many times, those who were to “lead” a session were just the launch pad for the participants to really get going. Furthermore, I noticed everyone using the two-feet rule, as people did come and go as the conversations changed over time.

In many ways, I think TransitCamp Vancouver succeeded greater than it’s predecessor, TransitCamp Toronto. Whereas the TO version was very limited to the web/transit geeks, and focused specifically on one issue (the TTC’s website), Vancouver’s was the complete opposite, and I believe turned out much better for it. These were issues during the pre-organization; about politics, and participants, and rallying points, but it worked out fine in the end.

The worry of not having a specific end result for TransitCamp was felt early on, but as the day progressed, I think it became evident that it was up to the participants to get together as a community, and spearhead some of the projects that were brainstormed that day.

For example, in the Unwiring Transit session, everyone came to the conclusion that wifi on transit, at least at the beginning, should be a partnership between private business and TransLink, spearheaded by a community group like FreeTheNet.

At times, there were issues that relied on TransLink. Like, in the Transit Software session, a major sticking point for developers to create products is for TransLink to allow their schedule data, and the like, available openly to the public. This didn’t stop the group, though, from finding those creative solutions. While we continued to talk about high tech solutions to things like bus schedules, the discussion shifted to low tech solutions, like portable, personalized bus cards, which could be implemented without TransLink participating.

Overall, there were many great ideas, and many great discussions, held throughout the day. TransitCamp was a terrific initiator for positive conversations about transit in our region, and now the torch shifts to this young community to continue these new relationships, and developing these new products, to improve the system together. It all hinges on us now. Let’s see what we can do.

Here’s looking forward to TransitCamp Vancouver 2.0

Pictures can be found here, while detailed notes of the sessions are all on the wiki.

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