NewBCamp Makes High-Tech Highly Accessible

JWU student Sara Streeter's motivation for putting NewBCamp together was the intimidation she felt while attending a BarCamp — a gathering where people share and learn in an open environment — and PodCamp in Boston. “I was a little out of place because I was new to technology,” she admits. “It’s not really an experience level but an attitude that people should have going in, that you could learn and be encouraged rather than feel that ‘if I ask questions I’ll feel silly.’” With Providence named a high-tech hub in a recent Boston Globe article, there are a lot of knowledgeable geeks in the city. Judging by the success of NewBCamp — 15 of the 75 participants gave presentations — many are willing to share their knowledge with “newbies” for free.

Presentations included Web marketing, podcasting and Flash blogging and Web development. Streeter, who has a BA in classical languages and is working on a second in Computer Science/Software Engineering, did a presentation on speed mentoring — five rounds of mentoring for six minutes each. Ideally, she wants to foster an environment where people are comfortable asking any question. “I’ve been privileged to have mentors over the past year or so, and I always like to give back to people, so it was a little introduction to allow other people to have similar experiences with mentors.”