What is WoolfCamp?

Renee asked: What is WoolfCamp? Good question. With a nod to Bill Humphries and his Three Thoughts on WoolfCamp, I give you my answer in the form of a three part Q & A.

What is WoolfCamp?
WoolfCamp is a gathering of like-minded individuals; a weekend think tank filled with side notes of wine, women, and song; an opportunity to mingle with others who think blogging is (pick one or all): interesting; art for the masses; powerful; a hot topic of discussion; a revolutionary web-based social networking tool; a tool of the patriarchy that needs to be reclaimed, that thing that changed their lives, pretty in pink.

WoolfCamp came together as the brain child of two blogging divas, Grace Davis and Liz Henry, both of whom I certainly would be stalking with silly little love emails if I wasn't happily married. Grace describes WoolfCamp as a "do-it-yourself literary/writing/blogging retreat" based "on the barcamp and brainjam innovative models of conferencing- cooperative, participatory, zero bureaucracy, zero power tripping, total immersion, big fun."

Check out the WoolfCamp Wiki: http://www.socialtext.net/woolfcamp/index.cgi

Read more bits on the WoolfCamp blog: http://woolfcamp2006.blogspot.com/

Why should you care?
Oh, that's an easy one and can best be answered by the study of symmetry, broken-symmetry and the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics.

Done studying?

WoolfCamp is all that, but better. Why I think others might care about a group of Bay Area bloggers who gathered in Santa Cruz under the eucalyptus trees is the concept of energy. Here's the ball, now run! If Flat Stanley can travel the world, WoolfCamp can, too.

Why does Mary Tsao care?
Sometimes after a long day of bellying up to the juice bar and being an on-demand short order cook, I would give anything (especially my kids) for a long uninterrupted conversation about how writing is as important to me as air and water and how blogging saves my sanity. Unfortunately, my kids could give a hoot about all of that, my playground mommy friends don't blog, and my husband prefers to relax by playing online poker rather than by listening to me rant. To me, WoolfCamp was like a loofah to my brain. I feel pink, shiny, and new today, and it's a good feeling.

Also, I am growing increasingly interested in this new social medium of blogging as well as ideas of blogging as literary genre, blogging as a way to record women's histories, blogging as a tool of the matriarchy, blogging as a tool for social change and grass-roots politics, oh, and blogging as a way to pay for Emily's preschool.

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