FAQs about DWeb Camp
Here are the actual questions (and answers) you've posed to us in the lead up to the DWeb Camp.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Getting Ready For Camping
- About Transportation
- About Location & Weather
- Who Should Come?
- Ways to Participate
- About Families and Pets
- Will it be kid friendly?
- How friendly is the camp to children? I would like to make it a family event.
- Will you have a tent big enough for 2 adults, 2 kids, and baby? Or hostel or RV?
- Would like a little more information on the schedule and activities to know if I will actually bring family.
- Are small dogs or other pets allowed?
- About Accessibility
Getting ready for Camping:
Rain is very rare in Pescadero in July, but it can be foggy and cold. Temperatures range from 80 degrees F/ 27 degrees Celsius to a low in the evenings of 52 degrees F/11 degrees C. Even more than the temperature, it can get quite windy.
Some of you are coming from Brazil, New Zealand, Germany and beyond, so our Northern California weather is hard to imagine. What type of clothing will you need? On hot days: shorts, t-shirts, hat, dark glasses. On cold nights: fleece jacket, heavy shirt, long pants, wool camp, shoes & socks. (See photos of how to dress, below.)
Yes there will be toilets, showers and electricity! But remember, you are still camping in tents, by and large, so you’ll need to bring the necessities for camping:
Partial list:
- Sleeping bag + pad
- Tent
- Extra blankets (for sleeping)
- Picnic blanket (for picnicking and extra warmth)
- Flashlight/torch/head lamp
- Camp light
- Camp chair
- Soap & Shampoo (biodegradeable only please)
- Towels
- Sunblock
- Hat/wool cap
- Bandana
- Shorts
- Long pants
- Layers on top (Fleece, thermal, t-shirt)
- Warm Jacket
- Windbreaker jacket
- Shoes
- Sandals
- Water bottle
- Coffee mug
- Board games to share
- Snacks to share
- Tea/drinks to share
- Beverages/alcohol to share
- Sports equipment (balls, Frisbees, slack line)
- Computer and equipment for hacking & play (drones, etc)
- Yoga mat
- Ice chest/ice
- camp chair
We’ll be offering you three hearty meals each day with vegetarian, vegan and non-dairy options. But we encourage you to bring extra snacks and beverages to share. We’ll be setting up a DIY coffee/tea/cocktail station to get the party going. Please bring your alcohol of choice!
Also, we are striving for a low-waste event, so it would be great if you could bring a few cups, bowls, and other utensils—just like when you camp.
Our network team is busy setting up a local mesh network throughout the camp.
Our connectivity coordinator is busy erecting two towers that should bring 100-200 mbps to the Farm. There is ample power in all buildings to recharge our devices.
Tents will be in the campgrounds, largely without power — so bring your lanterns!
In the 10,000 square foot hacking zone, we’ll supply power, ethernet drops, projector, screen, 6 large monitors, tables & chairs. The rest is up to you! For questions about technical set up please contact our Network Coordinator, Benedict Lau of Toronto Mesh at: DwebCamp@archive.org
We take your safety very seriously, so there will be a 24/7 nurse and medical station at the Farm. Our Code of Conduct team will also be there 24/7 should you need support or want to raise a confidential concern. Questions about the Code of Conduct? Email ethics@archive.org.
Like all natural settings, there are toxic plants and wild animals to be aware of on The Farm. Mountain lions, coyotes, and rattlesnakes have been seen upon occasion. Poison oak and poison hemlock are growing wild. We will give you a thorough safety orientation upon arrival, but children should be supervised at all times.
DO YOU HAVE YOUR SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS IN PLACE?
Please be sure you've arranged for one of these options for sleeping:
- You can bring your own camping gear (tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, etc.)
- You can rent a 5 meter canvas tent with a mixture of queen or twin cots and bedding/towels from the Farm for $400; these can easily sleep 3 adults.
- You can borrow or rent an RV (there is an Air B-n-B for RVs that can be pretty affordable.) We will have spaces for RVs for a nominal RV parking charge.
- If you REALLY hate camping, you could stay at the nearby Costanoa Lodge, which also has luxury glamping tents, a lodge, and cabins. Or rent an AirBnB near Pescadero or Davenport. Or spend the night at the Pigeon Pt. Lighthouse Hostel (about 5 minutes away.)
- Commute! Half Moon Bay is 30 minutes away, as is Santa Cruz.
GETTING YOUR PARKING PASS or RENTING A TENT:
Paying participants should have seen the option to buy “additional items” when you registered, but they were easy to miss. The only way you can now see the option to rent a tent/beds and get parking passes is to pay, so we recommend visiting the Eventbrite registration page and donating $1 to the Internet Archive. This will bring up the tent/parking options. Then check out as usual.
Rental Tents come with:
- cots (ideally no more than 3 beds + 1 person in sleeping bag)
- mattresses
- comforter
- blanket
- pillow
You should bring:
- lantern/torch/flashlight
- towels
- Optional: extra blankets or sleeping bag for super cold nights
About Transportation:
A: Here is rideshare page for people looking to offer/need rides to and from Camp. If you have 3 people in your car, parking is free. Look for the tabs at the bottom for each day.
Or coordinate a group to book a rideshare (Lyft/Uber) to the Farm. Cost for 4 from SF is about $75.00; for a 6-person Lyft van, it is $115.
About Location and Weather:
A: You know what Mark Twain so famously said: "The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco." So be sure to bring layers! It can get very windy, especially at night.
This is how to dress when the sun is out.
This is how to dress when the sun is going down
This is how to dress at night when the fog rolls in and the wind is blowing.
If you want to go on the "Creek Walk" up the Gazos Creek itself, bring a pair of wetsuit booties.
No one can swim in the Pacific ocean here without a wetsuit. And bring wetsuit booties to hike through the local stream!
Q: Are there flush toilets and working showers?
A: Yes! You are in luck. There are working facilities throughout the campgrounds. Below is a photo of the showers on the Farm. IMPORTANT NOTE: on the Farm all water runs into the fields, so please only use 100% Biodegradeable soap (like Doc Bronner's!) We will be giving you a Doc Bronner's kit when you arrive and the showers will be provisioned with biodegradeable Doc Bronner's bodywash.
Who Should Come?
A: Yes! We believe this event will be exciting, enlightening and maybe even transformational for coders of all abilities, as well as creatives, legal & policy folks, and anyone deeply engaged in creating the Web we want and deserve.
My holy grail: in 2016, a woman who was just graduating from coding school told us she found her future employer, life partner and best friends at our Decentralized Web Summit. We want to open doors and create new paths that don’t exist today so the Decentralized Web will be a wide tent, where everyone can see a way to contribute.
A: We encourage radical sharing: bring your talents, workshops, musical instruments, topics to discuss, or hacking projects.
You could also organize a Game Night, or host a Tea Tent.
Let us know what you’d like to plan by filling out the PROJECT form. That way we can help get you situated and on the central schedule board.
Q: I live nearby, so can I join people before the event to setup and test things?
The Open Dialogue calls are good time to discuss how you’d like to get involved! Here are our last Open Dialogue call notes from May 1.
On June 26 there will be a meetup at Internet Archive where we can plug these into a small mesh net to test things out. Keep an eye out for the announcement of that date.
Ways to Participate:
A: There are so many ways to participate:
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Volunteer: Become a "Link" Volunteer. You can come help us build, run, or take down the camp from July 15-23nd. That could be anything from erecting the Domes to painting signs to decorating former farm rooms. It will be a time for a smaller group of volunteer “Links” to bond and build community. Plus we’ll have a blow out staff party Sunday night to celebrate our hard work.
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Lead a Project: You could bring your talents and ideas and workshops. This will be crowd-sourced and community driven, with lots of opportunities for both planned and Pop Up workshops and sharing.
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Lead a discussion: In an "Open Space" format, you could lead the kind of cross-sector talks that get to the heart of the matter.
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Become an Organizer: You could become a Space Steward or Weaver. To volunteer email us at Weavers@archive.org or Stewards@archive.org. Check our Help Wanted Postings in Git Hub to see what kind of help we need right now.
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Suggest a new role: Offer up the role that best fits your skills! For instance, we were thrilled when one camper offered to bring his video gear and run the Live Streaming for us--something we hadn’t thought possible.
A: This is one of our true goals. To help participants connect internally with the values that drive their work; to connect with each other in new and surprising ways, and to connect with the environment. So we'd love to have your input and help in creating the right “topology” or "containers" to enable that to happen.
That's why we decided to camp--it breaks down barriers and encourages community and communication. We'll be cooking, harvesting vegetables, washing dishes, hiking, hacking, dancing, making music, swimming, building sculptures—together.
Financial Support:
Q: Due to my financial circumstances, I would very much like to volunteer to cover %100 of the related costs. I read that there is available financial aid, how can I apply for that?
A: Go to the Participate page and fill out the Volunteer form. (Closed May 31)
Here’s what we are planning:
If you come during the camp July 15-21 (Thursday-Sunday) and volunteer for 3-four hour shifts (total of 12 hours) on a team like parking, food service, welcome & information, set up--you can get a 50% reimbursement of your registration. EG--If you are an employee of a small university, your registration fee would be $400. So you would qualify to get $200 back.
If you can spare more time and come for the Build portion of the camp (Monday-Wednesday, July 15-17) or the Take Down portion (Monday-Tuesday, July 22-23) then you can qualify for 100% ticket reimbursement by dedicating six 4-hour shifts, (total of 24 hours.) Or you can do a mixture of shifts before, during and after Camp to make up the time you want to put in.
Q: I live in New Zealand, and I'd love to know if there's any support for people traveling from further afield - scholarships around tickets or travel.
A: We have three ways you can reduce your fees:
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Volunteer! You can earn a 50% to 100% ticket reimbursement by volunteering.
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Global Fellows: We will have a number of travel stipends ($2200/each) and ticket reimbursement for our Global Fellows, participants primarily working with communities that could most use these DWeb tools. Global Fellows are encouraged to also become volunteers. (Applications closed on May 31.)
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Scholarships: For those who cannot volunteer we will offer a few scholarships based purely on financial need. See the scholarship application form for more details. A Scholarship Committee will review those applications and let you know.
The number of scholarships, Global Fellows and even volunteers is based on sponsorships raised, so the number will vary over time.
About Families and Pets:
A: Yes! And the first 20 children under the age of 12 can come for free. Children ages 12-17 are $100. We will have a family camping area, where you can pitch your tent away from the music and late night gatherings. We will also have a family area with activities that young kids can enjoy.
Many of the activities will also appeal to all ages: from harvesting food for our meals, hiking up the local stream, going to the beach, to live music jams and yoga.
However, you will be expected to be responsible for your children at all times. We won’t have babysitting and you can’t just drop your kids off at an activity. So if you imagine yourself fully participating in workshops, parties, hack-a-thons and more, I think you should plan on bringing another adult who can help you supervise the kids.
Q: How friendly is the camp to children? I would like to make it a family event.
We welcome kids and teens of all ages! We’ll have part of the camping area dedicated to families with small children and are planning several activities that we think will appeal to kids. Here are some examples:
- Hike to the beach
- Explore the creek with a guide
- Native see walk
- Yoga (possible)
- Building with Raspberry Pis
- Game night
- Mushroom inoculation classes
- Live music jams
- Juggling, stilt-walking & puppet making (possible)
- Playing with drones
- Cooking with solar cooker
- Interactive music projects
A: Good question! The Farm is renting 5-meter canvas tents which come with a mixture of queen and twin cots. 3-4 adults can easily sleep in one of these tents. I think it would be a squeeze, but very doable. Each tent is $400+ for the 3 nights. Other options:
- You could rent a room at the nearby Costanoa Lodge, which also has luxury glamping tents.
- The rooms at the nearby Pigeon Point Youth Hostel are available for $34/dorm bed.
- Another option is to rent an RV in San Francisco (there is also an Airbnb for RVs.)
- Commute! Half Moon Bay or Santa Cruz are just 30 minutes away.
We will have spaces for RVs for a nominal RV parking charge. Online, RV rental prices range from $100/night to $300+ for RVs that sleep 6.
A: That is still a work in progress--and if you'd like to help us plan the family activities, we wouldn't say no. We will continue to update the PROJECTS and SCHEDULE so you can see if you think this is a fit for your family.
What we know:
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First 20 kids under 12 will come for free; after that, children will be $100 (to cover the cost of their meals)
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We'll have a separate family camping area, in a quiet spot
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There will be nature hikes, walks to the beach, beach drawing, sewing, solar cooking, harvesting food for our meals, yoga and more.
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Children must be accompanied by a parent at all times--we won't be offering babysitting services.
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Location is also minutes away from Ano Nuevo State Park where the Sea Elephants will be giving birth to their pups--so booking a walk there would be a fun activity.
A: No, sorry no pets. There are coyotes and mountain lions roaming the area. Plus several dogs already live on the farm and even they need to be carefully kept indoors at night due to possible predators.
About Accessibility:
The following assessment of the Farm is by Liz Henry lizhenry@gmail.com. She writes, "E-mail me if you have questions about accessibility and I may be able to answer or help!"
Part of accessibility is community education to establish norms of being aware of access issues. Here are some reminders:
- Don’t pet or feed service dogs
- Maintain clear aisles in all the spaces
- Speak up in discussions and use a mic if there is one
- Respect people’s privacy about disability and medical history
- Offering help is lovely, but, Please respect “no” if you offer help and it is refused
MOBILITY
These notes are mainly about surfaces, slopes, and distances.
The areas in the main level of the Farm are level and most are paved with concrete or hard-packed dirt and gravel. There is pavement between all the buildings.
Inside the buildings, there are no steps. So, the main area where most DWeb events are planned is very wheelchair accessible, level, and (mostly) paved. There is step free access to the bathrooms. However, some building doorways have a small (1.5 inch) threshold. IN all those buildings there are alternate doorways with level entrances.
The Dome is very accessible, with rubber matting laid down to it and inside it. Yay! There is some seating inside as well.
The firepit and Tree of Life are on grass a short way from the pavement.
The Medicine Wheel and greenhouse are on grass, but a relatively level graded path to them is on the left along the hillside. It is possible for a manual wheelchair user who is strong or has some help to get there. Anyone in a powerchair with big tires can do it easily. Scooter users would likely have more trouble. It is not a long distance from the hard gravel road surface and pavement, though; just a few steps.
Just past the Medicine Wheel, there is an unpaved trail to the beach which may be somewhat rough (untried by me and my wheelchair, yet).
A paved road, fairly steep, goes from the lower level of the Farm to an upper level where you will find the RV parking, Camp Shiitake, and Camp Enoki. The camps are on grass along a gravel road. The gravel is fairly level and not deep, but would still be difficult for a manual wheelchair user. This path to the upper level is somewhat roundabout. Across the gravel road and on the way to the bathrooms and showers, there is a wooden speed bump (to protect electrical cables that cross the road). These bumps are about an inch and a half tall and aren’t sloping, so may be difficult for wheelchair users to navigate. It is not impossible but it would take strength, doing a wheelie, large tires, or going backwards to get over them in a manual chair.
There is a gravel path going directly from the office area up to the camps, that runs up the slope, across a small wooden bridge. There are a few steps at the top of the path near the camps. The steepness of the path along with the gravel means it may be difficult for some walking people (and impossible for anyone on wheels). Take this path with caution if you are unsteady or need a cane.
The Lion’s Mane Camp is a ways down hill from the main level. The road to it is mostly paved. There isn’t any lighting and as it is a good distance from the buildings and other camps, it may be quite dark at night so be sure to have flashlights, lanterns, or headlamps. Part of the road to the camp is hard packed dirt and shallow gravel.
Anyone who has trouble walking on uneven or sloping surfaces, or walking for distances more than a city block, may want to arrange to get a ride in a car or truck from level to level of the Farm. Perhaps this could be an organized “Farm Taxi” service with a way to contact volunteers to do the Taxi driving. A golf cart type of vehicle would be great for this.
Many of the buildings have an uneven threshhold that will be significantly difficult for wheelchair users to navigate. Some of these could be easily fixed with shims or small ramps. All of these uneven thresholds should be marked with reflective paint or tape!!!
The bathrooms have level entrances, but no handrails, low toilet seats, and a wheelchair will not fit in any of the stalls or rooms. This may be changed by the start of the camp, but please be aware the bathroom access is not great if you have trouble without handrails.
Shower access in the upper camps: there are no shower seats or hand rails. The showers have a lip you must be able to step over. The floors of the showers are made of raised cobblestones so are quite uneven.
CLEAR AISLES
I have suggested for the Mesh Hall / Hyperlounge areas, that we use blue painter’s tape to mark off travel lanes to be kept clear. This needs some signs as well and a little community education (announce it every morning that people should avoid standing in the travel lanes or putting backpacks in them).
Everyone can help with this issue, set up all areas so that there are clear ways to enter and exit and get through them that won’t be blocked by tables, trash cans, people, etc. This is helpful for many people (not just wheelchair users). If you notice an area without a clear aisle, stop and gather help to rearrange the space. It’s super helpful!
HEARING
There is going to be music everywhere and often.
There may be microphones in some areas, so, in a group setting for discussions or talks, maybe it will be possible to ask for Mics to be used and passed around.
SIGHTEDNESS
As noted above in the “mobility” section the Farm is big and multi-level.
The Farm will likely not be well lit at night especially along paths to the Camps on different levels.
I am not sure of the accessibility of the schedule, web site, etc for screen reader users. The Camp schedule is in the app "Sched". There will likely be other notes, schedules, and signs around the camp on whiteboards.