This is part 2 of my report from last weekend's Barcamp Vancouver 2009. Click here for part 1.

At the end of September, Raul Pacheco-Vega (aka @hummingbird604) posted a blog entry, The economics of free or why I won’t do things for free anymore, which had enough resonance to prompt him into leading a well-attended Barcamp session, Freelance is not "free". That session generated some really great comments.

First, photographers, designers, and coders - and even bloggers - seem to get many requests from non-profit organizations to work pro bono. The photographers are supposed to cover events and post to Flickr, the designers are supposed to create website UIs, the coders are supposed to code them, the bloggers are supposed to live-cover events and generally "talk things up."

No big surprise there. It was surprising to learn that many non-profits abuse the relationship by not thanking or acknowledging the free help they're getting. With that in mind, it was most interesting to hear how some of the more savvy volunteer laborers have begun laying down the law - while still volunteering services.

Designer Mark Busse of Industrial Brand was blunt about the need to protect oneself and avoid burn-out. (Mark also co-led a session on a similar topic, Balancing Frustration and Passion.) In Raul's session, he and coder/ web-developer Steve Tannock had the best pieces of strategic advice.

• insist on acknowledgement (if there's a program / website, you should be listed for the services you provided);
• draw up a contract, just as you would for a "real" job, even if you're not charging - but make sure the recipient knows how much it would cost, if you did charge;
• do the same thing (draw up contract) even if you arrange a barter or tit-for-tat exchange (as Mark Busse said, "you will be audited!" - death and taxes and all that...)

It sounds mercenary on one level, but it shouldn't - and it isn't. It's part of creating and maintaining a healthy community ecosystem in which economic realities aren't suspended.

This session was like many others, really lite on the tech aspects - as one commenter on part 1 already noted: "So... Whatever happened to BarCamp being about tech?"

Or click through to Mike Kelly of Strangely Entangled, who also lamented the absence of a tech focus, too - and the consensus was that similarity between, say, Barcamp and NorthernVoice is inevitable if the same people are involved.

In defence of the social enterprise focus, I'd still argue that these kinds of sessions are good for weeding and feeding the whole ecosystem. Good business practices and social enterprise don't ever go out of style. (If you want to see something really cool wrt getting paid in the postnational online social hubculture world - whew, what a mouthful! - check out this WSJ video on how virtual currencies work. Key example? The Ven.)

Next up (and last), Barcamp report part 3, on government and data.

Barcamp Vancouver 2009, based on the "ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment," happened last Saturday Oct.3 at Discovery Parks Vancouver.

It was a blast, and props to the organizers, which included Boris Mann (whose booming voice was the first thing I heard when I entered the office complex - and whose blog post on Barcamp you can read here). In addition, there is a host (such an appropriate word!) of others who should be singled out for thanks, but I'm too ignorant of how many are actually in that near-invisible choir, and would merely expose my ignorance as well as affront the excluded if I tried to list the few I'm aware of. But to everyone who helped get this thing in gear: well-done, and thank-you so much!

So what did I see and hear? In the interest of shorter blog posts, I'll break this up into a couple of posts.

Here's part 1:

The first session I participated in set the bar really high in terms of scope of project, physical presence/resources, and political/community energy: it was led by April Smith, Magnus Thyvold, and Irwin Oostindie, all three of whom are key motivators, instigators, and keepers of the flame at the new W2 Community Media Arts center in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES). The center is set to open in January 2010, just in time to facilitate (among many other things) a citizen media space around the Winter Olympics:

W2 features a 200-capacity performance space, community TV studio, FM radio station, gallery, social enterprise café, letterpress studio, telepresence and mobile media programs, and more. (source)

[and]

W2 Community Media Art is set to open in time for the Olympics at Woodward’s, with Fearless City Mobile, True North Media House, and a full slate of social and community media platforms (FM radio, cable TV, satellite TV, fibre optic network, telepresence, mobile, printing, and creative technology incubator) available for the Downtown Eastside, the city, and international partners.(source)

What really interested me is how the center came about. Like most cities, Vancouver has had policies in place around what planning departments and developers sometimes call bonus density.

It works (roughly) like this: let's say an area in town is zoned for a density of 3:1, which can mean you're allowed to build 3 square feet of usable space for each 1 square foot of buildable land. In really broad terms, a 3:1 zoning might mean a 3-story building. But when faced with existing zoning that doesn't make the right business sense, a developer can go to the city and ask for a rezoning that gives him more density. In that case, the city might in turn extract from the developer an amenity (or two) in exchange for the additional density. In other words, city planning departments design bonus density policies to extract amenities for the community from developers who wish to build higher or denser than current zoning permits (and as everyone knows, Vancouver has had stellar planners for a while now).

That's what happened around W2, which is housed in the old Woodward's Building. The city of Vancouver had purchased the site in 2003. Well over a year later (in September 2004), City Council chose the developer Westbank (in conjunction with Peterson Investment Group and Henriquez Partners as architects) to develop the property, which has in turn become an amenity-rich project in accordance with extensive community consultation.

Westbank received a huge bonus density (which helps ensure profits for them), but in return, the city has a rehabbed facility (and heritage property) that will serve as an arts and community hub for a variety of groups. It's a non-zero-sum game where 1 plus 1 adds up to 3.

What will W2 do that's so tech-related and amazing? It's best to go to their overview page for a full run-down, but in brief: this is a unique, first-in-Canada center for new media, with full studio services (made available to "the community," and rented out at cost to professional users). They're serious about an economic model that will allow them to run for the long-term (see their W2 Social Enterprises description, too).

There's a performance space (presumably also great for tech community events like Democamp, Barcamp, or NorthernVoice); a Creative Technology Incubator; a Crossmedia Lab (with a true multi-platform environment tailored to multimedia production using cutting edge digital technology); and lots of other tech-digital-media-community goodness. Check out their Impact page for what W2 expects to accomplish.

Coming up later, part 2: Raul Pacheco on why Freelance is not Free.