English summary

COMMUNICATION CAMP - A Forum for Social Innovations

The communications camp was a dream which came true in 1987. A group of members of the Finnish Society for Futures Studies realized that the most important skills of the future were communication skills. But where could you study these skills? Nowhere. That is how communications camps came into being. That, after all, is the purpose of society - communications education.

The camps have been going since 1987. The main idea behind them is that these skills belong to everybody, no matter where he or she lives.All you need for even the most advanced communications is a telephone line and electricity. Even radio waves or solar cells will do. That is why our camps are usually situated far away from urban areas. And that is why we live very simply: we sleep in tents and keep all the equipment inside the school buildings. They are ideal for our purposes, because they are empty in the summer and there is enough room for different functions, for example radio and tv-studios, the camp magazine, photocopying, kitchens and dining rooms.

What do we do?

The children live and work at the communications camp for one week. They publish the daily camp magazine (or more, depending on how big the camp is), watch the tv-news and a short film (about 7-9 minutes) every evening, and have radio networking from 09.00 am to 7 pm every day. Usually we also have at least two, maybe three, rival camp restaurants. The children prepare their own meals and market them to other campers via camp radio, magazines and ads. They draw up the menus themselves ( on the basis of tastiness, ease of preparation, health, size of proportions, etc), and send off faxes to the baker and the shop. The next morning everything arrives ready packed for the camp. The main idea is that one must learn to communicate in different ways to get food, publish the magazine, and make the radio programme.We learn by doing and everybody has an opportunity to learn everything because every group spends two days in every activity on a rotation basis: two days in the kitchen, on video, on the newspaper, and at the telecommunication point, which sends messages all over the world. Messages also go to the shop and baker. We dont "play" at the camp, it is all very real. The children know this; and they know that the adults take it as seriously as they do. The adults are on hand if the children need help; they are not teachers always wanting to give advice. Everyone is allowed to try and to succeed, and the results are quick. You can read your own article in the magazine. And you can hear what the others say about your masterpiece. Maybe, for the first time, you are a movie star!
The atmosphere at the camp is very positive and everyone can do what he or she wants. If you succeed, everybody is delighted. If the result is less than good, you can always try again and maybe next time youll succeed! Younger campers do what they can. They hold the microphone or run off copies of the magazine, or they can have their own music programme on the camp radio. Older campers, who have been at the camp many times, are junior leaders. They support the younger ones and set a good example.

Who finances the camp?

For the first camp we got a small grant from the Ministry of Traffic and Communication. The subsequent camps financed by camp fees. Because we live in tents, the rent of the school is usually quite low. The adults and camp leaders are not paid (they get free food) and because we prepare the food ourselves, camp fees are quite low. A camper pays 900 FIM for eight days. The junior leaders pay 500 FIM, because they work: they are responsible for certain jobs. The most important thing is Telecom Finlands sponsorship. We get some of the equipment from Telecom Finland and we dont pay any line or service charges for the different networks. Campers are allowed to use fixed telephones, mobile phones, pagers, electric mail and other services.

Some thoughts from couple of camp members. (Archived at ViekasWiki)