GenderCamp sketchnotes – my first attempt in visual note taking.

Sketchnotes zur Klassismus-Session auf dem #GenderCamp 2013

I’ve been always quiet impressed by sketchnotes which passed my eyes through my twitter, flickr and RSS from lectures, barcamp sessions or conferences. Those visual notes mixed from drawings, text, diagrams and structures appealed to me and gave me much more of an inside on the issue of an event which I missed than just some tweets and pictures or sometimes even full length blogposts.

In short, [sketchnoting] is purposeful doodling while listening to something interesting. Sketchnotes dont require high drawing skills, but do require a skill to synthesize and summarize. Sketchnote Army

Having “I can’t draw” in mind (as many people, I guess) I never really considered to begin with sketchnoting myself. Although taking sketchnotes is much more about taking notes for oneself than visualizing something for others. That was until I watched the webtalk on #pb21 – a blog on civic education – with Ralf Appelt (@ralfa), one of the most frequent sketchnoters in my streams. This video finally encouraged me to try it myself and the first best chance to try it was GenderCamp 2013, a barcamp on feminism and internet culture and politics which I co-organize.

So in all of the gendercamp sessions, which I didn’t facilitate myself or where I wan’t in charge of the formal written documentation, I took some visual notes. Let me show it to you, before I conclude what benefit I got from creating those sketchnotes.
Continue reading “GenderCamp sketchnotes – my first attempt in visual note taking.”