Crowdsourcing, unconferencing, foocamp -- ???

[Deborah Hartmann]

Having been involved in a couple of BarCamps... here are my reflections 
on a particular question:

 > Do you think it is acknowledged enough that Open Space Technology was 
the forefather of the unconference, not FooCamp?

Of course, the name isn't as important as the practice. The first two 
BarCamp Toronto events didn't fully use Open Space, they claimed to be 
"open space like" or some such, and the result in the second one was 
that newcomers felt confused or left out, food was not well planned for, 
and control crept in, in weird ways. I wouldn't want people thinking 
that's Open Space. I do, however (surprise, surprise :-) think Open 
Space would help these events... and I've heard that it does, for 
example with RecentChangesCamp (which is a barcamp) in Portland. There 
are definitely BarCamps using OpenSpace, but the movement does not 
insist on that format.

http://barcamp.org/

There is an OpenSpace page on the barcamp wiki - I put it there, hoping 
to encourage some reading :-)  It's weird, digging up old posts, 
recognizing the style, and suddenly realizing they're yours! lol

What's strange (and good!) is... at the third BarCamp Toronto (which I 
didn't attend, not enjoying the chaos) someone seems to have inserted an 
Open Space style opening... which got video'd and sent around... and 
folks said: "Hey, we should do that again!" :-)  Good for him!! The good 
solutions are organic, aren't they? They simply arise out of how we are 
wired, as humans...

However, elsewhere on the BarCamp wiki we have a real set of rules 
http://barcamp.org/TheRulesOfBarCamp on which kaliya blogged here 
http://kaliyasblogs.net/unconference/?p=45

So:
 > Do you think it is acknowledged enough that Open Space Technology was 
the forefather of the unconference, not FooCamp?

I think the question leads us down the wrong path. I don't know how to 
answer it, though :-)

deb

Harrison Owen wrote:
> Got this note from a nice fellow in Germany. Seems he want a little info.
> What should I tell him?
>
> Harrison
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Johannes Kuhn [mailto:johannes-kuhn at gmx.net] 
> Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2007 4:08 PM
> To: hhowen at verizon.net
> Subject: request for an interview / NewAssignment
>
> Dear Harrison,
> my name is Johannes, I am a journalist from Germany also participating in
> NewAssignment.net, an open source journalism-project. 
> If you have not heard about the project, you can read a short outline here:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/business/media/19carr.html
>
> Of course I can only invite you to check the page of the first project,
> which will be running in association with wired.com - and maybe participate
> yourself:
>
> http://zero.newassignment.net
>
> But actually I am writing you because I am covering (Assignment Zero is
> about "crowdsourcing") the topic of unconferences. As you participated in
> the "Third Annual International Symposium on Organization Transformation" in
> 1985 and are associated with the Open Space movement, which had a concept
> that is pretty similar to unconferences, I would like to ask you to talk
> about your experiences. 
>
> Why do you think unconferences are so popular now - is it just a new label
> or are they really different from the thing you did in 1985?
> How did your unconferences in the 80s develop over the time?
> How was the atmosphere as far as conflict-solving and inspiration was
> concerned? What great ideas came out of the conferences?
> In which way was the goal of bringing out a joined paper, treaty, whatever
> (I hope my information are correct about it) out of it difficult to fulfill?
> Do you think it is acknowledged enough that Open Space Technology was the
> forefather of the unconference, not FooCamp?
> What do you think the future will bring for this concept - will it influence
> business-sessions for example?
>
> If you like we could also phone or skype. It will be definitely interesting
> to hear from you!
> Thank you very much,
>
>                   Johannes
>   

-- 

Deborah Hartmann
Agile Process Coach
deborah AT hartmann DOT net
mobile: fouronesix 996 4337

"Learn the principle, 
abide by the principle, and 
dissolve the principle." 
-- Bruce Lee

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