Blog Posts About: event

I'm taking a lot from this event (Tech Muckabout) but one thing that is clear is how difficult it must be to plan and manage such an event. The "Muckahosts" have done a great job in creating an event that, by design, is not like any "conference" you've ever been too. I laud them for doing a great job in a new and difficult environment.

Unlike a conference of accountants or lawyers, this groups varies widely in expertise, domain, focus, experience, etc. There are people like Amy Jo Kim and Ross Mayfield at the same table with people who have never seen a Weblog or heard of a Wiki.

This creates a collection of folks where the group looks for common ground. There is often a need to find focus and context in the face of competing needs and expectations.

I think this relates to the very focus of the event- which, in itself is called a "Muckabout" for a reason- it's about getting into the "mucky" issues that surround online interaction, technology and people. In these issues, the focus is a moving and elusive target, where there simply aren't agreed upon standards and best practices, etc.

Thanks to letting things emerge (a theme of the event) as we go, we've been able to find our own small groups where we can find focus and context. I think eveyone would agree that the Muckabout has been a success and may be creating a new model for how to handle a group without it being just another conference.

It's been a great experience, both from participative side and from the observatory side, where I've learned so much from watching our hosts design and manage the event in a manner that lets as much value emerge as possible. It's not an easy job.

As part of the day's festivities we walked over to the Sun campus to learn about their iWork@Sun initiative/program. It's not a Sun product that's for sale, it's a new way that they are working- which sounds trite. However- it's really pretty interesting.

Lately I've had the perspective of Sun as a old school company that's try to move into the 21st century. This tour showed me that they're really doing some interesting things.

The most impressive thing for me was the "Sun Ray" and how it's changing the Sun offices. Let's see if I can explain...

In most office situations, everyone has a computer in their office and on that computer they have programs like MS Word, Outlook, etc. The programs "live" on the computer- where the computer goes, the programs go.

At Sun, this arrangement has changed for about half the employees. Instead of each employee having their own computer, they have an access card that works on all the computers. This brings us to the "Sun Ray".

The Sun Ray is a little tower that sits beside each monitor in the office. When an employee wants to begin work, they can sit at any computer, insert their access card and access all their programs, files etc.

So, this means that you can be working on a document at a workstation, remove your card from the Sun Ray, move to another workstation, pop in your access card and keep on working just the same.

What allows this to happen is that the programs and files are not saved on the computer workstation, like I mentioned above. Instead, the files and programs are saved, along with everyone else's stuff, on a server. In this case, the access card lets them access the server.

If you think about it, this makes the idea of a static "office" a little obsolete. Instead, your office is wherever you (and your access card) are. Sun is using this concept to reduce the amount of offices or "real estate" they need to operate.

In visiting the campus, we saw a building that was completely inhabited by workers who were in an office by "reservation". The work in a single office for up to 5 days at a time.

There's a lot more about this whole idea, but I need to get back to the presenter right now. Big thanks to Glenn Dirks for the tour!

Stowe Boyd also posted more on this subject at Corante.

I just arrived in the Silicon Valley for the Technology Muck-About. I imagine you might say to yourself- what in the *&$^ is that? Well, here's a little background...

Last fall I had the pleasure of attending the first ever Muck-About, which was a chance for a small group of folks to get together (on and off-line) and talk about communities of practice. It occurred on the Washington State coast over 3 days in October 2003.

At the end of the first event, a group of us realized that we really wanted to talk about technology- actually the intersection of people and online community- related technology.

Luckily the original organizers (John and Nancy) and two original attendees (Estee and Teddy) took the lead in creating a new Muck-About that will focus on technology.

They have been working hard to get about 30 of us here to spend some quality time together. I'm really excited about the next few days- I'll get to meet some folks I've known about for a while but never met.

Like the first one, this event is not entirely location-based. We have been using an online community space for introductions, discussions and logistics for the last couple of weeks. Once it's over, we'll convene online once more. I think this is a great model for these events- I feel like I know some people that will be here, which greases the social wheels.

It has started well- we're staying at the "W" Silicon Valley and the suites are pretty awesome for the $. More soon...

Jason Kottke just posted a funny and interesting entry about interactive name tags (nTags) at the recent Pop!Tech conference.

The nTags are little computers that allow you to zap your personal information to another person's tag with whom you're conversing. Pretty cool, but some people didn't like it...

Many attendees liked them and used them happily, but others revolted. Some people started trading their badges with others. Early on during the conference, Whit Diffie hacked his nTag badge to send a sleep command to any nTag badge in range, effectively deactivating them. As word spread of the hack, people sought him out to sleep their hated badges. Others were pissed that he was turning off their badges without permission; someone asked at the end of the conference if sending a sleep command constituted an attack (When Sleep Attacks!). Following Diffie's lead, a woman hacked her badge to send the sleep command and a disgruntled Pop!Tech goer tried to rip her badge from around her neck (When Liberal Nerds Attack!).

Ahh, the drama. Regardless, I think there is a big opportunity to give conference attendees better tools to network before during and after conferences. After all, they are a community- why not just give them an online space?

I met Deborah Grove of IntroPlus recently, which seems to have a great start on addressing this need.

There has been some recent discussion about new ways people are interacting at conferences. The New York Times "In the Lecture Hall, A Geek Chorus" and Ross Mayfield got some of the discussion started and Clay Shirky followed up with some good points.

Here's a quick introduction from my perspective:

It's a little like passing notes in class- except via the Internet. Wireless Internet connections at conferences and lectures are allowing people to use laptops and other tools to communicate in real time during presentations. These communications occur in what is called the "backchannel" (which is a term I've used to mean communications with online community members outside of the community.)

In these backchannels, people use instant messaging, blog entries or text messages to talk about the presentation, refute points, share related web sites, etc. It's been occurring at high tech conferences recently, but is slowly becoming mainstream. Some like the idea, some dislike it.

There are two major points, in my mind:

1. Attention span- people can only take in so much. If they are more interested in what people are saying during the presentation, how can they devote attention to the presenter? Some say that it adds a new level of value to the presentation- but I can't see how splitting attention during the same time frame can lead to a more rich experience from either perspective.

2. Is it inevitable? As Clay writes:

We have seen only the barest hint of the disruption ubiquitous Wifi + automated discovery is going to bring about...It doesn't matter if the Wifi backchannel is a bad idea; it's not going away.

It is intresting to me to think that, in the future, we'll be wirelessly connected to the Internet almost continually- and this may disrupt the normal ways that we are used to paying attention to one another.

In almost any circumstance where a person is attracting or convening a crowd, there will be an opportunity for people to disrupt (or contribute to) their cause via the backchannel. It makes me wonder if speakers in the future will be forced to consider the backchannel in their presentations- perhaps providing quick references to sites and resources that ensure that the backchannel stays on task, or at least interested in the presentation versus each other.

These folks are putting together a 4 day online conference that is focused on helping non-profits and non-government organizations (NGOs) work on the web.

Here is more official info from the organizers:

Conference URL: www.icohere.com/wiredorg DATES: September 16-19 LOCATION: Online

DESCRIPTION
Wired.Org: Nonprofits & NGOs Work on the Web is an online conference (September 16-19) geared to nonprofit and non-governmental organizations, socially responsible companies and educational institutions. Join leading experts like Susan Tenby, Eva Rosenberg, Joni Podolsky, Jayne Cravens, Jared Polis and Dr. James Price III directly from your computer. View and discuss presentations and network with diverse professionals, educators and volunteers. To learn more and take advantage of the early-bird discount, go to www.icohere.com/wiredorg.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Janet Salmons
Vision2Lead, Inc.
jsalmons@vision2lead.com
303-443-3075