Posted 25 March 2006. Record from last week:

WA Unconference chat box

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sirexkatasdf;oasdfsdifujds

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GreebieI've said something now!

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So there! :)

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sirexkatHiya testing too

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***waves to Ryan***

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GreebieSo this unconference: do you expect to host people who are familiar with the concept or are your guests likely to be "newbies"?

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If its the latter, you will probably want some meditative time for people to get used to their own reactions to the process(es).

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sirexkat"How's the weather with you?" Good idea.

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All of us..organisers included will be new to unconfs.

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Most of us will be new to L2

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GreebieWoah! That is most cool. Give me a day or two, I'm going to see if I can con some of my "open space-ish" friends (ie they do it for a living) to help out, or at least offer some ideas.

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I put the idea out on your blog about "world cafe" too.

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See, "open space" will eventually focus people in on actions they they themselves can commit to.

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But what makes it effective is that the attendees get to determine the agenda.

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That way 1) if they don't like the agenda items, they have no-one to blame but themselves. And you'll need to point this out to them once the agendae are set.

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and 2) they get to be think about problems that truly matter to them.

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You'll need a good amount of time explaining the principles as well (all that "bumblebee, butterfly, law of two feet etc." stuff).

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The person who explains the principles ought to be a really compelling speaker.

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Because in a sense, the process will do as much or more for the attendees as the actions that come out of it.

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sirexkatRyan the Greeb...thanks for checking out with your friends. I feel like I need a crash course in Open spaces.

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I really like the idea that the process will be part of the value. I've not considered that before, but you're right.

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Law of two feet I know, but I'm going to have to google "bumblebee butterfly"

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If L2 is all about loosening up what we do, listening better and being more responsive, then you're right.

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invaluable to start with changing how we relate to each other (other librarians) and practicing it with each other.

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Greebiebumblebee -- the idea that there are going to be people who want to travel around from group-to-group.

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They are very important, because they act as cross-pollinators for the session.

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As with the law of two feet, you are free to roam around (or not) and this is a good thing.

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Butterfly -- there are folks who will want to escape and talk to no one or engage in less formal (or more leisure) conversations. This is also good and valuable. But you should encourage them to record what they learn from those conversations for other people to hear.

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Here is a handy synopsis of the "Open Space" method:

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http://www.albany.edu/cpr/gf/resources/OpenSpaceTechnology.html

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sirexkatThaks for the synopsis.

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I think one day we'll be here at the same time and scare each other!

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GreebieAhhhhhhhERRREGHGHHGHGHGH!

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You scared me. :)

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Or maybe not. Just missed you I guess. . .

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Dang that refresh!

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Greebiehello?

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sirexkatRyan!!!

Yay

GreebieOk.. Now I got scared hehe

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sirexkatI was just going to add a message saying we were missing each other by half hourses

Greebiebut I'm not AhhhhhERRREGHGHGHGHGHGHHG-ing again though.

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:)

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sirexkatWe just changed to daylight savings here, and I think our Thurs meetin will be just past midnight for you......

GreebieYeah -- last time you were on the user list, but gone by the time I refreshed.

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sirexkat*Boo*

GreebieAhhh. . . We changed a couple of weeks ago to follow the states. bleh.

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sirexkatYes - I got caught out..had arranged my 5 weeks chat so that it happened the hour after the kids left for school.

ended up smack bang in the middle

GreebieI can probably manage something past midnight so long as I have purpose for being there.

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sirexkatThat's dedication

Greebieack. hehe. I don't have school-agers yet.

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Did I mention we are on #2 in July?

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sirexkatAre you blending your "let's have an unconf by phone" idea with the ning "let's talk about organising an unconf by phone"

Congratulations!!!

Wow

GreebieVery excited we are.

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sirexkatLots nights awake after midnight

from then on.

GreebieYeah -- tell me about it. And Wanda wants to stay home, but here Off-time is not topped up.

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sirexkatDoes your other one sleep through? My first took about 4.5 years, which is why there is 5 years between

Offtime?

GreebieI'm waiting to find out when the phone meeting gets scheduled.

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Yeah -- we get UI for up to a year when we have babies.

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and many companies "top up" the UI (=unemployment insurance)

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sirexkatLike maternity/paternity leave?

GreebieYeah -- same thing.

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sirexkatHave you done any open spaces meetings before?

GreebieWe get lots of leave.

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Open Spaces - I've been to many, but I've never facilitated.

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I think I pretty much have the methods right though.

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sirexkatDo they vary in there adherece to the model , or are they quite structured..I get the impression that there is a "cookbook" way to do it that lets the rest of the meeting really free up

GreebieWell, I think there is a fairly useful cook-book for open spaces.

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But many people mix open spaces with other methods when they do large meetings/unconferences.

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And of course, ice breakers are always nice prior.

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sirexkatOne of the other librarians uses Open Spaces meetings at her uni.

GreebieGreat!

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sirexkatI loooove ice breakers..I did a 6 month course in group facillitation and each time we started with a diffferent ice breaker

GreebieHave you ever tried world cafe style meetings as well?

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sirexkatNo..I haven't googled it after you mentioned it..how is it different?

GreebieWell, World Cafe believes that most of the big changes in the world started with conversations among small groups of people.

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sirexkatAh...true....

So how does that work with a bigger group? Break into smaller and then report back?

GreebieSo you set the place up as a "cafe" (small tables) and ask fundamental questions about certain issues/challenges

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Sort of. Basically, instead of "report back" you have people "switcheroo"

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And you get them to write as much as they want with crayons, clay etc.

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sirexkatProgressive waltzing around the ideas?

Cute

Multi modal..nice

GreebieYeah -- there is a "report back section" as well, but it is a little less structured.

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sirexkatLike a quiz night?

Hold on...do you guys have those?

Trivia night?

GreebiePretty much -- but perhaps it's more like bridge matches.

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Except you don't keep your partner. :)

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sirexkatSo...is Open Spaces to set the agenda, then you could do a couple of sessions World Cafe style if they suited the topics

GreebieYeah -- so World Cafe is about knowledge transfer (predominantly) and Open Space is about creating an agenda and proposing actions.

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sirexkatSo..if it was just done with Open Spaces format, once the agenda was decided, would Open Spaces have any more role?

GreebieOh for susuuuuuurre!

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sirexkatmmmm...\\

GreebieThe idea is that you participants set the agenda and then people can choose to join the things that set their heart afire.

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Then informal questions occur about how the problem can be managed/dealt with.

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sirexkatBut the way the session is run is pretty much up to the facillitator of each session, or do you usually have a strict "say something on the issues and raise questions, then guide the discussion" format

Greebieoops. not questions, conversation.

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sirexkatLooks like the Melbourne unconf. had a few workshops...in fact a few pre-prepared workshops with slides :)

GreebiePretty much facilitator-run.

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But of course, the facilitator should be aware of the law of two feet.

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sirexkatNot sure how "hands on how-to" workshops would fit into this model

GreebiePeople can up and walk if someone is too dominant or annoying. :)

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Ahhh. . . so you want folks to learn a 2.0 exercise while you are at it?

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I got something that might help that actually.

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sirexkatI'm not sure how English you ex-colonials are, but we can be very polite about things like that. No one exercised the law of 2 feet in Melbourne apparently

Yess.

GreebieIt's a program that Kelli Wooshue and I came up with.

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sirexkatYeeeees..looks better..less sibilint

Greebielol!

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sirexkatof damn my spelling

of=oh and I'm just about giving up

GreebieOk. Do you have access to a laptop lab?

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sirexkatWe maaay do. The state library doesn't have wireless and restricts the network access...

GreebieBasically, we have a program that might work for you.

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Argh!!!!!!!!!!! Bring a router. :)

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sirexkatI'm doing a talk on Second Life there on Thurs (hence the meeting) and they may not be able to set up for a demo

GreebieAnd give them access. :)

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sirexkatAnd get permission to use it???

Do you have a link to the Kelli W material?

Greebiehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/greebie/257810134/in/set-72157594308000577/

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Yeah for sure. hehe.

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sirexkatMost unconfs work with a dynamic wiki and most people have wireless access..I've even heard of a twitter screen..

Needless to say , we won't be doing that

GreebieI'm sure I can get you the materials to do the presentation.

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Anyway, here's what we did.

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1. Brief (5 minutes) presentation on Web 2.0 / Library 2.0 stuff.

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You may even just want to use that The Machine is Using Us thingeee.

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sirexkatOr Laura Cohen..the mashup from YouTube. Very powerful

Greebie2. Each person does one exercise out of 5 we created.

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Sure, that'd be cool too.

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sirexkatCouldn't see those on the flickr shots

GreebieVery basic instructions.

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Yeah -- I'll send them out to you. Maybe even post them to the wiki if you want.

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Very explicit instructions on things like editing a wiki, starting a blog, applying an RSS feed etc.

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sirexkatYes..start a new page if you'd like ... linked from the useful ideas page?

GreebieThey do this in small groups.

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Sure thing. I'll see if I can get the text.

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sirexkatCW (Ruminations) and I are happy to do this type of thing..depends what people want.

GreebieYeah -- then there's a discussion getting participants to define/describe what is happening with Web 2.0.

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As in "what makes it different?"

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sirexkatI think participants will expect it to be a L2 techie kind of conf, not a "let's cope with the future and where we're going" kind of conf - which I'd prefer

GreebieAt no point did we advocate or try to "rah rah" -- just said -- here try this and tell me what it tastes like.

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sirexkatI think most people here are unsure about the difference btw Web2 and L2 - hence my using your lo-tech no-brainers

GreebieAnyway, it got a positive feedback and it was pretty friendly.

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sirexkatWhen did you do it?

GreebieIt took us 35 minutes at a management team meeting.

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And then 1 1/2 at the NSLA conference (local library conference here).

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sirexkatAhhh...so how did people go with getting through the material?

GreebieLast year.

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Very good. Basically, those "Flickr" sheets have four pages.

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1. A title with a quote from someone library 2.0

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sirexkatI'd like the ningers to look at the "where are we going?" kinds of questions....is that what you meant in the post a couple of days ago?

Greebie2. Instructions on how to do something very simple on a Web 2.0 software.

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Yeah -- ningers might be better for Open Space.

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As in -- ok. we know this stuff is happening, what are we going to do about it?

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sirexkatAnd where is the evidence base that it works (heresy I know)

Greebie3. "the next level" -- a few other things to do that are less explicit.

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sirexkatAnd not a passing fad

Greebie4. quotes.

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Yeah -- I'd like to see some evidence too.

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Open space does cover that sort of thing too, because people can criticize or correct your ideas.

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sirexkat3. As in the social nature of some popular sites...look YouTube is user created content, but look at the interactions it facilliatates

?

GreebieBut it is fairly consensus-heavy, rather than scientific.

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Well, on the sheet it was pretty much just "take a look at YouTube" now what do you think?

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Yeah -- so there are three things at your disposal. :)

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1. Open space -- good for local community problem solving.

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sirexkatI had a wodge of suggested sessions in an email I sent ages ago..I'll just add it to the wiki...hold on....

Greebie2. World cafe -- good for conversation/discussions that matter (especially by thwarting the "me vs audience" approach of many discussions)

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3. That workshop Kelli and I did, which is basically "here's how you do Web 2.0"

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sirexkatYes...I really hope that Liz from UWA can connect with the person in her library who knows about OS..

I don't realy want to swot up on it..

Greebiehttp://otherlibrarian.wordpress.com/2006/10/01/striving-for-library-20-presentation-20/

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There's a blog entry I did after we did the NSLA thing.

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That might be a little more coherent than what I'm typing here.

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sirexkathttp://unconferencewalibrary.pbwiki.com/Possible-sessions

I'll check it out

GreebieNice mix of topics.

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sirexkatWish the chatbox had hotlinks!

GreebieSome seem fairly "regular conference-ish"

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Some can fit into open space because they are problem oriented.

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But you know, this is the sort of list that you could find in an open-space agenda.

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sirexkatYes...It's just personally what I'd like to hear from others....

GreebieHmmmm. . .

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sirexkatYes, I'm concerned about people expecting it to just be a "how to do L2"...with a slightly different format

Which isn't really what I want to do...but may be what others are ready for...and the day has to be what all the participants want it to be.

GreebieYeah -- it is not abnormal for people to go into an open space environment freaked out by it a bit.

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They think it's going to be traditional "hear a presenter bestow his/her wisdom" sort of stuff.

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And what they get is tasked into becoming the presenter/thinking themselves.

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sirexkatSo how do you get them involved and not two feeting out of there as fast as they can go?

GreebieWell, good ice breakers work.

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sirexkatOf course some want to be quiet and sit back and mull it all over...

GreebieNice warm ups.

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sirexkatYes..true....

GreebieWorld cafe is kind of neat too.

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And that "butterfly" theme is important too.

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sirexkatJust changing CD for Mr 4...hold on..

GreebieSay, ok -- you don't want to enage no prob.

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Have a social conversation with someone then. Just keep track of what you say for the benefit of others.

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And that whole "hows the weather" stuff helps too.

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And if it really makes people feel better, give them a good speaker or two.

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Maybe before the open space stuff.

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sirexkatYes..the State Librarian is very keen about flying in a guy from NZ...and it's her place we're using

GreebieThat said, world cafe is a little bit friendlier and more familiar I think.

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sirexkatJust not sure who/how to fund..and whether it makes it a bigger event than we should try for our first uncong

f

GreebieHey if it's the state librarian's idea, tell her to put up some money for it, eh? :)

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sirexkatWell, she'd have to.....we don't have any.....

GreebieWell, that's still cool. We even did one via teleconference once as well.

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sirexkatI want to get the facillitation right before the speaker..but I think what we'll be doing is a hybrid knd of unconf

Trad enough not to totally freak people, but rad enough (just) to be called an unconf

About adapting to your users

GreebieYeah -- that's cool. The important thing is to try not to shape the sessions too much.

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sirexkatYes..which makes it difficut for people who are facillitating them to prepare...

GreebieOne way I know Tracy Boyer tries to keep things more on the "unconference" side is by saying

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"what do you personally want to learn from this?"

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sirexkatI keep thinking people will want it formal and structured...but maybe that's just my stuff and underestimate about how they can cope

I like the personal emphasis

GreebieYeah. The unconference style (in my view) is heavily individualistic

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sirexkatI wonder if people will expect more if they attend in work time - as in less personal and more "take home notes"

Greebiein the sense that it tends to believe that only "you" can change, not everyone else.

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sirexkatSome people can only attend in work time, some only out of work time -so we're looking at after lunch to 5-ish...and then an unconf dinner at a "pay what your heart feels" hindu restaurant

GreebieYeah -- hard call. My experience is that people tend to like these things alot.

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sirexkatNot sure about that timing...whether it gives us time to really get into it

I guess we could personalize it..call it "Your library unconference" or "our libraries - an unconference"

"Our libraries, our learning"

GreebietI've seen that done before, as a lunch meeting thingee.

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sirexkatOur libaries, our conversations"

Hmmmm

GreebieHmm. . . let me show you Tim Merry's website.

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http://homepage.mac.com/kongska/Menu6.html

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Basically, his line is "let's cut the crap about x."

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sirexkatWhich bit..I'm guessing the shire isn't small and elven

GreebieOf course publicity material should be different.

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OOps. His bio. I think it's a download now though. Sorry.

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Anyway, the broader point I was trying to make is you are on the right track with "Our Libraries, Our Conversations"

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sirexkatAh..was looking at info about the facilities

GreebieHeh. The shire is a cool place. Tim is very cool too.

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sirexkatDownloading

GreebieThe basic idea of doing an unconference is "let's cut the baloney about this stuff and do something that matters"

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to us librarians, personally.

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sirexkatHmmm... Libraries engaging unconference"???

GreebieNot because everyone else is doing is, but because we believe in it ourselves.

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Eeeks!1 I am up late!

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sirexkatOooh..go to bed. U OK if I cut and paste this onto a page of the wiki?

GreebieSure thing.

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sirexkatBTW..my hometown shown in Casey Bisson's blog today...http://homepage.mac.com/kongska/Menu6.html

GreebieHa -- at the Shire? :)

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Anyway, I'll see what I can do to think up some more of this stuff.

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sirexkatSorry..try again..

http://maisonbisson.com/blog/post/11590/

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