Hi Lucas,
Thanks for the "hat tip" around "Open Space in the Wild". I started
composing an OSList message a couple weeks ago which isn't quite ready
for release, but I do believe that OST has had a lot of children (some
legitimate, and some maybe not so much). Barcamp is definitely a child
of Open Space, as is the whole unconference "movement".
There is a difference between unconferences and barcamps. Unconferences
can include many forms of participant driven content - including
collecting session suggestions weeks before the event with some kind of
web assisted topic voting by the participant community. It can even
include Lightning Talks, like Ignite events. I think the way many
Hackathons are explicit unconferences too. And thus can trace their
ancestry from OST.
A few years ago at one of Kaliya Hamlin's OST conferences I met Dave
Nielsen, the founder of CloudCamp, an unconference for cloud computing
enthusiasts. Dave chose OST for his CloudCamp originally, but added some
things to address issues (just like Peggy Holman added Appreciative
Inquiry, Warm up Talks, and World Cafe' to her Journalism That Matters
conferences). Dave Nielsen came up with an interesting innovation called
an "UnPanel" - where the crowd self-organizes the panelists and the
questions. He talked about it at an Ignite event,
http://igniteshow.com/videos/unpanel-one-way-get-your-unconference-started
Originally, a "barcamp" was a DIRECT copy of O'Reilly's FooCamps - a
private invitation only multi day party/unconference that actually
includes tents and camping on the O'Reilly publisher's headquarters. The
BarCamp just wasn't private, and was produced so that anyone could host
one. Just like Open Space, a BarCamp had multiple locations, and
multiple time slots, for people to write in their sessions.
If anyone is hosting a BarCamp and allowing pre-scheduled presentations
- they're violating BarCamp rules.
"6th Rule: No pre-scheduled presentations, no tourists."
http://barcamp.org/w/page/405173/TheRulesOfBarCamp
My own Open Space story is through hearing about FooCamp, and then
learning about BarCamp, back in 2007. Techies in Montana wanted a
BarCamp, and I agreed to get one started. But then I learned about OST
through Kaliya Hamlin at the huge annual JavaOne conference in San
Francisco. And then was trained by Lisa Heft. So even though I called my
Montana OST a BarCamp, and I registered my events as a BarCamp.org, I
did it every year as a bona-fide OST, even mentioning Harrison Owen
every time. No BarCamp police came and shut me down - mostly because I
refused to be a Nazi with the BarCamp "no tourist" rule, which means
everyone is supposed to present, or help out somehow. Completely
unnecessary!
Back in '07 the BarCamp brand was pretty fresh and active, with a larger
number of North America events. But I got so tired of saying my Missoula
BarCamp event wasn't about drinking alcohol (Bar's), nor about Camping.
So we no longer call it a BarCamp. And from what I can see, most of the
originally juice has flown the coup out of the BarCamp brand. But
there's lots of juice in Unconferences. More to come.
Regards,
Harold
On 9/16/15 12:57 PM, Lucas Cioffi via OSList wrote:
Hi All,
I want to merge my post from 11 days ago (below) into this thread,
because it relates to unconferences/barcamps and OS. The post got
stuck in the OS List Moderation Queue due to the size of attachments,
so now the attachments are links instead.
Is there a difference between unconferences and barcamps? I have seen
them used interchangeably. Here's the post from September 5th to add
to this conversation:
-----
Hat tip to Harold for bringing up the idea of "Open Space in the
Wild" on a recent Tuesday OS Hotline call. Unconferences are one
such form that OS takes outside of the OS community. Hat tip to
Tricia for hosting the Tuesday OS Hotline. If you haven't attended
one yet, look for the announcements on Monday/Tuesday on this
list. They are lots of fun!
So here's the topic I'd like to discuss on this thread:
I understand that unconferences (aka barcamps) evolved/descended
from open space. It seems to be an estranged relationship where
many of the hundreds of people who run unconferences have never
heard of open space. From my personal experience and from the
opinions of others who have held unconferences, they vary in
quality from poor quality to excellent, depending on many factors
such as the level of preparation that
In this thread, I'd like to ask, "What are the main differences
between unconferences and OS?" Here's a start to the list of
differences that I can see:
Some unconferences start with a slide presentation (an example
is in the links below), and this never happens in OS.
Unconferences frequently (but not always?) start with
theater-style seating rather than an opening circle.
Unconferences have everyone give 3-word introductions.
Unconferences almost always (from my experience) last one day
or less.
During the closing people will often share "key takeaways"
from the sessions whereas during an OS, people usually share
reflections about the overall experience (I think)
Unconferences rarely mention the terms "butterfly" and the
"bumble bee" (at least from the 20 that I've attended)
OS has more of a griefwork element (there is a problem/crisis
or the situation on the ground is changing and something is
ending and we need to figure out what comes next) whereas
unconferences are more about birds of a feather getting
together. Said another way, OS is more frequently about
collective action and unconferences are more about building
social cohesion and individual learning.
Any other key differences? These are just my impressions.
Another question on my mind: "When is an unconference a more
appropriate tool than an open space?"
So that you can understand the language of one breed of
unconference organizers, here are some of the resources that
EdCamp (a large unconference series) shares with its organizers:
Checklist for how to run an EdCamp unconference:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F4nEotV_Gab-QFIJk_EJSeUOeKTVVV598_jeAhanDjg/edit
A diagram for EdCamp which describes tips for how a
participant can make the most of their experience
<https://qiqochat.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/how-to-maximize-the-edcamp-experience-1.png>
(I didn't make this, but I uploaded it to my WordPress site
since it was too big to attach to an OSList message)
A slide presentation which is used to begin EdCamp
unconferences
<https://qiqochat.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/sample-edcamp-intro-2.pptx>
A mish-mash of tips and resources for organizing an EdCamp
<http://www.edutopia.org/edcamp-organizer-resources>
Lucas Cioffi
Charlottesville, VA
Mobile: 917-528-1831
On Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 10:00 AM, Daniel Mezick via OSList
<[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
"Lean Coffee" is yet-another derivative of Open Space. It's
simple, fun, and useful- like OST itself.
Here is the origin story:
www.leancoffee.org <http://www.leancoffee.org/>
Lean Coffee started in Seattle in 2009. Jim Benson and Jeremy
Lightsmith wanted to start a group that would discuss Lean
techniques in knowledge work – but didn’t want to start a whole
new cumbersome organization with steering committees, speakers,
and such. They wanted a group that did not rely on anything other
than people showing up and wanting to learn or create.
Apparently, (almost) everybody believes Lean Coffee is in fact a
stripped-down "light" version of OST for smaller groups:
https://www.google.com/search?q=www.leancoffee.org+open+space&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
Daniel
www.openspaceagility.com/about
<http://www.openspaceagility.com/about>
On 9/16/15 9:40 AM, Daniel Mezick via OSList wrote:
Bar Camp history does not support the idea that BarCamp precedes
OST development:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp#History
The first BarCamp was held in Palo Alto, California
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palo_Alto,_California>, from
August 19–21, 2005
So interesting also, that the name derives (indirectly) from
"foobar"...ha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp#History
The name /BarCamp/ is a playful allusion to the event's origins,
with reference to the programmer slang term, foobar
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foobar>: BarCamp arose as an
open-to-the-public alternative to Foo Camp
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_Camp>, which is an annual
invitation-only participant-driven conference hosted by Tim
O'Reilly <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_O%27Reilly>.
"Foo camp" which preceded Bar Camp also came much later than OST:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_Camp
The first FOO Camp was held in August, 2003, and had
approximately 200 attendees.^
Daniel
www.openspaceagility.com/about
<http://www.openspaceagility.com/about>
On 9/16/15 4:53 AM, Martin Roell via OSList wrote:
Hey Arno,
Arno Baltin via OSList wrote:
I have been assisting a group of professionals at organising their
annual meetings for couple of years. These have been unconferences in
different forms - Open Space, World Cafe, ... This time they chosed Bar
Camp.
I have no experience with that. Reading through some materials, appears
it is more like a technically well supported Open Space which is a
preference of IT people and a predecessor of OS.
I would appreciate any hints on how to facilitate a Bar Camp.
It will be a 2 day meeting of (maximum) 100 participants.
Barcamp is like a badly done OpenSpace with some constraints that make
it harder to get work done.
So _basically_, if you just open space, like you normally would, but
calling the whole thing "BarCamp" (and saying the word "BarCamp" a lot,
Barcamping-People seem to like that), all will be well. (Or, in your
context, simply drop that, open space, and let people get to work.)
(Barcamps have a tendency for a "facilitator" to "help" people post
"sessions" to the marketplace. They also have a ritual where after a
person announces a "session" (it's always a "session", never an
"issue"), the "facilitator" asks the "participants" for a show of
interest ("raise your hand if you are interested in attemding this
session") so that they can then "plan" better (many hands: you get a big
room assigned). There is no circle at the beginning, and none at the
end. A lot of "teaching" takes places - extroverted people "giving"
sessions to the less extroverted one, much less walking-around, less
spontaneity. If "teaching" is the goal, they actually work decently.)
You'll probably get some slack from hardcore barcampers if you don't do
all of that; and you'll step on people's toes for not following other
barcamp-rituals, but I'd still go for it in the context you described.
Check in with your sponsor why they want "BarCamp" - what does that mean
for them, what's the important thing in that for them.
Best,
Martin
--
Daniel Mezick, President
New Technology Solutions Inc.
(203) 915 7248 (cell)
Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>. Blog
<http://newtechusa.net/blog/>. Twitter
<http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/>.
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New Technology Solutions Inc.
(203) 915 7248 (cell)
Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>. Blog
<http://newtechusa.net/blog/>. Twitter
<http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/>.
Examine my new book: The Culture Game
<http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/>: Tools for
the Agile Manager.
Explore Agile Team Training
<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/> and
Coaching. <http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-coaching/>
Explore the Agile Boston
<http://newtechusa.net//user-groups/ma/>Community.
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