Unconference on communities

July 4th, 2007 | general

The Unconference on Communities held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View last month.

Kaliya kicks things off with an explanation of the rules. Users create the agenda, filling it in on the big matrix. Group sessions kick off. My first was on the Future of Education, for I was giving a presentation on the topic the following day. Howard Rheingold joined my group; he’s teaching at Stanford now. Three more group sessions.

I ducked out for an hour to tour the Computer History Museum. Nostalgia City! The PARC Alto, a Sun-1, the Johniac, an IBM Stretch, the first internet server, and dazzling systems put together by Seymour Cray.

As you can see, I discovered the Collage button in Picassa.

Then conclusions, awards, and good-byes. The in-crowd met at a pub in Mountain View soon after.

Well, well. This event took me back to my online roots. Cliff Figallo (right) ran the Well, my first satisfying online community experience. Howard was the first poster whose tone I recognized; he was also the first topic host and cheerleader I’d seen in action. John “Tex” Coate was in attendance (he and Cliff were so close, people assigned them the handle figtex.) I remember Gail Ann Williams from my Well days; she facilitates the Well to this day.

I am so narrowly focused on communities for learning that I was surprised at how many people think of communities solely as customer support and “loyalty programs.” The longer someone participates in a company-sponsored community, the more they buy.

Amy Lenzo joined me for the commute down and back, so I learned more about what makes the World Cafe tick. Among other things, Amy’s the webmaster.