Infotoday Blog Archive

Unconferences Panel (L-R) John Blyberg, Steve Lawson, Stephen Francoeur, Kathryn Greenhill

We’re all here at CIL and it’s hardly necessary to say that it is a conference.  It has keynote addresses, speakers, exhibitors, a program, and a well designed infrastructure, all overseen by a very competent Conference Planning Department at ITI.  But what’s an “unconference”?  Does it have any of these features?  Are they necessary?  Evidently some people don’t think they are, and unconferences are a new type of event that is becoming popular.  (I have noticed some of these events beginning to appear on the conference calendars, and have included some of them on the  ITI Conference Calendar. ) 

Unconferences use open space technology and don’t have a pre-determined program.  Instead,  the start of the event, attendees decide what will  be discussed.  The book Open Space Technology: A User’s Guide by Harrison Owen has many guidelines for unconferences, such as:

• Whoever comes are the right people. 
• Whatever  happens is  the only thing that could have. 
• Whenever it starts is the right time. 
• The “Law of  Two Feet” applies:  “If any person finds him or herself where they are neither learning or contributing, they must use their two feet and go to a more productive place.”  Basically, unconferences are trying to capture what goes on in the hallways between sessions at a traditional conference.

Unconferences started in August 2005 in response to O’Reilly’s FOO Camps when someone who thought he was not invited arranged “an open welcoming yearly event for geeks to camp out with Wi-Fi and smash their brains together.” They go by a number of names: Barcamp, Podcamp,  Library Camp,  Libcamp, Bibcamp, Mashed Library, etc.  But many people think that it doesn’t really matter what they’re called.

Here  are some of the guidelines and experiences mentioned by the panel:

• You can’t prepare for an unconference!  It’s more like hosting an open house.  You do need to let people know when and where it’s happening and arrange for a place to meet.  As planning proceeds,  the organizers should model what’s going to happen by telling people who inquire that they don’t know what’s not going to be discussed. 
• Unconferences are not for one particular type of attendee.   They succeed best when some of the traditional conference amenities and procedures are incorporated. 
• Should keynotes be included?  The advantage is that they get people focused but the danger is that they might stifle spontaneity. 
• What about registration fees?  Do they prevent people from signing up?  What will  you do with the money?
• You need to select a place and time.  Libraries have real estate which is an advantage when you are looking for a place to meet. 
• Every day is a bad day for somebody, so you need to just go ahead and schedule it.  Of course, if a major industry conference is happening simultaneously, it may not be possible to get attendees.  But scheduling an unconference immediately before or after a major conference may be a good idea.
• Wikis are an excellent unconference plaftorm, both to announce them and for people to add to them. It’s  important to seed the wiki first–blank wikis rarely succeed.
• Think about amenities and giveaways for attendees.  It helps get them excited about the event.  Give them something useful like a notebook.

Typical giveaways from recent unconferences

• Give people a sense of what to expect.  Many people have never been to an unconference.  A list of possible discussion topics submitted in advance is useful, but be sure to allow ideas to be submitted at the start of the conference. 
• The conference will run itself once it starts because people take ownership of topics they have submitted.  Most of the sessions take the form of round-table discussions rather than formal presentations.  Notes of  the proceedings can be put on the conference wiki.
• If you feed them they will come, and if you give them liquor, they will come next  time!  Make sure that people have a quality time.  Have some structure to take care of problems that occur.  Have the kernel of a discussion ready to get the conference started in case no discussions start.  Sometimes good keynoters can be used for this purpose.

Unconferences won’t replace traditional ones, but they inject intellectual thought into the time between them and re-energize people.  You can get a lot of results from an unconference and build a continuing community as issues come  up.  They are an interesting phenomenon and one worth watching as they develop. 

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and CIL 2009 Blog Coordinator

David Lee King speaks with Helene Blowers before his presentation

David Lee King (his blog) recommends the book Experience to get an understanding of what experience is and how we are becoming an “experience economy”.  We can use this concept in designing the digital experience.   There are three paths.

Structural path.  Create a better experience by making your website easier to use–focus on their goal instead of how to use the site.  Stay out of the user’s way.  They aren’t interested in your site’s structure and all its cool features!  Be quick and fluid and get improvements out quickly.  Look at your site with critical eyes and don’t think about the potholes.  Don’t make your users think–if they have to think about how to use the site, you have failed.

Community path.  Create a memorable community-based experience created through online participation in a community.  Give users the ability to create reviews; have real conversations through commenting, instant messaging, online forums, etc.; invite user participation by issuing invitations to interact and share their thoughts; and let them tell their stories.  (See what David’s library, the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library is doing.)

Customer path.  Improve the experience for your customers.  Many consumer companies have discovered this.  For example, Starbucks has lots of information on coffee on its website, and Harley-Davidson has the motorcycle experience allowing customers to meet fellow Harley owners, which focus on the experience surrounding the product.  Libraries could offer book discussion groups on the Web and extend the physical experience into the digital space.  Think about how you can improve on the ordinary (David mentioned how WD-40 cans now have the straw attached).  If you were to start over with your website, what would  you do differently.  Compare your site to those in other industries, not other library’s sites–your customers are not using them!  Surprise and delight your customers.

What’s Next?

• Connect the customer to your product.
• Create an experience stage.  Every part of your customer contact is like performing a show.
• Work on conversation to improve the ability to connect and interact.
• Work  on organizational change.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and CIL 2009 Blog  Coordinator

Helene Blowers speaks on Digital Natives

Who are Digital  Natives?  According to an accepted definition, they are people born after 1980.  Some of them are as young as 1-1/2 years old!   In 1983, the first cell phone was introduced–they were 3 then!  As we build  services for them, we  must keep in mind that they have always been surrounded by technology. 

The first Web was built on “Find”, now it’s built on connecting and access.  Engagement is critical; it won the election of 2008.  Lots of people are still  chasing information instead of learning how to get it to come to them.  If you’re not using social media, you are still stuck back in the “Find” era.

Here are 9 Realities of Digital Natives:

• They have an online identity and it’s how they assert their authority online.  Social networks are where they are leaving their footprints. 
• Creativity is  very important to Digital Natives.  They want to leave their imprint and are “cultural consumers”.   Creativity fuels their self-expression, which explains why remixing content is so important to them.
• Quality of information is crucial to the functioning of an information society built on digital natives.  Social responsibility is part of quality.  We must learn how to shape our information to enable it to travel easily over the networks.  Even Encyclopedia Britannica has recognized that there are advanatage of socially editing information, and it has launched a wiki.
• Safety.  Digital Natives have grown up in a physical world that is perceived to be safe, but there is a paranoia that the Web very unsafe.  But a recent National  School  Board study has shown that less than 0.1% have met someone they met online.  Digital Natives are smart and have been taught to exercise safe practices online.
• Opportunity.  Every day the Internet becomes more important for society.  There are no barriers for Digital Natives; the playing field has been leveled.  They have a huge sandbox to play in! You can edit videos, make mashups, etc., and all you need is a computer and access.  Our libraries provide that.
• Piracy.   The world of Digital Natives is based on sharing, so what we may call piracy is regarded as  sharing.  Only 3% of Digital Natives believe that sharing is criminal and should be punished.  Remix contests are springing up; Creative Commons has encouraged content use.  You are no longer known by what you own, but by what you share.
• Privacy.  Is there any such thing in the digital world?  If your library isn’t paying to social networks, that should be a wakeup call!  “Lifestreaming” is a new trend–Digital Natives can trace their life history online.  Maybe  librarians  should become  “lifebrarians”!
• Advocacy.  Online voices can be an advocate and can create leadership potential.

What does this mean for libraries?  Young minds, virtual users, and power users lead to enhanced opportunities  to read and grow,  connected individuals and communities, and wildly enthusiastic users.  Customers must connect with library staff, services,  and each other in meaningful ways.  Blowers said that at the Columbus, OH Metropolitan Library, where she is Digital Strategy Director, strategies of engagement, enrichment, and empowerment form the framework in defining new services for users. 

What’s a great birthday present for a Digital Native?  Buy them their own domain name!

Helene’s slides are on Slideshare.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and CIL 2009 Blog Coordinator

Paul Holdengraber finished his keynote interview with a wonderful story illustrating the importance of librarians.  It seems that when Barack Obama was looking for his first job, he visited the Mid-Manhattan Library, and a librarian there gave him a directory of organizations in Chicago, and one of them hired him.  Paul read this quotation from the New York Daily News issue of November 9, 2008 (you can read it on the I Love Libraries website:

“I got my job through … the New York Public Library.

That might well be the slogan of an ad campaign suited to an era when
unemployment is rising and the U.S. is shedding hundreds of thousands of
jobs a month.

As a reminder that local libraries offer extensive job-search resources,
here’s how Barack Obama found his community organizing job in Chicago after
he graduated from Columbia University.

In 2005, he told American Libraries magazine:

‘People always mention libraries in terms of just being sources for reading
material or research. But I probably would not be in Chicago were it not
for the Manhattan public library, because I was looking for an organizing
job and was having great trouble finding a job as a community organizer in
New York.

‘The Mid-Manhattan Library had these books of lists of organizations, and
the librarian helped me find these lists of organizations, and I wrote to
every organization. One of them wound up being an organization in Chicago
that I got a job with.’

The help is still there, and in even greater sophistication. Check it out.”

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and CIL 2009 Blog Coordinator