attend Recent Changes Camp in Montreal, June 2010

All in all, I had a nice time, though not as mind-blowing as when I attended in 2008. It was refreshing to spend some time with other wiki people, with all their creativity and optimism and cooperativeness. Once again, a conference with no schedule defined beforehand resulted in lots of interesting sessions and several new ideas.

In the picture above, the founder of wikiHow is updating the schedule.

I ran one session, to which only three people showed up. It was titled “Memorable Cooperations”. The idea was that instead of talking about grand ideas, proposing future plans, or explaining anything, you would just tell about wiki edits (or other small, cooperative actions) that led to especially memorable acts of cooperation, where the group was truly smarter than any of the participants. I didn’t get a whole lot of stories, and mostly told my own. Perhaps I could have sold the session better. Or perhaps not; the four principles of Open Space are:

1. Whenever it starts is the right time.
2. Whoever shows up are the right people.
3. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened.
4. When it’s over, it’s over.

Two odd highlights for me were a special session that consisted of going to a pub and watching the World Cup (USA vs. Ghana), and hearing a lot of French spoken. It was held at a socialist soup kitchen called Comité social Centre-Sud. Also, here’s a weird observation about the Montreal subway: hardly anyone talks with each other while riding. Very different from the New York subway. 19 months ago

http://rococo2010.org

I attended this unconference in May 2008 when it was in Palo Alto, and had a wonderful time. The general topic is wikis. The word “unconference” means they don’t make the session schedule beforehand. At the start of the conference someone lays down a box of pens and paper. Then, whoever wants to run a session writes the topic on a sheet of paper and posts it on the wall with the schedule. The conference thus consists of whatever the people who actually showed up thought was interesting and important to talk about on that day.

I made the decision to attend at the last minute, and found that plane fares to Montreal were very expensive. So, I booked rides on Amtrak instead. I’m going through Chicago and New York, and I’ll have a one-night layover on New York. Excellent. I’ve been wanting to visit New York for years just to experience it, and a friend just recently invited me to visit him. 19 months ago