Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Reviewing a Conference Blog

I think I mentioned this site a while back - a conference that actively encouraged blogging as part of the whole experience. Now we can read back and see what they created together. Building Learning Communities 2004:
"This site serves as a multi-author weblog highlighting sessions, activities and events from the Building Learning Communities 2004 Conference. We are blogging sessions, workshops, meetings, and social gatherings to share our perspectives, ideas, resources and thoughts on the conference.."

1 Comments:

Blogger Chris said...

At the recent Giving Conference that Michael Herman and I helped to run in Chicago in July, blogging and wikis were made a key part of the conference. The conference began as a result of discussion on the Happy Tutor's blog, http://www.wealthbondage.com and continued on several blogs. Before the conference http://www.gifthub.org was set up and also the conference wiki at http://www.globalchicago.net/giving.

Bloggers were specifically invited to attend because it was felt that to start something rolling, we would need storytellers to carry it forward. It worked. Several blogs were started at the conference, and in total there are probably a dozen people STILL publically telling the story of what happened and bringing conversation to a wider audience. A listserv was set up to support communication and post-conference discussion among participants, and a series of conference calls (like Practice of Peace) was used.

It all works I think because we especially invited people who come with their own tools. There was not one piece of software that everyone had to learn and use to connect through. The wiki was only a starting point, and the conference spirit stayed alive as people communicated with each other and to the wider world in their own ways. Those that caught the bug started their own blogs and continue to contribute to evolving thinking that way, saying things in their own way, with their own design and in the context of their own lives and work.

A diversity of voices needs to be supported by both a diversity of media and the whole passion-bounded-by-responsibility thing. All of this post-conference technology has been set up by participants themselves. There is no webmaster, no central place for conversation, no one in control.

It's a pretty good case to study, IMHO!

2:39 PM  

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