Gov Barcamp is coming together at last - BarcampUKGovweb

Message from discussion Gov Barcamp is coming together at last

Rob .

More options 7 Jan 2008, 11:23

From: "Rob ." <rob.02...@gmail.com>

Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2008 11:23:26 +0000

Local: Mon 7 Jan 2008 11:23

Subject: Re: [BarcampUKGovweb] Re: Gov Barcamp is coming together at last

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Great to see it all coming together!

At all BarCamp events I've attended in the past, participants made a
schedule on each day. This is part of the magic of the unconference:
you give the participants freedom to express their ideas, and you
maximize, not for structure, but for serendipity.

Some of the best presentations I've seen have been a synthesis of many
ideas and defy categorization. It'd be a
shame if we miss out on seeing such presentations due to perceived
schedule category constraints. Also it'd be a shame if opportunities
for cross fertilization are missed because all people who self
identify themselves with one stream title don't see any people from
the others.

My suggestion, for consideration by others, is that we drop the stream titles.

Rob

On Jan 6, 2008 11:02 PM, Jeremygould <jeremygo...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Fair points Richard. Its not meant to be prescriptive but more
> encouraging for those who have informally expressed an interest but
> have not signed up yet. In particular, this means those working on
> web stuff inside government/public sector. There's a list of great
> people signed up who have loads of expertise and experience to share.
> But in my mind, if the people who actually do this stuff aren't there
> then we are all missing a trick and an opportunity to create a common
> vision about what we should be doing and how.

> All we are trying to do is stimulate some debate around the content
> of the day in advance so that people have an idea about, 1. what to
> expect and 2. where they might fit in. But it is all completely open
> for debate, amendment and change depending on what the participants
> want.

> I still think there's plenty of space in the day for the kind of
> stuff you are interested in.

> Incidentally, I understand that there is a further event planned for
> March which is much more focused on use of data, mash-ups, civic
> hacking etc in particular rather than improving the way government
> uses the web generally, but I am not involved in that one so can't
> give you any more detail than that. Will ask around though and try
> and update you.

> Jeremy

> On 6 Jan 2008, at 22:19, memespring wrote:

> > Great stuff!

> > Sorry if this sounds a little negative, but the structure sounds a
> > bit, um structured. Looking down the list of people wanting to talk on
> > the wiki, they dont all seem to fit neatly into the categories below
> > (mainly the civic hacking peeps). And it makes what the wiki promises
> > to be a very interesting event an bit dry.

> > Unconference things like this Ive been to before have worked best when
> > this kind of thing is worked out on the day, or just a random
> > allocation of slots/rooms.

> > Great thats its up and running though :)

> > Richard

> > --
> > /*
> > richard [at] memespring.co.uk
> > ++447976 730458
> > www.memespring.co.uk
> > memespring (twitter/skype/flickr/etc)

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