Jim and I had been debating the title for a couple of months, but it really came down to the fact that it seems that most folks familiar with the term “camp” generally expect camps to be free. Obviously, we are charging a modest fee to attend ($175 – $195). We decided to change the name of the June 6th conference from Online Community Camp to Online Community Unconference.
We felt “unconference” was more true to the spirit of Open Space technology, which is the methodology we are employing during the event. We have hired a facilitator, Kaliya Hamlin, who will help us complete the agenda-setting exercise first thing on the morning of the conference, and form then on, the session content of the event is in the hands of the attendees.
For those who don’t know ( I didn’t until a couple of months ago) Open Space has been around since the mid 80′s, when Harrison Owen formalized the methodology:
http://www.openspaceworld.com/brief_history.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Space_Technology
So, we are leaving the concept of “camp” to Foo, Bar and John Waters. We hope you will join us for the Online Community Unconference June 6, at the Computer History Museum.
