Unconferenz 2009

Photo: Quilldancer.com's Flickr Photostream

What do you call a bunch of geeks huddled together in a room? Well, it depends.  If it’s just a few geeks, it’s probably a consultation, or if they know each other, likely just dinner at home.  If it’s a dozen or so geeks, it’s probably a meetup or a Tweetup.  But once it gets into the 50+ arena, something bigger must be going on.  And that’s exactly what happened on Saturday when I attended Unconferenz 2009.  Mind you, geeks have come a long way from the pocket-protector variety of last millenium.  In the area of social media, almost everyone’s getting on board. The event was held at the Japan-America Institute of Management Science (JAIMS) facility in Hawaii Kai and sponsored in part by the High Tech Development Corporation (HTDC).

So what is an Unconferenz? According to the organizers, it’s a grassroots tech/Intern gathering to foster sharing and interaction amongst its participants.  Basically, it’s Hawaii’s local version of an unconference, a facilitated, participant-driven conference centered around a theme or purpose.  The “un” part stems from the practice of not confirming all the topics and speakers in advance.  Instead, they are finalized the day of the unconference.

Perhaps a quirky by-product of this open-mindedness is a bunch of people in a room wanting to discuss a certain topic, and then not having an actual presenter.  I saw this situation handled two different ways, but there are probably more.  In the first instance, one of the braver souls got up and started a discussion and then sharing issues and resources others could use.  I helped by being the support guy, displaying the websites as he talked about them, and Tweeting at the same time.  In another session, it was a group discussion after one person asked a couple question.

I’m all for the parachute-open mentality and the creativity it encourages.  However, I have to admit I actually do prefer a “regular” conference style when you know who will be talking, and exactly what they’ll be talking about.  Perhaps this is because of the topic “inflation” that happens at unconference-like events.  What I mean by this is when someone proposes a topic that is all-encompassing, or sensational, to get a lot of bodies in the session.  But when it gets down to business, it ends up being one or two people talking about their specific topic.  I guess it’s the nature of the beast, but be warned, if I’m duped, I have no problem walking out.  With so many choices that must be made between which sessions to attend, if I don’t like one, I’m going to find one I do like.

So if you didn’t attend Unconferenz 2009, here’s what you missed:

• 9 am:  Knowledge capture/documentation, Battle of the photosharing services, Second life – the current state of projects in Hawaii
• 10 am:  Digital libraries/digital archives, Google Android, Internet crime, Broadband infrastructure – the broadband task force
• 11 am:  Digitization – photos/audio/documents, Developing iPhone apps, Project management, Mindjet
• 12 noon:  Bento lunch – butterfish/chicken or teri beef/chicken
• 1 pm:  New media and news, Gadgets – show & tell, Beginner HTML/CSS/Ruby, Open source dashboard
• 2 pm:  Video streaming, Aperture, WordPress, CouchDB
• 3 pm:  Afternoon snack of a variety of ice creams and toppings

Admittedly, some of these topics were far above my head, but that’s a good way to learn something new, right?  The highlight of the day, for me, was meeting, in real life, the extremely talented Tino Valdez (@valdezign on Twitter), designer of the Twitter shirt.

In other geek/social media news, don’t forget, tomorrow is the Honolulu Twestival.  You can still buy tickets.  I’m going and would love to see you there, too.  Oh, and there’s talk of a WordCamp being held in Honolulu some time this summer, possible June or August.

Mahalo!

Tagged as: android, bento, broadband, google, grassroots, honolulu, htdc, iphone, jaims, mindjet, photosharing, twestival, Twitter, twitter shirt, unconference, unconferenz, valdezign, wordpress