Blogger+Unconference

[|Steve Hargadon] > I agree with the idea of trying to allow people to stay close to NECC--for booking hotels, etc. I'm curious as to how Anita responds to this suggestion, because clearly time is of the essence, and who sponsors it will make a big difference in terms of organization.
 * Idea:** An un-conference, blogger-con style conference, an EduBloggerCon.
 * Would Need:**
 * An organizer
 * A venue--I think that through Jerrie Cheek we might be able to use Kennesaw State U. which is about 30-40 minutes northwest of the city depending on traffic. We would have to schedule this fairly soon, however, and I would think we would need to think about some busses to shuttle the participants up and back...
 * Comments:**

[|David Warlick] > I like the idea of doing this at a university. I think that the academic atmosphere would be a plus. The transportation would be an issue on several levels. Cost for one -- but we may find a sponsor for this. Apple may sponsor it for the rights to podcast the who thing. Just an idea. But the idea of spending an hour on a bus to go to a edubloggercon, when everyone has come to Atlanta for the conference seems a little strange, unless we could use the bus ride to accomplish something.

> I still think it would be good if we could come back (from the mountain, so to speak), with some kind of document, agreement, strategy, treaty, or something.

[|Will Richardson]: > What if we did a one-day EdBlogger Meetup/Conference on either side of NECC next year? Kind of a separate event. Or maybe NECC would include it as a preconference day/slate? What do you think? [|Will Richardson]: > I spoke at a really interesting conference up in Newport a few weeks ago. Basically, there was a keynote, but that was the only thing that was planned. The conference started with an evening get together/dinner, and they put up a bunch of pieces of newsprint down the hallway and asked for ideas to present/discuss over the two days. If you had one, you put it at the top and then as people came along they signed up to participate/facilitate. The next morning, the whole conference was planned, and the ideas were all user generated. It was great. > Obviously, we could do that with a wiki. And instead of a keynote, maybe we could think more creatively and do something much more interactive with the entire group...blog bonding of sorts. Dunno...just some thoughts. > It would be good if NECC had a hand in it, but it would also be cool to do this on our own. Maybe at a local college like Kennesaw State (I know some folks there.) [|David Warlick]: > What you're describing reminds me of something called the "un-conference". I agree that it would work well on a wiki, so that preliminaries could be handled without much heartache at the event. I would be nice if an outcome of such an event could be a document, designed to help educators span the divide between blog-hostile attitudes and blog-friendly ones, print it (egads, did I say that out loud), and them hand it out at the conference. Scott Walters: > I wonder what you think of this: what if there was a day or two pre-NECC meet-up in Asheville, which is about 3 hours from Atlanta? I would probably be able to handle arrangements, and some people might bring their families and have them vacation in Asheville while they attend NECC. Just a thought. Perhaps this, with a couple NECC panels that would present the “findings” of this pre-conference meet-up, would help to get this conversation started. [|Will Richardson]: > I really like the idea of having the un-conference the day before NECC and then having a NECC presentation or two to present the findings/work/goals/conversations etc. I just wonder if it might be better to have it closer to Atlanta so that people can make arrangements for just one hotel, etc. That's why I was thinking Kennesaw State which is less than an hour. Or maybe Anne has some connections at Georgia State which is right downtown. That would be even better. That way, at least, more people could/would attend. Scott Walters: > Will makes a good point about being close to Atlanta -- it would be easier to make arrangements for only one hotel. And I'm not certain how many people we are talking here -- 10? 20? 30? More? I think the choice of site has more to do with the psychological distance you want to create. Asheville would be more like a retreat, whereas someplace else in Atlanta would be more like an extension of NECC. (I also don't know how many people bring their families with them to NECC, and whether Asheville is more family-friendly than Atlanta.) Either way, what would be most important would be to have someone "on the ground" at the site making arrangements, so it is good that Will knows people at Kennesaw State. In Asheville, I have some experience with this from my days at Illinois State University, when I oversaw arrangements for 3000 high school theatre kids to come to the university for a theatre conference (gawd help me). Just as a side note: I might be able to arrange for shuttles from the Atlanta airport to Asheville and back again for those who want to fly in and out of Atlanta.) I'm not trying to push Asheville too hard -- whatever you all think best -- but Asheville is very "funky" (it is sort of an artsy hippy-town that Rolling Stone called the "freak capital of the US"), which might set the proper free-spirited mood...or not! I also know that UNC Asheville, where I teach, is very interested in having more academic summer institutes on the campus during the summer. > About the conversation itself, I'd like to suggest one early "event" (session? mash-up?) that takes the form of the World Cafe (http://theworldcafe.com/cafetogo.pdf). It is a conversation technique that would allow people to get to know each other in smaller groups in a very productive way. We'd need to have a central problem/question/topic to serve as a starting point. I have used the World Cafe in a variety of settings, and it has been quite effective. [|Vicki Davis] To get participants, it needs to not be much of a hassle. One day before or after in Atlanta would be great. If people could just stay in place for one more day it would limit the expense (and gas) costs. Many bloggers like myself are going to be precluded from traveling an additional day. Travel time is less time spent communicating with others. It also might make it difficult for round trip flights etc. I have contacts at Ga Tech (since I went there) and some fascinating educational wiki research is going on there. We may have some ability to have it hosted there before or after if there is enough interest, I could pursue it and ask around. The conference needs to model efffective web 2.0 practices but efforts need to be taken to keep out hype from vendors, splogs into tagging, and allow some real dissemination of information to go on. The nice thing about having it before the conference is that you build momentum and that people are not so overloaded that they cannot think. They also can think more clearly without the fatigue that sets in after a while. I liked the "birds of a feather" work that I heard about at NECC. That type of thing is a great way to pull people in. We cannot exclude newbies.. I was one last November and many intelligent contributors to the cause remain out there untapped.

Anita McAnear This seems to be the idea everyone is the most excited about! It probably can be at NECC on a preconference day, if that is what you decide to go with.