Unconferences: Ur Doin It Wrong!

Reading the excellent page by Walt Crawford on unconferences and library camps on the PALINET Leadership Network site, it occurred to me that perhaps the attempts to define what is and isn't an unconference are kind of pointless. Questions like the following are often used to decide if an event truly fits into the unconference model:

• Are there are invited speakers?
• Is there is a registration fee (even a modest one)?
• Are any attendees invited?

As Crawford notes, "the whole point is to provide a forum for participants to discuss what they want, when they want." I would definitely agree with that but would make a stronger argument for the element of participation by all attendees (or at least the possibility for participation) being the key element. What makes an unconference unique is the way it is engineered from the start to enable as much active participation by all attendees as possible. Maybe it would be better to think of any conference (traditional, virtual, unconference, whatever) and measure how participatory it is designed to be. Some events will fall on either end of the participation spectrum (from tons to none) while most others will be scattered in between (a bell curve).

When planning an event, the organizers should focus on just how participatory they want the event to be for attendees. Getting caught up in debates whether an event hews to the one true model of unconferences can be seen then as more of a distraction that doesn't serve attendees or organizers very well. Instead, the focus can be on to what extent the event will maximize the potential for all involved to share knowledge.

On a related note, if you happen to be going to Computers in Libraries next week, I'll be on a panel on March 31 (1:30 - 2:15 pm) with John Blyberg, Kathryn Greenill, and Steve Lawson (from whom I expect to learn a lot) on the subject of unconferences (details here).

Twitter as a Q&A Service

Thanks to a Twitter message from Dana Longley (aka disobedientlib on Twitter) I learned today about an interesting attempt to turn a subset of Twitter messages into a Q&A service. AskOnTwitter searches for any tweet with the phrase "Does anyone know" and displays them on its home page. Typically, those messages are questions in which someone is using Twitter to query a broad audience. AskOnTwitter aggregates all those tweets and gives you a way to reply to them using your own Twitter account.

For example, on the home page of AskOnTwitter just now was this message:

Does anyone know how to update my Twitter and Facebook at the same time? Thanks! Jackie : )

Clicking that tweet opens a new page on AskOnTwitter for just that question that gives you a link to use to "Send an Answer." Clicking "Send an Answer" then opens the Twitter home page where you can enter your answer (the box where you type already has filled in the @ symbol and the Twitter account for the person who asked the question).

This seems like another opportunity for librarians to publicly offer their assistance in the tradition of the Slam the Boards project that was launched a year and a half ago.

Related Posts from Digital Reference

• Reference services and Twitter (May 2, 2007)

Digital Dilemmas event on April 16

My friend Jason Kucsma at METRO has helped put together what looks to be a great one-day event on digital libraries, which is described this way:

Digital Dilemmas is a day-long symposium addressing some of the key strategic issues facing libraries as they work through what we might understatedly refer to as a "digital transition period." Digital Dilemmas brings together nationally recognized experts who will: outline the primary challenges facing academic libraries in a digital world; provide an understanding of the digital information economy and its effect on scholarship; and suggest future opportunities for academic libraries. The symposium will provide librarians and library administrators with the opportunity to learn from leaders in the field and network with colleagues from the region working to address these challenges and seize potential opportunities.

I hope I can find a way to go myself. Getting there should be easy: it will be held four floors above me in the library building at Baruch College where I work.

Roving reference at Darien Library

I'm excited to be attending a free, one-day event on the future of libraries at the Darien Library in a few weeks (details and sign up for the event are on this wiki). In addition to the Microsoft Surface computer that has been set up in the children's room, I am eager to see how the library runs its reference service, which was described in a Library Journal article ("New Library Opens in Darien, CT; First LEED Gold Building in Region," 12 January 2009) this way:

On the third floor, reference desks give way to a hybrid service model. Roving staffers are equipped with mini-laptops but can land as needed at small reference "touchdown spaces" for collaborative, side-by-side searching with patrons.

Reading this reminds me of something John Blyberg, the Assistant Director for Innovation and User Experience at the Darien Library, said some time ago about how library staff in the new building would handle situations where a book being sought by a patron was not in the library's collection: the laptop-equipped library staffer would place an order for the book right then and there. I can only imagine how positively patrons might react to such a level of customer service.

Reference Kiosk Using Skype

Earlier this week, Chad Boeninger at Ohio University posted this nice video update of how his library's reference kiosk that uses Skype is working out.