Walt Crawford brought together some thoughts in Unconferences and Library Camps. (I remember Library Camp… I got poison ivy and scratched for two weeks after that all along my bookmark… )
He offered a definition:
“An unconference is a non-invitational conference or portion of a conference with relatively low (or no) registration fees in which there is no traditional extended program planning process. Most or all presentations and sessions are decided on by the participants in the conference, either at the beginning of the conference or in a brief period before the conference. In a good unconference, all or almost all participants are participants, not just audience.”
Anyway, the “structure” of it goes rather like:
“Starting out
In a “pure” unconference, the first session of the day will determine what happens the rest of the day.
- Attendees gather to suggest topics or presentations or to add to previous suggestions, frequently using butcherpaper or whiteboards to gather suggestions.
- Depending on the number of suggestions, it may be necessary to vote for the most popular and it may be desirable to cluster multiple possibilities into broader sessions.
- The agenda for the day is set.
- This process frequently involves a facilitator to assure that every suggestion has a fair chance but also to assure that the opening session arrives at an agenda and doesn’t descend into chaos.”
Walt also has Unconference and Library Camp practices along with a number of related links.
This gives those of us who haven’t been to one (including yours personally) some idea of what may go on to get this in motion on the day of days.
So I like a little structure to my lack of structure.
– Dennis Van Arsdale, UA Fort Smith
Dennis G. Van Arsdale