http://www.simonbrown.je/blog/tags/barcamp/ My thoughts on software development and technology ... now from Jersey in the Channel Islands! en Simon Brown Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:24:22 GMT Pebble (http://pebble.sourceforge.net) http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.simonbrown.je/blog/2006/08/16/unconferencing_behind_the_corporate_firewall.html <p> Behind the corporate firewall we run regular after-work events where people can share their knowledge and experience about a particular topic. Typically these topics are of a technical nature and we usually get a cross-section of people attending. It's a great way to get people together from multiple disparate client sites while providing a way to share knowledge at the same time. Traditionally we run 2 or 3 twenty minute sessions in the classic presentation style. That is, people come prepared with slide-shows that they want to present and we have a few minutes for Q&A afterwards. </p> <p> This month, I wanted to try something a bit different and we went <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp">BarCamp</a>/<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference">unconferenece</a> style, condensed down into a couple of hours. We still had the same number of sessions take place and they were still of a technical nature. The difference, however, was that each session was more of a roundtable discussion. During each session, a few PowerPoint slides or a short demo introduced the topic or kept it on track, but that was it. Rather than everybody facing the presenter with a blank stare on their face, we quickly formed a circle and everybody started interacting. And I do mean everybody, which is quite a change from the norm. </p> <p> I'm really pleased with the outcome. It felt quite relaxed and although we sometimes deviated from the topic that we were <i>supposed</i> to be discussing, everbody seemed to get something out of it. Compare this more natural conversational format to presenters nervously delivering their content and I think we have a useful alternative format for our regular knowledge sharing events. I'm now even more convinced that the BarCamp/unconferencing format can work behind a corporate firewall although we still have a few things to work out yet. For example, how do we best distribute the notes that were taken during the sessions? How do we convince more people to come along? Which topics work best in this format and which should be shared via the normal presentation mechanism? These questions, along with others are still to be addressed. An internal <a href="http://pebble.sourceforge.net">blog</a> is probably best, but then I'm baised. </p> http://www.simonbrown.je/blog/2006/08/16/unconferencing_behind_the_corporate_firewall.html#comments http://www.simonbrown.je/blog/2006/08/16/unconferencing_behind_the_corporate_firewall.html Wed, 16 Aug 2006 09:49:00 GMT