Talk:Main Page
From Sweden Social Web Camp
What happened to the Uncompromized Unconference / Open Space In Full idea?
Wondering:
Why only 20 and 40 min?
Why divide ONLY in one hour each?
Why not 10 and 5 minute speaking slots as well?
Why more single-talking heads and less peer to peer conversation?
What happened to the open space idea?
Why not trust the self-organizing forces in full?
Why not open up for those who want to converse a full loop, say with intros from those caring about a topic enough that they come with a pre-history and pre-understanding, and give 1 minute each in a circle, and then let conversation begin?
Why not let some sessions be two hours, if they get to be that way?
/Anders Abrahamsson
My thoughts/answers to these questions
Why only 20 & 40 minutes? This splits the day up nicely/easily with breaks and also allows for overruns of sessions (most people massivley underestimate how long something will take!)
Why 1 hour? I think that that sort of time feels natural to most people, and makes the day easier to plan around.
There is nothing to stop a session from continuing for as long as the people participating want it to. Also, as session facilitator you could put up a two hour session on the grid or "make a new space" to allow that to happen.
Trust of self-organising forces? For many of the attendees, this was their first experience of anything like an unconference, so some structure allows them to feel more comfortable, and get the hang of things
When there is a small attendance (10-50) having less (almost zero) structure to the day can work really well, but as the numbers grow, I think then more extensive use of a Grid makes sense. Maybe because the co-ordination problem becomes exponentially harder? or as the number of attendees grows, the number of sessions that sound interesting grows?
Why not short talks? Nothing stopping someone taking a 40 minute slot for short talks of whatever format. Although this idea may be more suitable for more formal conferences, as one of the guiding principles of unconferences is that everyone participates.
Talking-Head Vs Discussion? I guess it feels safer to attend a session if it is more talking-head (the "I know nothing" syndrome?). And again, the under-estimation of how long it takes to set the scene is a likely contributing factor.
Regarding the "full-loop" thing, again, nothing stopping a group of attendees from preparing it, and seeking a slot on the Grid.
