full posts
Conference format
More and more I begin to understand that I've been spoiled with going to open space format BlogWalk meetings. I agree on everything Ton says about the Creative Capital Conference in A story of form and content. Johnnie Moore is for all I know the one that put Ton on the open space format for the BlogWalk sessions and he not only agrees with him on formatting rules for conferences, but caught himself in the act going to "exactly the kind of event [he] would avoid these days":
It's the people that show up at the same place at the same time that makes conferences worthwhile. So what would happen if as an organizer of a conference you would only state the topic you want to discuss beforehand? Wouldn't that be enough to gather the same people in the same room for conversations?
Creative Capital Conference
Last week I attended the Creative Capital Conference in Amsterdam, a conference about creativity, innovation and the environment we need in the future. It was a good opportunity for me to meet new people, and a good opportunity for some of The Dutch Connection to strengthen our relationships. As all conferences, the most interesting part happens between the program. It's the social event that makes it worthwhile. However, the keynoters were worth listening to as well. I especially enjoyed Charles Leadbeater and Joi Ito . They both are excellent speakers, stepping away from the lectern and connecting with their audience. Another conference which made clear the value of the ability to speak for an audience. The funny thing is everyone can learn to do it as long as you're willing to connect with the people in the room.
Charles Leadbeater spoke about innovation in terms of the ability for mass self-organization and that the pro-am users are the driving change in society (think of the impact of the blogosphere for instance). I liked his Swarm-model, but since the slides are still not on-line I can't share the elements of this model here (note to self: never rely on the organization for providing slides).
During the conference people tended to talk in extremes: the current models and organizations are lacking flexibility for the future, let's think of something new. Leadbeater emphasized that there is a continuum. There are organizations that are totally open (Linux) and at the other end of the spectrum there are closed ones. Some of the closed ones will benefit from small steps in the direction of the open model, some of the open organizations will benefit to become more closed. This polarization of the world is something I've noticed many times before and I wonder whether it is part of Dutch culture, European attitude or simply human condition.
In the first break-out session on Thursday there was a discussion on the educational system and how the educational system can contribute to a creative and innovative society. Again people were talking of radical change, mentioning new models like Iederwijs. Leadbeater disagreed with changing the systems and argued that increasing interaction should be emphasized. That's exactly what I've been doing with my experiment blog in the classroom (and I brought this point into the discussion). In my view Dutch education is excellent for providing a good basis to become a knowledgeable individual. However, within the system there are certain things lacking: passion (perfectly under scribed by someone of the organizing party, stating that learning is not fun), creativity, flexibility. When interviewing the students for my experiment I sat at the teacher's coffee table for 10 minutes. The amount of cynicism in the room was stunning. No wonder I spent several years in therapy to get a more positive attitude (I've been tought by the same people for seven years). If teachers act like that, they will teach it too. A lack of creativity in my view is the lack of being able to spot the little opportunities that could make teaching easier/more fun/more inspirational/ ... The lack of flexibility is probably something that goes for all organizations. As human beings we build something, simply because it improves our life. Whenever another human being starts breaking down our buildings we get defensive and are only interested in preserving what is already there. Instead we should start listening to each other and try to figure out how we can make existing buildings better. Sometimes the best solution is to take a building down and make room for something new, but very often small changes inside the building can make big improvements in the flow of creativity and communication. Let me put it this way. Most of the time we don't need a revolution to change. Instead, little steps will create a new evolutionary path (thanks to Ton for pointing out the difference between these two).
Listening to podcasts
I've been listening to some of the podcasts of Neville Hobson and Shel Holz. I really like what they're doing and they invite interesting guests. The only downside is that I have to sit at my desk to listen to the podcasts since I don't own a MP3 player to download them. I've noticed that I find it very difficult to keep listening to it while restrained to my desk. When listening to a speaker in the same room, I normally don't experience difficulties with multitasking during listening. I can look up stuff in the Net, check my e-mail, write an e-mail and listen to the speaker at the same time. While listening to a podcast I need all the attention for the one task and therefore get bored after a while. I'm curious why. What exactly is missing when listening to a podcast? Obviously, the person your listening to is not physically present at the same time and therefore doesn't 'force' you to listen to him or her socially. Would it be any different when there would be video streams available of the podcasters? But then it wouldn't be podcasting anymore, since you would be forced to sit at your desk to listen AND view the podcast. I think the solution for me would be to listen while walking around the house (or outside), but why are MP3 players so expensive? (at least the ones I would like to buy don't come cheap)
BlogTalks 2.0
This weekend a nice surprise in my analog mailbox: a copy of BlogTalks 2.0. Feels good to have written something that is 'realy' published. A big THANK YOU for Thomas and his team. So what's next? Writing my own book? Wishful thinking probably!
