Class Project for Digital Culture
The following entry is a description of the project I plan to do for a class I'm enrolled in. The class is Digital Culture and is taught by Terry Brooks. It's at UW in the Ischool.
A note to readers: I'm posting about this project here on the blog for a couple of reasons. In this class, Terry pushes us to think about how we are beings living in the world of digital culture. We can submit our assignments electronically or otherwise - I'm doing mine here since the blog seems like an extension of my digital self. Also, I want to make public my interest in the topic below as both a member of the community but also as an academic to study the phenomenon in its context.
Project Title:
Inside the unconference: a participatory ethnography
Description:
According to Wikipedia, "an unconference is a term that arose in the geek community to describe a conference where the content of the meeting is driven and created by the participants rather than by a single organizer." The session topics at an unconference are generated by participants on the fly during the event. Sessions are often run by a moderator but often in a cooperative format that places audience participation as the central focus. These events often include unconventional activities that include sleepovers, gaming sessions, and slams. The origin of unconferences came out of developer communities and the open source movement. The attendees of an unconference are affiliated mostly within digital space through the proliferation of blogs and personal websites. For many attendees unconferences are opportunities to meet and have conversations in real time and physical space. This topic of unconferences aligns with software design methodologies like user-centered design or participatory design, but turns their focus to a new domain: the traditional professional conference.
April 29 an unconference called Mind Camp 2.0 will be held in Seattle. As an attendee, I will be involved as both a participant and a volunteer (also known as camp counselors). My aim is to examine this phenomenon from the inside by observing, documenting and discussing the experience of attending Mind Camp. I hope to ask questions of attendees that include but are not limited to the following:
Comments and feedback are always welcome.
A note to readers: I'm posting about this project here on the blog for a couple of reasons. In this class, Terry pushes us to think about how we are beings living in the world of digital culture. We can submit our assignments electronically or otherwise - I'm doing mine here since the blog seems like an extension of my digital self. Also, I want to make public my interest in the topic below as both a member of the community but also as an academic to study the phenomenon in its context.
Project Title:
Inside the unconference: a participatory ethnography
Description:
According to Wikipedia, "an unconference is a term that arose in the geek community to describe a conference where the content of the meeting is driven and created by the participants rather than by a single organizer." The session topics at an unconference are generated by participants on the fly during the event. Sessions are often run by a moderator but often in a cooperative format that places audience participation as the central focus. These events often include unconventional activities that include sleepovers, gaming sessions, and slams. The origin of unconferences came out of developer communities and the open source movement. The attendees of an unconference are affiliated mostly within digital space through the proliferation of blogs and personal websites. For many attendees unconferences are opportunities to meet and have conversations in real time and physical space. This topic of unconferences aligns with software design methodologies like user-centered design or participatory design, but turns their focus to a new domain: the traditional professional conference.
April 29 an unconference called Mind Camp 2.0 will be held in Seattle. As an attendee, I will be involved as both a participant and a volunteer (also known as camp counselors). My aim is to examine this phenomenon from the inside by observing, documenting and discussing the experience of attending Mind Camp. I hope to ask questions of attendees that include but are not limited to the following:
- What appealed to you about Mind Camp? Why did you decide to attend?
- What do you get out of an unconference that is different from a regular conference?
- Describe how the experience has or might potentially influence you?
- How did the experience match or disrupt your expectations?
- Why meet in person? Why not continue meeting digitally? What about physical space adds or detracts from community?
- live blogging
- note taking
- digital pictures
- material artifacts
- others...
Comments and feedback are always welcome.
posted by Emma Rose @ 16:34
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