It’s Tuesday. The little one is playing in daycare, the husband is off to Amsterdam for a meeting and I’m at my desk at last, for the first time in what feels like ages. The clouds are still undecided to drop some rain or give way to the Sun. I hear rumbling in the distance. Rain and colder days are knocking on Summer’s door and that knowledge makes me long for an extension of the hottest summer in three centuries.
Two days passed since the last guest left and still I haven’t recovered fully. Between the day we left for a wedding party in Tuscany, celebrating the wedlock between our good friends Klaas and Amarens and today, two days after our own party on Friday and Saturday, there wasn’t much time to stop for a bit. Shopping needed to be done. Meat needed to be imported. Rooms needed to be cleared. Left overs needed to be taken care of. Floors needed to be cleaned. A two-year-old needed to be entertained. Sleep needed to be had.
Sixty something people had a lot of fun in our home and while their spirits trailed for a bit they are fading into the distance, too quickly. At the same time, while having a bit more time to reflect this Tuesday, fond memories are etched more clearly in my mind.
A Spotify playlist called A Walk Alone plays soft songs that reflect my mood perfectly. Happy, relaxed and gloomy. I flip through all the books that wait for me to be read, bravely resist opening the chocolate boxes while nibbling an Irish butter shortbread. The bottles of wine, beer and whiskey still need to find a place in our storage room.
Staring out of the window, I see the clouds make way for the Sun. I try to find words to describe what happened the past few days, but everything I write down feels incomplete and abstract. How do you put into words how much it means to you that friends travel across the world to attend your birthday party? That you can celebrate a new year in life with friends you haven’t been able to meet for four years (or longer)? Who’s lives have changed so drastically in those years, including my own, but still pick up where you left the conversation all those years before? How can I describe how much it means to me to be able to connect all those people Ton and I collected in our lives, bring them together in the same space and for all of them to hit it off? That they all openly exchanged life stories, inspired each other, geeked out together, built robots together?
It was an experience beyond words. It was, yet again, an epic birthday party.
A big hug for all who were there to make it epic. Thank you!
It’s Tuesday. The little one is playing in daycare, the husband is off to Amsterdam for a meeting and I’m at my desk at last, for the first time in what feels like ages. The clouds are still undecided to drop some rain or give way to the Sun. I hear rumbling in the distance. Rain and colder days are knocking on Summer’s door and that knowledge makes me long for an extension of the hottest summer in three centuries.
Two days passed since the last guest left and still I haven’t recovered fully. Between the day we left for a wedding party in Tuscany, celebrating the wedlock between our good friends Klaas and Amarens and today, two days after our own party on Friday and Saturday, there wasn’t much time to stop for a bit. Shopping needed to be done. Meat needed to be imported. Rooms needed to be cleared. Left overs needed to be taken care of. Floors needed to be cleaned. A two-year-old needed to be entertained. Sleep needed to be had.
Sixty something people had a lot of fun in our home and while their spirits trailed for a bit they are fading into the distance, too quickly. At the same time, while having a bit more time to reflect this Tuesday, fond memories are etched more clearly in my mind.
A Spotify playlist called A Walk Alone plays soft songs that reflect my mood perfectly. Happy, relaxed and gloomy. I flip through all the books that wait for me to be read, bravely resist opening the chocolate boxes while nibbling an Irish butter shortbread. The bottles of wine, beer and whiskey still need to find a place in our storage room.
Staring out of the window, I see the clouds make way for the Sun. I try to find words to describe what happened the past few days, but everything I write down feels incomplete and abstract. How do you put into words how much it means to you that friends travel across the world to attend your birthday party? That you can celebrate a new year in life with friends you haven’t been able to meet for four years (or longer)? Who’s lives have changed so drastically in those years, including my own, but still pick up where you left the conversation all those years before? How can I describe how much it means to me to be able to connect all those people Ton and I collected in our lives, bring them together in the same space and for all of them to hit it off? That they all openly exchanged life stories, inspired each other, geeked out together, built robots together?
It was an experience beyond words. It was, yet again, an epic birthday party.
A big hug for all who were there to make it epic. Thank you!
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My ‘on this day’ widget tells me it is exactly 10 years ago I asked the question in the title, then for my 40th birthday.
By coincidence, yesterday I opened a new note to gather notions and thoughts about if and how to do an unconference next year for my 50th, and Elmine’s 42nd (a nerd number even more worthy of celebration than my 50). I had created the note for discussion with Elmine, but prompted by my post of 10 years ago, I’ll ask the questions I jotted down here too.
Make Stuff That Matters, in 2014, still has a special vibe for us both. Also in comparison with last year’s edition (which was loads of fun and inspiring and deeply awesome in a personal sense, but in some ways it felt like less of a ‘high’ for us somehow). It was such a leap from the one before in 2010 mainly I think. It had a collective process to get everyone to make something, and the thrill of having the FabLab truck parked out front (we had it too last year, but it played less of a role). What would be something to top that? What would be ‘leveling up’ from our previous editions? Should we want to? We feel we want to.
What can we take on, topic wise, that has a real sense of urgency? Yet, can still be tied to all participants everyday lives? How are global things like the SDG’s relevant to our daily routines for instance?
Would we want to change the 1 day unconference and 1 day party format? We quite liked Peter’s 1 day discussion, 1 day doing unconference format last June, as it created space to not just be inspired but also build on that inspiration together within the same event, and return with something more tangible than just inspiration to take forward. Or maybe even longer than one or two days, more a festival than an event. Or fringe events around the one/two days?
Would we want to change the venue? I’m attached to doing it at home, as it provides such a different and personal context. Yet that also maybe limits what you can do content-wise. And it places the work of organising on our own shoulders only (although I could also mobilise more assistance probably).
Would we want to change the party format? Do something different, to make it more attractive on its own? Or maybe incorporate more of the party in the unconference? Live music e.g.
Would a longer build-up of the theme (whatever it would be) be fun? Like me and Elmine taking on a theme for the months in the run-up to the event, and write, blog, videopost about it. With an open invitation to others to also contribute their perspectives and thoughts. So that the event is not only a starting point, but a celebration or confirmation of things hat happened in the run-up?
Would it be fun and possible to network the event with other things happening or movements? Build alliances with local groups, national events, international communities? Grow deeper roots locally, allow more catalysis across our global network?
In short, everything is open and up for discussion and different ideas.
What do you think, feel, suggest? I look forward to hear your thoughts, and welcome your advice! (any channel is fine, e-mail, comments here, or a post on your own blog) -
My ‘on this day’ widget tells me it is exactly 10 years ago I asked the question in the title, then for my 40th birthday.
By coincidence, yesterday I opened a new note to gather notions and thoughts about if and how to do an unconference next year for my 50th, and Elmine’s 42nd (a nerd number even more worthy of celebration than my 50). I had created the note for discussion with Elmine, but prompted by my post of 10 years ago, I’ll ask the questions I jotted down here too.
Make Stuff That Matters, in 2014, still has a special vibe for us both. Also in comparison with last year’s edition (which was loads of fun and inspiring and deeply awesome in a personal sense, but in some ways it felt like less of a ‘high’ for us somehow). It was such a leap from the one before in 2010 mainly I think. It had a collective process to get everyone to make something, and the thrill of having the FabLab truck parked out front (we had it too last year, but it played less of a role). What would be something to top that? What would be ‘leveling up’ from our previous editions? Should we want to? We feel we want to.
What can we take on, topic wise, that has a real sense of urgency? Yet, can still be tied to all participants everyday lives? How are global things like the SDG’s relevant to our daily routines for instance?
Would we want to change the 1 day unconference and 1 day party format? We quite liked Peter’s 1 day discussion, 1 day doing unconference format last June, as it created space to not just be inspired but also build on that inspiration together within the same event, and return with something more tangible than just inspiration to take forward. Or maybe even longer than one or two days, more a festival than an event. Or fringe events around the one/two days?
Would we want to change the venue? I’m attached to doing it at home, as it provides such a different and personal context. Yet that also maybe limits what you can do content-wise. And it places the work of organising on our own shoulders only (although I could also mobilise more assistance probably).
Would we want to change the party format? Do something different, to make it more attractive on its own? Or maybe incorporate more of the party in the unconference? Live music e.g.
Would a longer build-up of the theme (whatever it would be) be fun? Like me and Elmine taking on a theme for the months in the run-up to the event, and write, blog, videopost about it. With an open invitation to others to also contribute their perspectives and thoughts. So that the event is not only a starting point, but a celebration or confirmation of things hat happened in the run-up?
Would it be fun and possible to network the event with other things happening or movements? Build alliances with local groups, national events, international communities? Grow deeper roots locally, allow more catalysis across our global network?
In short, everything is open and up for discussion and different ideas.
What do you think, feel, suggest? I look forward to hear your thoughts, and welcome your advice! (any channel is fine, e-mail, comments here, or a post on your own blog) -
Today Lane Becker is celebrating his 46th birthday. To mark the occasion he is organising a conference in Austin, Texas.
Bringing together a cool line-up of speakers, he asked us to do a live video conversation at the start. To explain a bit about the history of how Lane came to doing birthday conferences. A few months ago I described that some the ripples of our birthday unconferences are more birthday conferences, such as Peter’s last June, and that also includes Lane’s events.
We had a live conversation at the start of Lane’s birthday conference, and described the history of how we came to do our first unconference for Elmine’s birthday in 2008, and then the subsequent events. We also tried share some of the main things that stand out to us.
That doing an unconference at home, which started as a fluke, brings a special vibe to it all. Everyone behaves informally, you’re a guest in our home, but still get into deep conversations and do workshops and sessions. How we learned at Reboot that bringing kids makes everything more real, more human. People talk less bs on stage if their kids are around 🙂
That it is quite amazing to bring together people from all our various networks, and see how well they hit it off.
There’s always a moment during an unconference when you look around you and see the energy and how everyone’s engaged, when it hits me how awesome it is to be the hosts to that. And how awesome it is that so many of our friends make the effort to travel to us.
That the 2014 Make Stuff That Matters was probably the best one yet, as it turned us from just doing sessions, to also letting participants learn new skills. And having a 14 meter mobile FabLab parked in front was pretty impressive too 🙂
And we talked about how some participants feel a birthday unconference can be life changing, pivotal. We suspect it has a lot to do with that it’s rare to spend time together and have deep conversations, without pressing needs yet tied to things of importance to your own life.
Happy birthday Lane, we hope you and your friends have a great event! -
My friend Peter has been blogging for exactly 20 years yesterday. His blog is a real commonplace book, and way more than my blog, an eclectic mixture of personal things, professional interests, and the rhythm of life of his hometown. When you keep that up for long enough, decades even, it stops being a random collection and becomes a body of work, an œuvre. Œuvre really is the right word, according to Peter he’s written 2.67 million words. Novels on average have eighty thousand words, so Peter’s blog is over 33 novels long. Most novelists aren’t that prolific.
I’m a regular reader of Peter’s blog exactly because of the quirky mix of observations, travelogues, personal things, snippets of code, and reflection. To me the way he weaves all those things into one, is what we also tried to achieve with our Smart Stuff that Matters unconference (in which Peter participated): bringing global (technology) developments back to the size of your own home life, your own city life, and letting your life inform how you want to shape and use the tools available to you. So that, in the words of Heinz Wittenbrink (another participant last summer), when you discuss themes important to you, you actually are discussing the details of your own life:To list the themes [….of the sessions I attended…] fails to express what was special about the unconference: that you meet people or meet them again, for whom these themes are personal themes, so that they are actually talking about their lives when they talk about them. At an unconference like this one does not try to create results that can be broadcast in abstracted formulations, but through learning about different practices and discussing them, extend your own living practice and view it from new perspectives. These practices or ways of living cannot be separated from the relationships in which and with which you live, and the relationships you create or change at such an event like this.
Heinz’ last sentence in that quote “These practices or ways of living cannot be separated from the relationships in which and with which you live.” is true and important as well.
Of the 20 years Peter kept up his blog, I’ve known him for 14 years almost to the day, ever since we met in a Copenhagen hotel lobby mid June 2005. Our first meeting was aptly technology mediated. As Heinz wrote, our blogging practices cannot be separated from the relationships in which we live. Traces of our connections are visible through the years, building on each others thinking, meeting up in various places, visiting each others homes. Not just our specific connection but the shared connections to so many others.
Blogging isn’t just a reflection of our lives, but is an active part in weaving the connections that make up our lives.
Next week Peter organises an unconference, called Crafting {:} a Life. Modelled after Elmine’s and my unconference birthday parties, Peter is celebrating not just the 20 year milestone of his blog and his company. He’s celebrating in the same way he blogs, the completeness of our lives, both the sweet and the bitter. It’s in that contrast where beauty lives to me, and how we can appreciate the value of the connections we weave. Elmine and I will go visit Peter and his family, with 50 or so others, on Prince Edward Island in Canada in a few days.
Peter recently said about our and other participants coming to Canada from Europe
“It is humbling to consider that each of these old friends is coming across the ocean to join us for the simple act of spending time together talking about life for a while.”
We felt the same every time we did an edition of our unconferences. Elmine wrote last summer, looking back on her birthday unconference Smart Stuff That Matters:How do you put into words how much it means to you that friends travel [literally] across the world to attend your birthday party? … How can I describe how much it means to me to be able to connect all those people Ton and I collected in our lives, bring them together in the same space and for all of them to hit it off? That they all openly exchanged life stories, inspired each other, geeked out together, built robots together?
The simple act of spending time together talking about life for a while. is a rather rich and powerful thing to do, Peter, which packs the full complexity of being human. We look forward to seeing you, Cathrine and Oliver next week, as well as 50 or so others that came to form your ‘global village’ while you were engaged in blogging a life.
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My friend Peter has been blogging for exactly 20 years yesterday. His blog is a real commonplace book, and way more than my blog, an eclectic mixture of personal things, professional interests, and the rhythm of life of his hometown. When you keep that up for long enough, decades even, it stops being a random collection and becomes a body of work, an œuvre. Œuvre really is the right word, according to Peter he’s written 2.67 million words. Novels on average have eighty thousand words, so Peter’s blog is over 33 novels long. Most novelists aren’t that prolific.
I’m a regular reader of Peter’s blog exactly because of the quirky mix of observations, travelogues, personal things, snippets of code, and reflection. To me the way he weaves all those things into one, is what we also tried to achieve with our Smart Stuff that Matters unconference (in which Peter participated): bringing global (technology) developments back to the size of your own home life, your own city life, and letting your life inform how you want to shape and use the tools available to you. So that, in the words of Heinz Wittenbrink (another participant last summer), when you discuss themes important to you, you actually are discussing the details of your own life:To list the themes [….of the sessions I attended…] fails to express what was special about the unconference: that you meet people or meet them again, for whom these themes are personal themes, so that they are actually talking about their lives when they talk about them. At an unconference like this one does not try to create results that can be broadcast in abstracted formulations, but through learning about different practices and discussing them, extend your own living practice and view it from new perspectives. These practices or ways of living cannot be separated from the relationships in which and with which you live, and the relationships you create or change at such an event like this.
Heinz’ last sentence in that quote “These practices or ways of living cannot be separated from the relationships in which and with which you live.” is true and important as well.
Of the 20 years Peter kept up his blog, I’ve known him for 14 years almost to the day, ever since we met in a Copenhagen hotel lobby mid June 2005. Our first meeting was aptly technology mediated. As Heinz wrote, our blogging practices cannot be separated from the relationships in which we live. Traces of our connections are visible through the years, building on each others thinking, meeting up in various places, visiting each others homes. Not just our specific connection but the shared connections to so many others.
Blogging isn’t just a reflection of our lives, but is an active part in weaving the connections that make up our lives.
Next week Peter organises an unconference, called Crafting {:} a Life. Modelled after Elmine’s and my unconference birthday parties, Peter is celebrating not just the 20 year milestone of his blog and his company. He’s celebrating in the same way he blogs, the completeness of our lives, both the sweet and the bitter. It’s in that contrast where beauty lives to me, and how we can appreciate the value of the connections we weave. Elmine and I will go visit Peter and his family, with 50 or so others, on Prince Edward Island in Canada in a few days.
Peter recently said about our and other participants coming to Canada from Europe
“It is humbling to consider that each of these old friends is coming across the ocean to join us for the simple act of spending time together talking about life for a while.”
We felt the same every time we did an edition of our unconferences. Elmine wrote last summer, looking back on her birthday unconference Smart Stuff That Matters:How do you put into words how much it means to you that friends travel [literally] across the world to attend your birthday party? … How can I describe how much it means to me to be able to connect all those people Ton and I collected in our lives, bring them together in the same space and for all of them to hit it off? That they all openly exchanged life stories, inspired each other, geeked out together, built robots together?
The simple act of spending time together talking about life for a while. is a rather rich and powerful thing to do, Peter, which packs the full complexity of being human. We look forward to seeing you, Catherine and Oliver next week, as well as 50 or so others that came to form your ‘global village’ while you were engaged in blogging a life.
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My friend Peter has been blogging for exactly 20 years yesterday. His blog is a real commonplace book, and way more than my blog, an eclectic mixture of personal things, professional interests, and the rhythm of life of his hometown. When you keep that up for long enough, decades even, it stops being a random collection and becomes a body of work, an œuvre. Œuvre really is the right word, according to Peter he’s written 2.67 million words. Novels on average have eighty thousand words, so Peter’s blog is over 33 novels long. Most novelists aren’t that prolific.
I’m a regular reader of Peter’s blog exactly because of the quirky mix of observations, travelogues, personal things, snippets of code, and reflection. To me the way he weaves all those things into one, is what we also tried to achieve with our Smart Stuff that Matters unconference (in which Peter participated): bringing global (technology) developments back to the size of your own home life, your own city life, and letting your life inform how you want to shape and use the tools available to you. So that, in the words of Heinz Wittenbrink (another participant last summer), when you discuss themes important to you, you actually are discussing the details of your own life:To list the themes [….of the sessions I attended…] fails to express what was special about the unconference: that you meet people or meet them again, for whom these themes are personal themes, so that they are actually talking about their lives when they talk about them. At an unconference like this one does not try to create results that can be broadcast in abstracted formulations, but through learning about different practices and discussing them, extend your own living practice and view it from new perspectives. These practices or ways of living cannot be separated from the relationships in which and with which you live, and the relationships you create or change at such an event like this.
Heinz’ last sentence in that quote “These practices or ways of living cannot be separated from the relationships in which and with which you live.” is true and important as well.
Of the 20 years Peter kept up his blog, I’ve known him for 14 years almost to the day, ever since we met in a Copenhagen hotel lobby mid June 2005. Our first meeting was aptly technology mediated. As Heinz wrote, our blogging practices cannot be separated from the relationships in which we live. Traces of our connections are visible through the years, building on each others thinking, meeting up in various places, visiting each others homes. Not just our specific connection but the shared connections to so many others.
Blogging isn’t just a reflection of our lives, but is an active part in weaving the connections that make up our lives.
Next week Peter organises an unconference, called Crafting {:} a Life. Modelled after Elmine’s and my unconference birthday parties, Peter is celebrating not just the 20 year milestone of his blog and his company. He’s celebrating in the same way he blogs, the completeness of our lives, both the sweet and the bitter. It’s in that contrast where beauty lives to me, and how we can appreciate the value of the connections we weave. Elmine and I will go visit Peter and his family, with 50 or so others, on Prince Edward Island in Canada in a few days.
Peter recently said about our and other participants coming to Canada from Europe
“It is humbling to consider that each of these old friends is coming across the ocean to join us for the simple act of spending time together talking about life for a while.”
We felt the same every time we did an edition of our unconferences. Elmine wrote last summer, looking back on her birthday unconference Smart Stuff That Matters:How do you put into words how much it means to you that friends travel [literally] across the world to attend your birthday party? … How can I describe how much it means to me to be able to connect all those people Ton and I collected in our lives, bring them together in the same space and for all of them to hit it off? That they all openly exchanged life stories, inspired each other, geeked out together, built robots together?
The simple act of spending time together talking about life for a while. is a rather rich and powerful thing to do, Peter, which packs the full complexity of being human. We look forward to seeing you, Catherine and Oliver next week, as well as 50 or so others that came to form your ‘global village’ while you were engaged in blogging a life.
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Ik volg met interesse het blog van Elja Daae, die in 3 weken tijd een concept voor haar boek af wil schrijven. Omdat de uitgever het dan verwacht. Elke dag schrijft ze over haar voortgang en afwegingen. Inmiddels zijn we een week onderweg, met een eerste posting over het niet bestaan van Writers block, en de laatste over schrijven is schrappen in Refocus.
Mijn interesse zit hem vooral in hoe je dat nou aanpakt, tot een boek concept komen. En eigenlijk ben ik ook wel nieuwsgierig naar hoe ze dan straks van een concept naar een boek komt. Is dan niet immers alles al gezegd? Waarom meer woorden er tegenaan gooien als je de boodschap al op papier hebt? Dat is ook meteen waarom ik haar proces volg. Het verschil tussen schrijvers en lezers lijkt vooral te zijn dat iedereen stiekem wel een boek wil schrijven, maar dat schrijvers het uiteindelijk ook doen. Mij wordt ook wel regelmatig de suggestie aan de hand gedaan, “schrijf daar nou eens een boek over!“. En ik heb bij vlagen ook wel die wensgedachte. Maar doen is iets anders. Veel van de boeken die me als voorbeeld worden voorgehouden komen op me over als veel wol om de ruimte tussen de kaften te vullen. Nog maar weer vijf anecdotes en voorbeelden om het punt nogmaals te maken. Waar een handjevol blogposts, of zelfs een rijtje bullet points, waarschijnlijk ook had volstaan.
Elja komt in ieder geval tot actie, en ze laat iedereen meekijken. Frank Meeuwsen schreef ooit ook een boek, Bloghelden, over de vroege Nederlandstalige blog-wereld. Zou hij het proces van Elja herkennen? Frank en ik hadden het laatst over een boek over het IndieWeb, om het vrije en open web uit te leggen aan nieuw publiek. Materiaal genoeg op zich. Maar ook nog veel te onderzoeken. Schrijft Elja alleen uit ervaring, of doet ze ook extra onderzoek tijdens het maken van haar boek?
(Ik ontmoette Elja aan de keukentafel van Ewout, voor een goed gesprek over de toekomst van het internet. Frank was daar ook bij. Hij en ik kennen elkaar uit de Nederlandse blog-oertijd. Zowel Elja (blogpost) als Frank (blogpost) waren aanwezig op onze STM18 unconference op Elmine’s verjaardag.) -
Gabriela Avram präsentiert Elmine Wijnia den Bottle Bot.Begonnen habe ich dieses Post in einem Café am Markt in Amersfoort. In der letzten Woche war ich bei der Smart Stuff that Matters Unconference, die Elmine Wijnia
und Ton Zijlstra in ihrem neuen Haus durchgeführt haben. Am folgenden Tag haben sie alle Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer zu einem Grillfest eingeladen. Anlass war der 40. Geburtstag von Elmine. Vor ein paar Jahren war ich bei einer ähnlichen Veranstaltung, damals zu Tons 40. Geburtstag. Andere Unkonferenzen bei Ton und Elmine, alle unter dem Obertitel Stuff that Matters, habe ich leider verpasst.
Seit ich Ton kennengelernt habe, beim BarCamp 2006 in Wien, ist er für mich so etwas wie ein Rollenmodell für das Arbeiten und auch das Leben in der digitalen Welt. (Wobei mir der Ausdruck digitale Welt inzwischen nicht mehr ganz passend erscheint). Ton beschäftigt sich sehr praktisch mit dem Möglichkeiten, das persönliche Leben und die persönlichen Beziehungen mit den weiteren Zusammenhängen zu verbinden, in denen man lebt, von der Gemeinde bis hin zu weltweiten Entwicklungen. Dabei hat er einen technischen und pragmatischen oder praktischen Ansatz, den ich bewundere. Vorbildlich finde ich auch, wie er Leuten, die nicht zu einer digitalen Avantgarde gehören, verständlich machen, kann was er tut.
Bei der Einleitung von #STM2018Die Unkonferenz in der letzten Woche ist ein Beispiel dafür, wie man Dinge aus einer ganz persönlichen Motivation heraus tut—z.B.: Freude treffen, sich über Dinge zu unterhalten, die einen interessieren, zu überlegen wie man den Alltag nach einem Umzug gestaltet—und dabei für andere anschlussfähig ist. Was man herausfindet oder entwickelt, behält man nicht für sich, sondern macht es für andere brauchbar und baut umgekehrt auf dem auf, was die anderen tun. Es geht also nicht darum im Kleinen so etwas wie einen übergreifenden moralischen Anspruch zu realisieren sondern umgekehrt darum, sein persönliches Leben so zu gestalten und zu vernetzen, dass man gemeinsam die Handlungsfähigkeiten erweitert. Ton spricht von Networked Agency und hat dieses Konzept in einigen Posts ausgearbeitet. Digitale Vernetzung ist eine Komponente dieser Handlungsmöglichkeiten, aber nur eingebettet in Netzwerke, zu denen Personen und andere Akteure wie Orte und technische Objekte gehören.
Das Treffen am Freitag wurde mit einer Art Spiel eingeleitet. Wir haben uns in Gruppen von vier bis fünf Leuten zusammengesetzt, die sich vorher nicht kannten, und von unserem letzten Umzug erzählt—davon, wie wir mit unserer Umgebung in Verbindung gekommen sind und darüber, was uns dabei besonders gefreut und was uns besonders enttäuscht hat. Diese Runde mündete in ein Event ein, das in Vielem den BarCamp-Regeln folgte, ohne dass der Ausdruck BarCamp je benutzt wurde. In verschiedenen Sessions haben wir uns mit Themen beschäftigt, die in einem mehr oder weniger direkten Bezug zu der Anfangsfrage des intelligenten Umgangs mit seiner Umgebung stehen. Es war aber kein Thema vorgegeben. Der wichtigste Unterschied zu den BarCamps, die ich besucht habe, lag wohl darin, dass das Event noch deutlicher von den Teilnehmern für die Teilnehmer organisiert wurde, dass die Kommunikation von Ergebnissen oder Wissen nach außen nur ein Nebeneffekt ist, während das Öffentlichmachen (You do blog about BarCamp) zu den Kernbestandteilen der BarCamp-Regeln gehört. Auch die Länge der Sessions wurde frei vereinbart, wir haben uns nicht an das strikte BarCamp-Schema gehalten.
In verschiedenen Gruppen habe ich mich Freitagdarüber unterhalten, wie man neue Freunde in einer neuen Umgebung findet,
damit beschäftigt, wie man Roboter so gestaltet, dass sie sich in das Leben in einer Stadt einfügen,
die Messung der Wirkung und die Sicherung der Ergebniss von vernetzten Aktivitäten und vernetzter Kommunikation besprochen,
eine Präsentation über das Indieweb verfolgt und darüber diskutiert.
Die Themen so aufzuzählen verfehlt, was das Besondere an der Unkonferenz war, nämlich dass man Leute kennenlernt oder wiedertrifft, für die diese Themen persönliche Themen sind, so dass sie über ihr Leben berichten, wenn sie sich über sie unterhalten. Es geht bei einer Unkonferenz wie dieser nicht darum, zu Ergebnissen zu gelangen, die man dann in Form abstrakter Formulierungen weitergeben kann, sondern darum, durch verschiedene Praktiken, die man kennenlernt und über die man sich austauscht, die eigene Lebenspraxis zu erweitern und mit neuen Perspektiven anzugehen. Dabei lassen sich diese Praktiken oder Lebensformen nicht von den Beziehungen trennen, in denen und mit denen man lebt und die man bei einem Event wie diesem knüpft oder verändert. Die Unkonferenz bei Ton hat mich in vielem, auch in ihrer Intensität, an das letzte AlmCamp erinnert, an dem ich im Frühjahr teilgenommen habe. Sie bringt mich aber, das liegt vielleicht an diesem besonderen Format, noch mehr dazu darüber nachzudenken, wie ich selbst vernetzt lebe—oder eben vielleicht auch nicht lebe, weil für mich das vernetzte Leben in einer Online- und Social Media-Welt und mein persönliches Alltagsleben deutlicher voneinander getrennt sind als bei einigen Teilnehmerinnen der Unkonferenz, die mich besonders beeindruckt haben.
Zu der Agency einer Unkonferenz wie dieser gehört der Ort, an dem sie stattfindet, also in diesem Fall das Privathaus von Ton und Elmine. Am Freitag wurde es durch ein mobiles FabLab aus Friesland erweitert, das vor dem Haus stand und auch bei den Sessions genutzt wurde. Ich war außer zu den Besuchen bei Ton und Elmine noch nie in den Niederlanden und nehme dieses Haus und die ganze Atmosphäre als typisch holländisch wahr. So, wie ich mir die Niederlande ausmale—offen, liberal, unprätentiös—so behalte ich dieses Haus in Erinnerung, und so ist mir in der letzten Woche auch die Architektur in den moderneren Teilen von Amersfoort erschienen, die ich mir gerne noch länger ansehen möchte.
Frank Meeuwsen bei seiner Präsentation während der #STM2018 Es war sicher keinein Zufall, dass die Leute, mit denen ich mich am intensivsten unterhalten habe, bloggen, und das seit langer Zeit. Ton und Gerrit verfolge ich schon lange. Peter habe ich in der letzten Woche kennengelernt und werde ihm in Zukunft genauso folgen wie Elija und Frank, deren niederländische Blogs ich nur mit einer automatischen Übersetzung lesen kann. Sie alle bleiben der ursprünglichen Inspiration des Bloggens treu. Frank nannte sie in seinem Vortrag: seine Stimme unredigiert veröffentlichen. Die Offenheit, aber auch der Individualismus, der sich in dieser Formulierung ausdrückt, hat dieses ganze Unkonferenz geprägt. Ich hoffe, dass ich vor allem durch das Bloggen mit den Teilnehmern verbunden bleibe.
People Centered Navigation jenseits massenmedialer Netze
Als ich Ton 2006 kennengelernt habe, war das Bloggen ein Megatrend, der seinen Höhepunkt wahrscheinlich gerade überschritten hatte. Damals entstand das, was heute jeder als Social Media bezeichnet, und viele glaubten lange, dass sich Blogs und individuelle Websites darin auflösen würden. Die Stimmung war, jedenfalls bei mir, aber ich glaube bei den meisten, die aktiv an dieser Szene teilnahmen, utopistisch. Wir haben irgendwie geglaubt, dass wir eine historische Entwicklung verstanden hatten, von der die Gesellschaft früher oder später profitieren müsste.
Die Atmosphäre bei der Unkonferenz in Amersfoort war völlig anders. Von den Gewissheiten der Jahre kurz nach 2000 ist nicht viel geblieben, von den Impulsen, die hinter der Begeisterung damals standen, schon. Es geht nicht mehr oder noch viel weniger als damals um Technik, es geht um intelligentes, wie Ton und Elmine es nennen, um smartes Handelns im Einzelnen, und im Kern um das Leben unter den gegenwärtigen Bedingungen. Es geht eher darum, in Frage zu stellen, was uns als unausweislich vorgestellt wird als darum, selbst Unausweichlichkeit zu produzieren.
Heute glaube ich, dass ich damals die Digitalisierung technodeterministisch missverstanden habe, so als gäbe es lineare technische Entwicklungen oder Fortschritte, die man nur verstehen und so gut wie möglich ausnutzen muss. Erst allmählich begreife ich, dass die Techniken viel tiefer in soziale Praktiken eingebettet und von ihnen nicht zu lösen sind. Damals habe ich von Ton den Begriff der people centered navigation übernommen. Durch das Event in der letzten Woche ist mir klarer geworden, was dieses Konzept meint: nicht nur eine richtige, effiziente Verwendung von Tools, sondern eine Praxis, die für konkrete Bedürfnisse gezielt auf Tools zurückgreift und sie dabei immer anpasst. Tatsächlich sind die Social Media Tools, die damals entstanden sind, vor allem für massenmediale Praktiken verwendet worden. People Centered Navigation ist nicht eine Komponente besserer, weil effizienterer Massenmedien sondern eine Navigation in Informationen, die sich an den Bedürfnissen und Möglichkeiten von Personen in lokalisierten Netzwerken orientiert, und dabei ist vor allem die Produktion von Medien und Inhalten im Dialog mit wenigen anderen Teilnehmern relevant, nicht ihre Rezeption in Massen. Die Network Literacies sind die Fähigkeiten, in diesen Netzwerken produktiv mitzuwirken.
Mich hat dieser Versuch, die lokale Umgebung intelligent zu gestalten und zu überlegen, wie man sie mehrdimensional vernetzen kann, an die lokalisierte Politik in fragilen Netzwerken erinnert, die Bruno Latour z. B. in seinem terrestrischen Manifest als Alternative zu den Utopien und Anti-Utopien der Globalisierung und der geschlossenen nationalen Gesellschaften formuliert. Latour spricht von der Erde als einem dünnen Film, in dem man leben kann, weil man die richtigen Verbindungen herstellt und pflegt. Die Unkonferenz bei Ton und Elmine war ein Experiment, um solche Verbindungen zu entdecken und zu entwickeln.
Blogposts zu #STM18:
Ton Zilstra hat das Event in seinem Blog ausführlich vorbereitet, begleitet und nachbereitet. Man findet die Posts unter dem Tag stm18. Weitere Posts: all the friends I’ve not yet met (Peter Rujavina), Another epic birthday party (Elmine Wijnia), Het Oh Shit! Moment en waarom wij afwijzing vermijden (Elja Daae), De unconference blijft het beste format (Frank Meeuwsen), Target_is_New – Issue #69 (Iskander Smit).Ähnliche Beiträge
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After reading a few other blog posts about it yours feels very different. I immediately thought about autoethnographic writing that I let almost disappear from my weblog. Thank you for reminding me.
You’re welcome 🙂
Gabriela Avram präsentiert Elmine Wijnia den Bottle Bot.Begonnen habe ich dieses Post in einem Café am Markt in Amersfoort. In der letzten Woche war ich bei der Smart Stuff that Matters Unconference, die Elmine Wijnia
und Ton Zijlstra in ihrem neuen Haus durchgeführt haben. Am folgenden Tag haben sie alle Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer zu einem Grillfest eingeladen. Anlass war der 40. Geburtstag von Elmine. Vor ein paar Jahren war ich bei einer ähnlichen Veranstaltung, damals zu Tons 40. Geburtstag. Andere Unkonferenzen bei Ton und Elmine, alle unter dem Obertitel Stuff that Matters, habe ich leider verpasst.
Seit ich Ton kennengelernt habe, beim BarCamp 2006 in Wien, ist er für mich so etwas wie ein Rollenmodell für das Arbeiten und auch das Leben in der digitalen Welt. (Wobei mir der Ausdruck digitale Welt inzwischen nicht mehr ganz passend erscheint). Ton beschäftigt sich sehr praktisch mit dem Möglichkeiten, das persönliche Leben und die persönlichen Beziehungen mit den weiteren Zusammenhängen zu verbinden, in denen man lebt, von der Gemeinde bis hin zu weltweiten Entwicklungen. Dabei hat er einen technischen und pragmatischen oder praktischen Ansatz, den ich bewundere. Vorbildlich finde ich auch, wie er Leuten, die nicht zu einer digitalen Avantgarde gehören, verständlich machen, kann was er tut.
Bei der Einleitung von #STM2018Die Unkonferenz in der letzten Woche ist ein Beispiel dafür, wie man Dinge aus einer ganz persönlichen Motivation heraus tut—z.B.: Freude treffen, sich über Dinge zu unterhalten, die einen interessieren, zu überlegen wie man den Alltag nach einem Umzug gestaltet—und dabei für andere anschlussfähig ist. Was man herausfindet oder entwickelt, behält man nicht für sich, sondern macht es für andere brauchbar und baut umgekehrt auf dem auf, was die anderen tun. Es geht also nicht darum im Kleinen so etwas wie einen übergreifenden moralischen Anspruch zu realisieren sondern umgekehrt darum, sein persönliches Leben so zu gestalten und zu vernetzen, dass man gemeinsam die Handlungsfähigkeiten erweitert. Ton spricht von Networked Agency und hat dieses Konzept in einigen Posts ausgearbeitet. Digitale Vernetzung ist eine Komponente dieser Handlungsmöglichkeiten, aber nur eingebettet in Netzwerke, zu denen Personen und andere Akteure wie Orte und technische Objekte gehören.
Das Treffen am Freitag wurde mit einer Art Spiel eingeleitet. Wir haben uns in Gruppen von vier bis fünf Leuten zusammengesetzt, die sich vorher nicht kannten, und von unserem letzten Umzug erzählt—davon, wie wir mit unserer Umgebung in Verbindung gekommen sind und darüber, was uns dabei besonders gefreut und was uns besonders enttäuscht hat. Diese Runde mündete in ein Event ein, das in Vielem den BarCamp-Regeln folgte, ohne dass der Ausdruck BarCamp je benutzt wurde. In verschiedenen Sessions haben wir uns mit Themen beschäftigt, die in einem mehr oder weniger direkten Bezug zu der Anfangsfrage des intelligenten Umgangs mit seiner Umgebung stehen. Es war aber kein Thema vorgegeben. Der wichtigste Unterschied zu den BarCamps, die ich besucht habe, lag wohl darin, dass das Event noch deutlicher von den Teilnehmern für die Teilnehmer organisiert wurde, dass die Kommunikation von Ergebnissen oder Wissen nach außen nur ein Nebeneffekt ist, während das Öffentlichmachen (You do blog about BarCamp) zu den Kernbestandteilen der BarCamp-Regeln gehört. Auch die Länge der Sessions wurde frei vereinbart, wir haben uns nicht an das strikte BarCamp-Schema gehalten.
In verschiedenen Gruppen habe ich mich Freitag
darüber unterhalten, wie man neue Freunde in einer neuen Umgebung findet,
damit beschäftigt, wie man Roboter so gestaltet, dass sie sich in das Leben in einer Stadt einfügen,
die Messung der Wirkung und die Sicherung der Ergebniss von vernetzten Aktivitäten und vernetzter Kommunikation besprochen,
eine Präsentation über das Indieweb verfolgt und darüber diskutiert.
Die Themen so aufzuzählen verfehlt, was das Besondere an der Unkonferenz war, nämlich dass man Leute kennenlernt oder wiedertrifft, für die diese Themen persönliche Themen sind, so dass sie über ihr Leben berichten, wenn sie sich über sie unterhalten. Es geht bei einer Unkonferenz wie dieser nicht darum, zu Ergebnissen zu gelangen, die man dann in Form abstrakter Formulierungen weitergeben kann, sondern darum, durch verschiedene Praktiken, die man kennenlernt und über die man sich austauscht, die eigene Lebenspraxis zu erweitern und mit neuen Perspektiven anzugehen. Dabei lassen sich diese Praktiken oder Lebensformen nicht von den Beziehungen trennen, in denen und mit denen man lebt und die man bei einem Event wie diesem knüpft oder verändert. Die Unkonferenz bei Ton hat mich in vielem, auch in ihrer Intensität, an das letzte AlmCamp erinnert, an dem ich im Frühjahr teilgenommen habe. Sie bringt mich aber, das liegt vielleicht an diesem besonderen Format, noch mehr dazu darüber nachzudenken, wie ich selbst vernetzt lebe—oder eben vielleicht auch nicht lebe, weil für mich das vernetzte Leben in einer Online- und Social Media-Welt und mein persönliches Alltagsleben deutlicher voneinander getrennt sind als bei einigen Teilnehmerinnen der Unkonferenz, die mich besonders beeindruckt haben.
Zu der Agency einer Unkonferenz wie dieser gehört der Ort, an dem sie stattfindet, also in diesem Fall das Privathaus von Ton und Elmine. Am Freitag wurde es durch ein mobiles FabLab aus Friesland erweitert, das vor dem Haus stand und auch bei den Sessions genutzt wurde. Ich war außer zu den Besuchen bei Ton und Elmine noch nie in den Niederlanden und nehme dieses Haus und die ganze Atmosphäre als typisch holländisch wahr. So, wie ich mir die Niederlande ausmale—offen, liberal, unprätentiös—so behalte ich dieses Haus in Erinnerung, und so ist mir in der letzten Woche auch die Architektur in den moderneren Teilen von Amersfoort erschienen, die ich mir gerne noch länger ansehen möchte.
Frank Meeuwsen bei seiner Präsentation während der #STM2018 Es war sicher keinein Zufall, dass die Leute, mit denen ich mich am intensivsten unterhalten habe, bloggen, und das seit langer Zeit. Ton und Gerrit verfolge ich schon lange. Peter habe ich in der letzten Woche kennengelernt und werde ihm in Zukunft genauso folgen wie Elija und Frank, deren niederländische Blogs ich nur mit einer automatischen Übersetzung lesen kann. Sie alle bleiben der ursprünglichen Inspiration des Bloggens treu. Frank nannte sie in seinem Vortrag: seine Stimme unredigiert veröffentlichen. Die Offenheit, aber auch der Individualismus, der sich in dieser Formulierung ausdrückt, hat dieses ganze Unkonferenz geprägt. Ich hoffe, dass ich vor allem durch das Bloggen mit den Teilnehmern verbunden bleibe.
People Centered Navigation jenseits massenmedialer Netze
Als ich Ton 2006 kennengelernt habe, war das Bloggen ein Megatrend, der seinen Höhepunkt wahrscheinlich gerade überschritten hatte. Damals entstand das, was heute jeder als Social Media bezeichnet, und viele glaubten lange, dass sich Blogs und individuelle Websites darin auflösen würden. Die Stimmung war, jedenfalls bei mir, aber ich glaube bei den meisten, die aktiv an dieser Szene teilnahmen, utopistisch. Wir haben irgendwie geglaubt, dass wir eine historische Entwicklung verstanden hatten, von der die Gesellschaft früher oder später profitieren müsste.
Die Atmosphäre bei der Unkonferenz in Amersfoort war völlig anders. Von den Gewissheiten der Jahre kurz nach 2000 ist nicht viel geblieben, von den Impulsen, die hinter der Begeisterung damals standen, schon. Es geht nicht mehr oder noch viel weniger als damals um Technik, es geht um intelligentes, wie Ton und Elmine es nennen, um smartes Handelns im Einzelnen, und im Kern um das Leben unter den gegenwärtigen Bedingungen. Es geht eher darum, in Frage zu stellen, was uns als unausweislich vorgestellt wird als darum, selbst Unausweichlichkeit zu produzieren.
Heute glaube ich, dass ich damals die Digitalisierung technodeterministisch missverstanden habe, so als gäbe es lineare technische Entwicklungen oder Fortschritte, die man nur verstehen und so gut wie möglich ausnutzen muss. Erst allmählich begreife ich, dass die Techniken viel tiefer in soziale Praktiken eingebettet und von ihnen nicht zu lösen sind. Damals habe ich von Ton den Begriff der people centered navigation übernommen. Durch das Event in der letzten Woche ist mir klarer geworden, was dieses Konzept meint: nicht nur eine richtige, effiziente Verwendung von Tools, sondern eine Praxis, die für konkrete Bedürfnisse gezielt auf Tools zurückgreift und sie dabei immer anpasst. Tatsächlich sind die Social Media Tools, die damals entstanden sind, vor allem für massenmediale Praktiken verwendet worden. People Centered Navigation ist nicht eine Komponente besserer, weil effizienterer Massenmedien sondern eine Navigation in Informationen, die sich an den Bedürfnissen und Möglichkeiten von Personen in lokalisierten Netzwerken orientiert, und dabei ist vor allem die Produktion von Medien und Inhalten im Dialog mit wenigen anderen Teilnehmern relevant, nicht ihre Rezeption in Massen. Die Network Literacies sind die Fähigkeiten, in diesen Netzwerken produktiv mitzuwirken.
Mich hat dieser Versuch, die lokale Umgebung intelligent zu gestalten und zu überlegen, wie man sie mehrdimensional vernetzen kann, an die lokalisierte Politik in fragilen Netzwerken erinnert, die Bruno Latour z. B. in seinem terrestrischen Manifest als Alternative zu den Utopien und Anti-Utopien der Globalisierung und der geschlossenen nationalen Gesellschaften formuliert. Latour spricht von der Erde als einem dünnen Film, in dem man leben kann, weil man die richtigen Verbindungen herstellt und pflegt. Die Unkonferenz bei Ton und Elmine war ein Experiment, um solche Verbindungen zu entdecken und zu entwickeln.
Blogposts zu #STM18:
Ton Zilstra hat das Event in seinem Blog ausführlich vorbereitet, begleitet und nachbereitet. Man findet die Posts unter dem Tag stm18. Weitere Posts: all the friends I’ve not yet met (Peter Rujavina), Another epic birthday party (Elmine Wijnia), Het Oh Shit! Moment en waarom wij afwijzing vermijden (Elja Daae), De unconference blijft het beste format (Frank Meeuwsen), Target_is_New – Issue #69 (Iskander Smit).
Ähnliche Beiträge
Ik volg met interesse het blog van Elja Daae, die in 3 weken tijd een concept voor haar boek af wil schrijven. Omdat de uitgever het dan verwacht. Elke dag schrijft ze over haar voortgang en afwegingen. Inmiddels zijn we een week onderweg, met een eerste posting over het niet bestaan van Writers block, en de laatste over schrijven is schrappen in Refocus.
Mijn interesse zit hem vooral in hoe je dat nou aanpakt, tot een boek concept komen. En eigenlijk ben ik ook wel nieuwsgierig naar hoe ze dan straks van een concept naar een boek komt. Is dan niet immers alles al gezegd? Waarom meer woorden er tegenaan gooien als je de boodschap al op papier hebt? Dat is ook meteen waarom ik haar proces volg. Het verschil tussen schrijvers en lezers lijkt vooral te zijn dat iedereen stiekem wel een boek wil schrijven, maar dat schrijvers het uiteindelijk ook doen. Mij wordt ook wel regelmatig de suggestie aan de hand gedaan, “schrijf daar nou eens een boek over!“. En ik heb bij vlagen ook wel die wensgedachte. Maar doen is iets anders. Veel van de boeken die me als voorbeeld worden voorgehouden komen op me over als veel wol om de ruimte tussen de kaften te vullen. Nog maar weer vijf anecdotes en voorbeelden om het punt nogmaals te maken. Waar een handjevol blogposts, of zelfs een rijtje bullet points, waarschijnlijk ook had volstaan.
Elja komt in ieder geval tot actie, en ze laat iedereen meekijken. Frank Meeuwsen schreef ooit ook een boek, Bloghelden, over de vroege Nederlandstalige blog-wereld. Zou hij het proces van Elja herkennen? Frank en ik hadden het laatst over een boek over het IndieWeb, om het vrije en open web uit te leggen aan nieuw publiek. Materiaal genoeg op zich. Maar ook nog veel te onderzoeken. Schrijft Elja alleen uit ervaring, of doet ze ook extra onderzoek tijdens het maken van haar boek?
(Ik ontmoette Elja aan de keukentafel van Ewout, voor een goed gesprek over de toekomst van het internet. Frank was daar ook bij. Hij en ik kennen elkaar uit de Nederlandse blog-oertijd. Zowel Elja (blogpost) als Frank (blogpost) waren aanwezig op onze STM18 unconference op Elmine’s verjaardag.)
My friend Peter has been blogging for exactly 20 years yesterday. His blog is a real commonplace book, and way more than my blog, an eclectic mixture of personal things, professional interests, and the rhythm of life of his hometown. When you keep that up for long enough, decades even, it stops being a random collection and becomes a body of work, an œuvre. Œuvre really is the right word, according to Peter he’s written 2.67 million words. Novels on average have eighty thousand words, so Peter’s blog is over 33 novels long. Most novelists aren’t that prolific.
I’m a regular reader of Peter’s blog exactly because of the quirky mix of observations, travelogues, personal things, snippets of code, and reflection. To me the way he weaves all those things into one, is what we also tried to achieve with our Smart Stuff that Matters unconference (in which Peter participated): bringing global (technology) developments back to the size of your own home life, your own city life, and letting your life inform how you want to shape and use the tools available to you. So that, in the words of Heinz Wittenbrink (another participant last summer), when you discuss themes important to you, you actually are discussing the details of your own life:
Heinz’ last sentence in that quote “These practices or ways of living cannot be separated from the relationships in which and with which you live.” is true and important as well.
Of the 20 years Peter kept up his blog, I’ve known him for 14 years almost to the day, ever since we met in a Copenhagen hotel lobby mid June 2005. Our first meeting was aptly technology mediated. As Heinz wrote, our blogging practices cannot be separated from the relationships in which we live. Traces of our connections are visible through the years, building on each others thinking, meeting up in various places, visiting each others homes. Not just our specific connection but the shared connections to so many others.
Blogging isn’t just a reflection of our lives, but is an active part in weaving the connections that make up our lives.
Next week Peter organises an unconference, called Crafting {:} a Life. Modelled after Elmine’s and my unconference birthday parties, Peter is celebrating not just the 20 year milestone of his blog and his company. He’s celebrating in the same way he blogs, the completeness of our lives, both the sweet and the bitter. It’s in that contrast where beauty lives to me, and how we can appreciate the value of the connections we weave. Elmine and I will go visit Peter and his family, with 50 or so others, on Prince Edward Island in Canada in a few days.
Peter recently said about our and other participants coming to Canada from Europe
“It is humbling to consider that each of these old friends is coming across the ocean to join us for the simple act of spending time together talking about life for a while.”
We felt the same every time we did an edition of our unconferences. Elmine wrote last summer, looking back on her birthday unconference Smart Stuff That Matters:
The simple act of spending time together talking about life for a while. is a rather rich and powerful thing to do, Peter, which packs the full complexity of being human. We look forward to seeing you, Cathrine and Oliver next week, as well as 50 or so others that came to form your ‘global village’ while you were engaged in blogging a life.
My friend Peter has been blogging for exactly 20 years yesterday. His blog is a real commonplace book, and way more than my blog, an eclectic mixture of personal things, professional interests, and the rhythm of life of his hometown. When you keep that up for long enough, decades even, it stops being a random collection and becomes a body of work, an œuvre. Œuvre really is the right word, according to Peter he’s written 2.67 million words. Novels on average have eighty thousand words, so Peter’s blog is over 33 novels long. Most novelists aren’t that prolific.
I’m a regular reader of Peter’s blog exactly because of the quirky mix of observations, travelogues, personal things, snippets of code, and reflection. To me the way he weaves all those things into one, is what we also tried to achieve with our Smart Stuff that Matters unconference (in which Peter participated): bringing global (technology) developments back to the size of your own home life, your own city life, and letting your life inform how you want to shape and use the tools available to you. So that, in the words of Heinz Wittenbrink (another participant last summer), when you discuss themes important to you, you actually are discussing the details of your own life:
Heinz’ last sentence in that quote “These practices or ways of living cannot be separated from the relationships in which and with which you live.” is true and important as well.
Of the 20 years Peter kept up his blog, I’ve known him for 14 years almost to the day, ever since we met in a Copenhagen hotel lobby mid June 2005. Our first meeting was aptly technology mediated. As Heinz wrote, our blogging practices cannot be separated from the relationships in which we live. Traces of our connections are visible through the years, building on each others thinking, meeting up in various places, visiting each others homes. Not just our specific connection but the shared connections to so many others.
Blogging isn’t just a reflection of our lives, but is an active part in weaving the connections that make up our lives.
Next week Peter organises an unconference, called Crafting {:} a Life. Modelled after Elmine’s and my unconference birthday parties, Peter is celebrating not just the 20 year milestone of his blog and his company. He’s celebrating in the same way he blogs, the completeness of our lives, both the sweet and the bitter. It’s in that contrast where beauty lives to me, and how we can appreciate the value of the connections we weave. Elmine and I will go visit Peter and his family, with 50 or so others, on Prince Edward Island in Canada in a few days.
Peter recently said about our and other participants coming to Canada from Europe
“It is humbling to consider that each of these old friends is coming across the ocean to join us for the simple act of spending time together talking about life for a while.”
We felt the same every time we did an edition of our unconferences. Elmine wrote last summer, looking back on her birthday unconference Smart Stuff That Matters:
The simple act of spending time together talking about life for a while. is a rather rich and powerful thing to do, Peter, which packs the full complexity of being human. We look forward to seeing you, Catherine and Oliver next week, as well as 50 or so others that came to form your ‘global village’ while you were engaged in blogging a life.
My friend Peter has been blogging for exactly 20 years yesterday. His blog is a real commonplace book, and way more than my blog, an eclectic mixture of personal things, professional interests, and the rhythm of life of his hometown. When you keep that up for long enough, decades even, it stops being a random collection and becomes a body of work, an œuvre. Œuvre really is the right word, according to Peter he’s written 2.67 million words. Novels on average have eighty thousand words, so Peter’s blog is over 33 novels long. Most novelists aren’t that prolific.
I’m a regular reader of Peter’s blog exactly because of the quirky mix of observations, travelogues, personal things, snippets of code, and reflection. To me the way he weaves all those things into one, is what we also tried to achieve with our Smart Stuff that Matters unconference (in which Peter participated): bringing global (technology) developments back to the size of your own home life, your own city life, and letting your life inform how you want to shape and use the tools available to you. So that, in the words of Heinz Wittenbrink (another participant last summer), when you discuss themes important to you, you actually are discussing the details of your own life:
Heinz’ last sentence in that quote “These practices or ways of living cannot be separated from the relationships in which and with which you live.” is true and important as well.
Of the 20 years Peter kept up his blog, I’ve known him for 14 years almost to the day, ever since we met in a Copenhagen hotel lobby mid June 2005. Our first meeting was aptly technology mediated. As Heinz wrote, our blogging practices cannot be separated from the relationships in which we live. Traces of our connections are visible through the years, building on each others thinking, meeting up in various places, visiting each others homes. Not just our specific connection but the shared connections to so many others.
Blogging isn’t just a reflection of our lives, but is an active part in weaving the connections that make up our lives.
Next week Peter organises an unconference, called Crafting {:} a Life. Modelled after Elmine’s and my unconference birthday parties, Peter is celebrating not just the 20 year milestone of his blog and his company. He’s celebrating in the same way he blogs, the completeness of our lives, both the sweet and the bitter. It’s in that contrast where beauty lives to me, and how we can appreciate the value of the connections we weave. Elmine and I will go visit Peter and his family, with 50 or so others, on Prince Edward Island in Canada in a few days.
Peter recently said about our and other participants coming to Canada from Europe
“It is humbling to consider that each of these old friends is coming across the ocean to join us for the simple act of spending time together talking about life for a while.”
We felt the same every time we did an edition of our unconferences. Elmine wrote last summer, looking back on her birthday unconference Smart Stuff That Matters:
The simple act of spending time together talking about life for a while. is a rather rich and powerful thing to do, Peter, which packs the full complexity of being human. We look forward to seeing you, Catherine and Oliver next week, as well as 50 or so others that came to form your ‘global village’ while you were engaged in blogging a life.
Today Lane Becker is celebrating his 46th birthday. To mark the occasion he is organising a conference in Austin, Texas.
Bringing together a cool line-up of speakers, he asked us to do a live video conversation at the start. To explain a bit about the history of how Lane came to doing birthday conferences. A few months ago I described that some the ripples of our birthday unconferences are more birthday conferences, such as Peter’s last June, and that also includes Lane’s events.
We had a live conversation at the start of Lane’s birthday conference, and described the history of how we came to do our first unconference for Elmine’s birthday in 2008, and then the subsequent events. We also tried share some of the main things that stand out to us.
That doing an unconference at home, which started as a fluke, brings a special vibe to it all. Everyone behaves informally, you’re a guest in our home, but still get into deep conversations and do workshops and sessions. How we learned at Reboot that bringing kids makes everything more real, more human. People talk less bs on stage if their kids are around 🙂
That it is quite amazing to bring together people from all our various networks, and see how well they hit it off.
There’s always a moment during an unconference when you look around you and see the energy and how everyone’s engaged, when it hits me how awesome it is to be the hosts to that. And how awesome it is that so many of our friends make the effort to travel to us.
That the 2014 Make Stuff That Matters was probably the best one yet, as it turned us from just doing sessions, to also letting participants learn new skills. And having a 14 meter mobile FabLab parked in front was pretty impressive too 🙂
And we talked about how some participants feel a birthday unconference can be life changing, pivotal. We suspect it has a lot to do with that it’s rare to spend time together and have deep conversations, without pressing needs yet tied to things of importance to your own life.
Happy birthday Lane, we hope you and your friends have a great event!
My ‘on this day’ widget tells me it is exactly 10 years ago I asked the question in the title, then for my 40th birthday.
By coincidence, yesterday I opened a new note to gather notions and thoughts about if and how to do an unconference next year for my 50th, and Elmine’s 42nd (a nerd number even more worthy of celebration than my 50). I had created the note for discussion with Elmine, but prompted by my post of 10 years ago, I’ll ask the questions I jotted down here too.
Make Stuff That Matters, in 2014, still has a special vibe for us both. Also in comparison with last year’s edition (which was loads of fun and inspiring and deeply awesome in a personal sense, but in some ways it felt like less of a ‘high’ for us somehow). It was such a leap from the one before in 2010 mainly I think. It had a collective process to get everyone to make something, and the thrill of having the FabLab truck parked out front (we had it too last year, but it played less of a role). What would be something to top that? What would be ‘leveling up’ from our previous editions? Should we want to? We feel we want to.
What can we take on, topic wise, that has a real sense of urgency? Yet, can still be tied to all participants everyday lives? How are global things like the SDG’s relevant to our daily routines for instance?
Would we want to change the 1 day unconference and 1 day party format? We quite liked Peter’s 1 day discussion, 1 day doing unconference format last June, as it created space to not just be inspired but also build on that inspiration together within the same event, and return with something more tangible than just inspiration to take forward. Or maybe even longer than one or two days, more a festival than an event. Or fringe events around the one/two days?
Would we want to change the venue? I’m attached to doing it at home, as it provides such a different and personal context. Yet that also maybe limits what you can do content-wise. And it places the work of organising on our own shoulders only (although I could also mobilise more assistance probably).
Would we want to change the party format? Do something different, to make it more attractive on its own? Or maybe incorporate more of the party in the unconference? Live music e.g.
Would a longer build-up of the theme (whatever it would be) be fun? Like me and Elmine taking on a theme for the months in the run-up to the event, and write, blog, videopost about it. With an open invitation to others to also contribute their perspectives and thoughts. So that the event is not only a starting point, but a celebration or confirmation of things hat happened in the run-up?
Would it be fun and possible to network the event with other things happening or movements? Build alliances with local groups, national events, international communities? Grow deeper roots locally, allow more catalysis across our global network?
In short, everything is open and up for discussion and different ideas.
What do you think, feel, suggest? I look forward to hear your thoughts, and welcome your advice! (any channel is fine, e-mail, comments here, or a post on your own blog)
My ‘on this day’ widget tells me it is exactly 10 years ago I asked the question in the title, then for my 40th birthday.
By coincidence, yesterday I opened a new note to gather notions and thoughts about if and how to do an unconference next year for my 50th, and Elmine’s 42nd (a nerd number even more worthy of celebration than my 50). I had created the note for discussion with Elmine, but prompted by my post of 10 years ago, I’ll ask the questions I jotted down here too.
Make Stuff That Matters, in 2014, still has a special vibe for us both. Also in comparison with last year’s edition (which was loads of fun and inspiring and deeply awesome in a personal sense, but in some ways it felt like less of a ‘high’ for us somehow). It was such a leap from the one before in 2010 mainly I think. It had a collective process to get everyone to make something, and the thrill of having the FabLab truck parked out front (we had it too last year, but it played less of a role). What would be something to top that? What would be ‘leveling up’ from our previous editions? Should we want to? We feel we want to.
What can we take on, topic wise, that has a real sense of urgency? Yet, can still be tied to all participants everyday lives? How are global things like the SDG’s relevant to our daily routines for instance?
Would we want to change the 1 day unconference and 1 day party format? We quite liked Peter’s 1 day discussion, 1 day doing unconference format last June, as it created space to not just be inspired but also build on that inspiration together within the same event, and return with something more tangible than just inspiration to take forward. Or maybe even longer than one or two days, more a festival than an event. Or fringe events around the one/two days?
Would we want to change the venue? I’m attached to doing it at home, as it provides such a different and personal context. Yet that also maybe limits what you can do content-wise. And it places the work of organising on our own shoulders only (although I could also mobilise more assistance probably).
Would we want to change the party format? Do something different, to make it more attractive on its own? Or maybe incorporate more of the party in the unconference? Live music e.g.
Would a longer build-up of the theme (whatever it would be) be fun? Like me and Elmine taking on a theme for the months in the run-up to the event, and write, blog, videopost about it. With an open invitation to others to also contribute their perspectives and thoughts. So that the event is not only a starting point, but a celebration or confirmation of things hat happened in the run-up?
Would it be fun and possible to network the event with other things happening or movements? Build alliances with local groups, national events, international communities? Grow deeper roots locally, allow more catalysis across our global network?
In short, everything is open and up for discussion and different ideas.
What do you think, feel, suggest? I look forward to hear your thoughts, and welcome your advice! (any channel is fine, e-mail, comments here, or a post on your own blog)