Today was day 1 of the Crafting {:} a Life unconference that our friend Peter is organising on Prince Edward Island. It was a fun and wonderful day.
It was a novel experience, doing an unconference party like this as a participant. Elmine and I have always been on the other side, the persons convening a group of our friends and connections in our home for the event. Then you know all of those there, although most participants won’t know each other. Today it was like the latter for me, half a dozen familiars, and 40 or more people you never met. Peter said when he picked us up at the airport “you are the only two people in the world who know in what position I am right now.” The flip side of that is I’ve learned what all of you who participated in our events knew all along, how it is to participate.
Before the start, the circle of chairs waiting for us
Both Elmine and I did take some role in today’s events. In the run-up we chatted with Peter to provide feedback and share some of our previous experiences. And today, we helped set the scene. After Peter’s welcoming words and intro, some songs by Michael, and a welcome from Oliver, Elmine took the group through an introductory exercise. It was a version of the ‘anecdote circle lite‘ we did ourselves last summer. Groups of 5 or 6 would talk about “something you crafted or created that you’re most proud of, gave you most pleasure or was the most fun to do.” It is a good way to get to know some of the other participants while doing away with the usual ‘I’m John, and I’m the X at Y company”, of which nothing ever gets remembered when 40 people do that one after another. Now I’ve learned about veterinarian training on PEI, who created the most recent official PEI atlas (and whose name because of that will be remembered centuries from now because those official atlases are kept and cared about), and the pleasure you feel making something with your hands when your regular work is coding. While one was telling their story the others would write down what stood out for them. All those notes served as a source of reference and inspiration for the rest of the day.
Next Peter and I guided the group through building the program. I opened the space and invited people to propose topics or sessions, and when enough others showed interest it would go on the schedule. After the first sessions and lunch, and later in the afternoon we returned to the schedule so people could add things, and use their earlier experiences in the day to suggest new additions to the schedule. With the instruction to be curious, follow your energy and your feet to where you feel engaged, and have fun the participants were off.
the schedule as it emerged during the day
I attended sessions on constructive approaches to local climate adaptation efforts, the role of arts in social movements, a conversation on what happened to blogging, burn-out avoidance strategies, the future we see / want to see for blogging, and how to start and not to start a creative hub and maker space. I would have loved to also join a session on ‘phone nerding’ and the ‘death café’ but you can only be in one spot at any given time. I feel that the fact that this is all taking place on an island with a tight-knit community, gives a special flavor to the event. The sea is a natural boundary to the community and who counts as part of it, and there’s a strong sense of all being into it together. That also showed yesterday evening when Elmine and I found ourselves discussing the impact of AirBnb and other pressures on the local housing market, with some people at a bar, one of whom turned out to be the city counsellor responsible for that subject.
envisioning the future of blogging in Peter and Catherine’s back yard
We ended with pizza and some drinks. Tomorrow we will return for day 2, which will be focused on doing, where today was more about meeting and talking. Some ideas for what to do already emerged during this day. I will likely do something around the indieweb with the others interested in having a personal site away from the silos. But first sleep, and breakfast on the Charlottetown Farmers Market tomorrow.
Crafting {:} a Life Unconference Day 1 by Ton Zijlstra
De unconference blijft voor mij een van de leukste vormen om een bijeenkomst vorm te geven. Ton beschrijft zijn ervaringen op de Unconference van Peter. Ik was graag op Peter’s uitnodiging ingegaan maar helaas dwingen andere prioriteiten me hier in Nederland te blijven. Ik ben heel benieuwd naar de sessies over Phone Nerding en over Activism and Art.
Ton Zijlstra wrote about the first day of our unconference.
There’s too much for me to process right now to write more myself, other than this snippet, written to a friend last night:
We gather for day two, starting with a walk to the Charlottetown Farmers’ Market, in 90 minutes.
Crafting {:} a Life
Thanks for sharing! I look forward to your post on Day 2.
Walking to the market
I’ve just woken up after a great Day 2 of Peter’s Crafting {:} a Life unconference. Nominally the day was more about doing, where the first day was more about meeting and talking. We started with a walk from Peter Catherine and Oliver’s home to the Charlottetown Farmers Market. There I enjoyed a second breakfast of tasty crab cake, a lovely salmon bagel and good espresso. It was a beautiful sunny morning and we chatted both during the walk and outside the Farmers Market.
Peter, Oliver and Ethan holding court
One of the participants has access to a bus so he drove us back to the ‘campus’ where we all gathered again to build the program for the day together. A fantastic line-up of things ranging from ‘blood memories’ , the history of Peter’s home and surrounding houses (including daguerrotypes), drinking your first ever cup of coffee (and the life changing story behind it), to drawing fantasy maps.
I suggested doing a session on blogging, building on Day 1’s conversations about what happened to blogging, and the future of blogging. It ended up on the schedule for the afternoon.
Olle starting the fantasy cartography session
The rest of the morning I spent with a small group of people at the harbour location of Receiver Coffee, where two of us had their first ever cup of coffee (“I never deliberately put a bitter thing in my mouth with the intention to enjoy it”). Around the coffee we had a fascinating conversation of the seismic consequences of leaving a prescriptive strict organised religious community. The methods, tactics and tools I use in working with groups a lot, in order to create a space for collective change to happen, to build connections and community, essentially can be and are being used to introduce and maintain power differences, isolate groups etc. It’s as if a tool you see as fit for beautiful craftsmanship is deployed to stab someone.
a first coffee, and back yard conversation
After lunch I sat down with a handful of people in Peter’s back yard for a session on IndieWeb tools and how they can breathe life back into blogging by taking control over your own content and the tools to connect you to others. For lack of laptops and because of bright sunlight, we talked more than we did things. And because of a bit of confusion around the schedule a larger group joined us an hour later under the assumption that was the correct starting time. But those ‘glitches’ worked out fine, as whoever is here are the right people, and whatever we talk about is the right topic. At first we talked about the IndieWeb tools and underlying standards and intentions, and examples of how that works out in practice (or doesn’t). From there we looped through an enormous variety of topics, from filling moments with listening to podcasts, to lifehacks, to getting transcripts of YouTube videos to parenting, reading to elderly people to improve quality of life, to instagram posers, grooming and language, and much much more. The free flow of the conversation with people drifting in and out, went on for some 4 hours effortlessly. People were taking notes but not disengaging on their phones. For me this session was worth the entire trip on its own, I was in flow. There’s much I still need to tease out for myself, to go back into the conversation and pick on a few strands to explore further, but right now it’s enough for me to admire the shape of the ephemeral construct we put together in that back yard. I came out sun burned not having noticed it in the conversational flow.
Pre-dinner waiting time was filled with terrific oysters. It had been a long time since I had them, and the last time was of the ‘here’s a bit of salty watery snot’ variety. These were fresh, we’re on an island after all, delicate of taste and very meaty. A local chef then served a nice bbq burger meal, after singing an Irish dedication song to us. More music followed.
pre-dinner rush to finish the first draft
Elmine had been working on writing a story during the day, which she plotted together with Rob Paterson, and she read out the first finished draft in front of not just the 50 people who participated in the unconference, but also their partners, families and others who had joined us for dinner. It must be daunting to stand up and read aloud something you created just now, and of which the ink isn’t even dry yet. Leaving half the audience brushing away a tear, it was great. I also felt it completed the circle of our own participation. Elmine led us through the first exercise on Day 1 where we told each other stories, and now she rounded it off with reading us all a story inspired by the family who brought us together in and around their home. When Peter thanked Elmine and they embraced, that was the moment I felt myself release the space I opened up on Day 1 when I helped the group set the schedule. Where the soap bubble we blew collapsed again, no longer able to hold the surface tension. I felt a wave of emotions wash through me, which I recognise from our own events as well. The realisation of the beauty of the collective experience you created, the connections made, the vulnerability allowed, the fun had, the playfulness. We wound down from that rush chatting over drinks in the moon lit back yard.
Thank you Peter for bringing us all to PEI for a few days of, as you wrote earlier, the simple act of spending time together talking about life for a while. Crafting a life is in part about crafting shared experiences. This most definitely was one.
Crafting {:} a Life Unconference Day 1 zylstra.org/blog/2019/06/c…
(I wrote this on Tuesday morning after returning from travel, and post-dated to Sunday evening.)
This was a irregular week, as most of it was spent on Prince Edward Island in Canada for Peter’s unconference. Still it was preceded by some work.
Monday and Tuesday worked on an open data project for a province, covering topics from energy poverty, circular economy indicator design, and monitoring of industrial areas and business parks
The rest of the week was dedicated to Crafting {:} a Life, which involved travel and then two days for the event (Day 1, day 2)
image by Piotr loop, license CC-BY-SA
Blog posts about Crafting {:} a Life from people who were there:
Crafting {:} a Life Unconference Day 1
Crafting {:} a Life Unconference Day 2
Crafting {:} a Saga
Leaving PEI
Fantasy Cartography
Crafting {:} a Life
Crafting {:} a Life initial impressions
Press Pound to Publish
Communication does count
Crafting {:} a Blog
Three Conversations about Blogging
Unconference Aftermath / Unconference Forwarding
Connection Problem
Canada — Crafting {:} a Life (Flickr photos)
Crafting {:} a Reflection
If you’ve written something I didn’t catch, please let me know.
Weblogs | Crafting {:} a Life
I facilitated two unconferences this week. On Monday with our company The Green Land we hosted a 90 minute unconference on (the future of) open government. It was a sweltering day, without much wind. Held on the rooftop of our office building, we had precisely the amount of shade needed to keep all participants out of the sun. With some 20 people from around our network we compared notes on open government, civic tech, and potential collective action. Having built the program with the group I participated in conversations on public versus market roles, what ‘sticks‘ we have in our toolbox when working towards more open government, and the Dutch Common Ground program.
Groups in conversation
The program
We ended with a fun ‘open government pubquiz’ led by my colleagues Frank and Niene.
(At CaL earlier this month in Canada, someone asked me if I did unconference facilitation as work. I said no, but then realised I had two events lined up this week putting the lie to that ‘no’. This week E suggested we might start offering training on how to host and facilitate an unconference.)
I met Mark Belfry earlier this year on Prince Edward Island, where he gave me his card which mentioned his book The Suncaster.
Enjoyed The Suncaster a lot. I think it is good, believable, and enjoyable SF, relatively near future (about 100 years)
The second book, The Somewhere Sun, next to pushing the story forward, is a bit more spiritual yet a spirituality based in quantum physics. Nice juxtaposition of vicious and virtuous cycles.
Looking forward a lot to book 3, unsure though if and when that will appear.
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 we joined the HSTM20 Unconference, organised by our friend Oliver with logistics support from Peter, who live on Prince Edward Island in Canada. HSTM stands for Home Stuff That Matters, that last bit is a nod to our STM birthday unconferences, so this is as Peter said today, another branch on the evolving tree of unconference events.
The Home, in Home Stuff That Matters points to us all being home due to the pandemic, and to the two questions we discussed. What have you learned from the pandemic that you want to keep for the future? What do you like about the place where you live?
We were over 25 people, from around the world, across ten time zones, so from morning coffee time to end of afternoon, and evening. It was a nice mix of familiar faces and new ones, spending two hours in conversation. It was good to see dear friends, as well as meeting people again we first met last year when we visited Peter, Catherine and Oliver on PEI for a face to face unconference.
The event also showed how well Zoom works. With over 25 participants from literally around the world, with a wide variety of bandwith and tech savviness it worked without issue, splitting up from a plenary into multiple groups and rejoining into a plenary. It’s in a different class than other tools I’ve been using, even with its dubious information ethics.
Regrouping ourselves as Oliver’s tribe this time, it was an excellent way to kick-off our weekend.
Part of Oliver’s tribe in conversation today