DigitalMediaCamp December 12th

[Mark Kuznicki]

This event may be of interest to TorCampers. It's about the digital media industry and community in Toronto and how to propel it into the future.

Disclosure: I've been hired by CDMN to facilitate. So you know it'll be good. ;)

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Join us for DigitalMediaCamp Toronto on Saturday, December 12th. Save the date and register at the link below.

DigitalMediaCamp Toronto
Saturday, December 12th
9:30 to 4:30
OCAD Auditorium
100 McCaul Street
Toronto, ON
Register: http://guestlistapp.com/events/8148

You will join other emerging leaders in Toronto's digital media community in an intense and interactive set of conversations around this central question:

How can we work together to propel Toronto's technology, content and design communities into the future and make Toronto a globally competitive hub of digital media entrepreneurship and innovation?

The day is structured as an unconference. The participants create the content of the day. There is no pre-set agenda. Your ideas, your needs and your voice will have the platform and the content of our conversations will be shared online in real-time and will be used beyond the day of the event in a number of forums, including at the Canada 3.0 2010 conference which will take place May 10-11, 2010.

This is the first of a series of DigitalMediaCamp events to be held across Canada, hosted by the Canadian Digital Media Network, and designed to help shape the agenda for Canada 3.0 2010. The series is intended to engage emerging leaders and the talented and passionate creators in Canada's digital media industry, to identify great ideas and new voices and to spur creativity in Canada's digital economy.

For more information about the Canadian Digital Media Network, visit www.cdmn.ca and see what's in store for Canada 3.0 2010 at www.canada30.ca

[openflows]

Actually Mark, it means I know that you'll exclude any critical discourse as not being constructive or solutions-oriented.

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http://jessehirsh.com/
http://youtube.com/openflows

[Mark Kuznicki]

No way, Jesse! You are totally welcome to come!! ;)

I am personally looking forward to critical voices like your own coming to DigitalMediaCamp so that we can have an engaged and open dialogue at this event. Criticism is a key component of dialogue, unpacking the present so that the future can emerge.

I'm not sure what gave you the idea that I exclude or shut down critical discourse, as I have never done so. Nor have you ever attended (I believe) an event that I've facilitated, so I'm not sure what basis you have for making this sweeping claim. But you've made it, so now I must respond.

This is a true open space-style unconference. The content is created by the participants. That's Rule #1. Always and forever.

As a facilitator, I work to create a welcoming space of mutual respect to support both listening and talking, the way anyone would want to be treated as a guest. I set community norms around the "law of two feet" and the "1/N rule". Through these norms, monologuists that fail to engage an audience might be ignored and left alone by the participants. However, they are not edited or censored in any way by the facilitator. Everything that fits within this framework is fair game. 

In the final session of this event, I will challenge the participants to put forward specific actions that we can take together as a community to advance shared interests, because that's the stated goal of the event. Anyone can propose an idea for action. People will self-select around ideas that they believe in and can contribute to.

The 1st and 2nd release of free tickets are soldout, but a waiting list is now open: http://guestlistapp.com/events/8148

Jesse, if you put yourself on the waitlist now, I will do all that I can to see that you get a space in the third and final release of tickets. In return, I only ask that you commit to the day and contribute to it with your passion and inestimable critical intelligence, as well as your journalistic talent of critical listening and reflection.

___________

Mark Kuznicki

blog: http://remarkk.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/remarkk

[David Janes]

Just a short word of endorsement for Mark here. Despite the fact Mark & I have a large divergence of opinions on most topics[*], I can assure everyone:

• Mark actively seeks out people with differing opinions to participate in various events
• Mark's events are structured no person gets marginalized during discussions
  
• Mark treats everyone's opinions with respect, even if he doesn't agree with them
  

Regards, etc...
David

[*] excepting, of course, opening up the data!
--
David Janes
President, Discover Anywhere Mobile
davidjanes@discoveranywheremobile.com
+1 416-785-4425

[Mark Kuznicki]

Thanks David. And I still believe we have more common ground to discover between us. We just need to work at it more. :)

[David Janes]

Alas, if there was only 36 hours in a day to get more stuff done ;-)

[openflows]

Hey Mark,

This is a great reply, kudos to you for taking the time to do this, and open up the discussion via your various networks.

Initially I was going to reply off-list, but felt that it would be a good snark to get out there in case others felt similarly. Really I was taking issue with the tense and tone of your language, which seeemed definitive and authoritative. Had you said that you were leading it and therefore you'd try to make it "good" or "awesome" I would have just ignored it. However when reading the words "and you know it will be good" I just could not consent to that sentence. You were speaking to me directly in the use of the singular you, instead of a broader y'all. ;)

Criticism is a key component of dialogue, unpacking the present so that the future can emerge.

That's good to read. My concern given the institutional partners was that this would not occur.

I'm not sure what gave you the idea that I exclude or shut down critical discourse, as I have never done so. Nor have you ever attended (I believe) an event that I've facilitated, so I'm not sure what basis you have for making this sweeping claim. But you've made it, so now I must respond.

I'll reply off-list to explain my own personal reasons for the statement, but the public reason has to do with the language you consistently use to describe the events you're involved in, both professionally and personally.
 

This is a true open space-style unconference. The content is created by the participants. That's Rule #1. Always and forever.

As I'm sure you're aware I'm quite critical of this assertion. I've had trouble accepting this description, both from personal experience, and due to the nature of who is empowered and who gets attention/profile from unconferences.
 

As a facilitator, I work to create a welcoming space of mutual respect to support both listening and talking, the way anyone would want to be treated as a guest. I set community norms around the "law of two feet" and the "1/N rule". Through these norms, monologuists that fail to engage an audience might be ignored and left alone by the participants. However, they are not edited or censored in any way by the facilitator. Everything that fits within this framework is fair game. 

As a facilitator Mark, I think you are wonderful, and from a professional perspective one of the best in town.

I do once again dissent however with the "law of two feet" and the "1/N rule", although do not take issue with your assertion that it does not stifle free speech or expression. Rather I feel the dynamic lends itself to established norms embedded within the participants (and institutions), that cannot be addressed within the format. The law of two feet is what consistently has me leaving these events as there is no place for me, and no incentive for me to add to the discourse.
 

Jesse, if you put yourself on the waitlist now, I will do all that I can to see that you get a space in the third and final release of tickets. In return, I only ask that you commit to the day and contribute to it with your passion and inestimable critical intelligence, as well as your journalistic talent of critical listening and reflection.

I appreciate the offer Mark, and repeat that I think you'll do a great job within the framework that you help to setup, however I just cannot consent to the original statement that I "know it will be good" without some type of contextualization. For example, I know it will be good within the context of unconferences, but unto themselves I don't believe that unconferences can be good, at least not without some form of modification (which I increasingly see occurring).

On your posterous site you wrote:

"I often go back to the mantra I coined for TransitCamp in my work today: "This is not a complaints department, it is a solutions playground."  Is this mantra of playful seriousness off-putting for people who are serious, intellectual and are looking for a good debate?"

Yes, this is absolutely true for myself and a number of people whom I consider peers (but will have to speak up and dissent for themselves if they so feel).

I'm all for solutions, I just feel that solutions built without proper criticism are doomed to fail, and I don't believe the current model of unconferences accommodates or addresses the need for this criticism.

Also Mark, I dissent and offer this criticism in part cause I like what you do. I think you will have a positive impact on this DigitalMediaCamp and perhaps some of the authoritarian institutions participating will learn a thing or two about giving up control.

In contrast say to the rubbish that is NextMedia and the horrific events associated with them that I am far to disgusted by to even comment on other than this here snarky sentence.

-j

[Mark Kuznicki]

Jesse, Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I will rethink and refine my language. I will work to win you over to coming to one of my events someday and I will work hard to provide you with a good experience in which you can find both value and community.

I will acknowledge both the limits of the unconference format and the wide variation in how the word and format is interpreted by organizers and participants alike.

In fact, most of what many people refer to as unconferences are not, in my opinion. They are cheap/free or mini tech or tech-related conferences or meetups programmed by individuals or groups who are more grassroots-oriented than those that organize large conferences. The event formats themselves are not self-organizing. They are not focused on enabling small group conversations.

For example, by my definition, DemoCamp is not an unconference. DemoCamp became the unwitting archetype of unconference in Toronto because of its success and popularity. But it is not a BarCamp and it is not an unconference. Nor is CaseCamp. Or Ignite. Or the various meetups around town.

And yet these events are still valuable to those that choose to attend them, so I'm fine with that.  But the mushiness on the definition of "unconference" has me thinking of abandoning the word altogether in reference to events that I do.

The first BarCamp at Teehan+Lax in Toronto in 2005 was for me the experience of individual and community transformation that I was hungry for at the time. It was a watershed, an a-ha moment, a sense of "I'm so happy I finally met you" with people I didn't know of before then.  I almost didn't go to that event, and if I hadn't I have no idea what I'd be doing today.  I guess I'm motivated to both try to recapture that first experience for myself and to share it with others.

Large group dialogue. That's a better description. Specifically, large group dialogue that builds social capital, where participants co-create ideas and content and where a context is created that enables the possibility for individual, group or community transformation. That is the experience and the impact that I'm interested in.

Open Space is one format to enable small group conversations within a large group gathering. World Cafe is another. Working with and learning from colleagues like Dan Rose and Misha Glouberman has been helpful in refining my approach. As has reading the work of Peter Block and Otto Scharmer.

This conversation has helped me clarify this to myself and to others who might be interested. So thank you Jesse for creating that opportunity.

Mark.