English translation of the La Presse article written by participant Nicholas Ritoux:
Rococo Camp: The Technological "Unconférence"
By Nicolas Ritoux, a special collaboration with LaPresse, Montreal, Quebec May 23, 2007 - 09h23
In professional conferences, the most profitable discussions often take place around the coffee machine. So why waste time listening to lecturers?
This is the idea behind the "Open Space" or "unconference" approach with which participants experimented at a technology conference this weekend in Montreal.
During the event, Rococo Camp, which brought the craftsmen of the "wikisphere" to the "Société des arts technologiques" from Friday to Sunday, they briefly exchanged their video screens and projectors for a multicoloured bulletin board and markers. It's a method that sounds rather exotic for people who are stuck to their computers day and night, and are accustomed to doing everything on-screen, sometimes hundreds of kilometers from one another.
This straight-forward conference, organized by volunteers on a micro-budget, brought together the minds behind the "Wiki revolution". One found there some of people behind the popular Wikipedia.org encyclopaedia and other sites which build their contents by calling upon the web community, sites like Wikitravel (travel guides) or WikiHow (instructions on everything and nothing).
On a Wiki, the same Web page can be modified ad infinitum by its readers to combine the sum of their knowledge in a single place. To reach agreement, they need to discuss online to reach a consensus. The event Rococo Camp reflected this spirit, being run in the form of a "real world wiki", according to Anne Goldenberg, one of organizers, who is finishing her doctorate in Communications at UQAM.
The method used: "Open Space", a form of meeting which levels all hierarchies, lets everyone have an equal voice and makes it possible to solve problems more effectively.
The first principle of Open Space is that the program isn't prepared in advance. "It's not a traditional conference, where stars speak on a stage. Those who will animate sessions sit with everyone else. This allows everyone to express their ideas", explains Ms. Goldenberg.
At the beginning of the day, everyone meets together in a large circle of chairs, in the middle of which a facilitator walks, inviting people to share a topic or problem that they would like to discuss today.
"Hello, my name is Deborah", began the facilitator as she explained to participants how the conference would work, in both official languages. "Let's say that I'd like to discuss 'How not to strangle one's colleagues'. I'll write it on a piece of paper and put it on the bulletin board. If anyone wants to discuss it with me, they'll know where to find me."
"Open Space is a structure which supports our creativity," explains Deborah Hartmann. "Leadership belongs to everyone. The goal is to exploit the connections which usually happen accidentally. This format makes it possible to effectively connect people who have common needs, to find shared solutions."
And there's more...
At a time when organizations are relaxing their protocols, the Open Space method (OpenSpaceWorld.org) should be welcome. At the moment it is particularly used in community contexts, and it is also appearing in the public administration sector.
After the SARS crisis, Ontario health workers called upon Larry Peterson, a Canadian pioneer of Open Space, to identify solutions to their organisational challenges. Elsewhere, the Upper-Yamaska Development center brought together 115 citizens in an Open Space meeting to identify priorities for the future of their area (vision2015.info).
"No one is considered stupid", said Sylvia Boss, a 28 year old student taking part in Rococo Camp. "Open Space makes it possible to gather in an organic way, with people who have common interests. It puts our learning experience at the forefront, not the expertise of a few presenters."
Translated by DeborahHartmann from the original article in published in French. Copyright 2007 Nicolas Ritoux