Annette Kramer, Learning Lab Blog
The Collaborative Technologies Conference sponsored by CMP took place in Boston this past week. I didn't go (too expensive for my budget), but I had the pleasure of having dinner in Boston's North End with Nancy White (who was attending and leading a workshop on virtual meetings) and a few other conference participants, including two fascinating women who work in the areas of collaborative technologies, online learning, and NGOS.
The Conference focused on evolving techniques, tools, and ideas about collaborating across organizational boundaries and elsewhere. As Annette points out in her reflections about the conference, everyone was talking about how to connect more effectively, particularly in teams and meetings. Among the key note speakers were Linda Stone, Ken Thompson (who I also met at dinner) Jessica Lipnack, and John Seely Brown. (Nancy live blogged Linda Stone's presentation and flickred lots of photos)
I think Annette's points on improving the conference dialogue between ideamakers and toolmakers is something that might be useful at the NTC Conference hosted by N-TEN.
Collaboration online is an emerging field -- and the value of emergent processes was a big focus for many of the sessions. In this context, you can't talk about collaborative technology without also talking about change management both in the abstract and in the room at the moment of conversation. And again, this discussion can't be carried out to its full potential without a play among these experiences and the technologies that make them possible.
What if a presenter were paired up with a vendor and told to make the presenters' ideas work with the tool? What kinds of new ideas might emerge, and what could be learned by those presenting and the sessions' participants?
Or what if vendors worked with presenters or read up on their ideas, and their demonstrations in the "vendor room" were geared around the sessions?
Either way, these practices would eliminate the sense that vendors are only there to sell -- and a hard separation between technologies on display and the processes they are supposed to enhance.
Annette is involved with a ngo called Half the Sky Foundation that supports orphans in china with educational and development programs. (Very similar work to the Sharing Foundation that works in Cambodia with children - disclosure- I'm on the board).
I also met Lorretta Donovan, President of Worksmarts, and an appreciative inquiry guru. Lorretta's company works in the area of training and organizational development - driven by her passion for exploring how organizations learn and create value. Loretta worked for the Girl Scouts of the USA as the chief learning officer and at one point worked at the March of Dimes - so she has nonprofit experience. Lorretta is also working on the 2006 National Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation that is taking place just after the blogher conference in August in San Francisco and will include a pre-conference brainjams.
Photo Credit: on Flickr by Beth Kanter
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