BlogWalk 2.0 in retrospect

The second edition of BlogWalk is over, and it's been great fun. After two days of intense conversation, now is not the time for deep thoughts. That will come in the coming week, after some digestion time...
A few remarks however on how it was are in order.

Our host Sebastian

A big thank you to Sebastian Fiedler for arranging everything and being our host in Nuremberg. And just as big a thank you to all present for the conversations we had, and the thoughts and ideas you all enriched me with. Also thanks to Sebastians parents for letting us enjoy the hospitality of their home. The breakfasts in the garden in the sun were well appreciated, as was the table conversation.

Intense conversation

As last time I facilitated the Open Space-formatted parts of the day, and I actually enjoyed doing it more than the first time, probably due to more confidence and experience. Even if Elisabeth Neun dubbed my intro-round as early seventies hippie stuff, I think it all went very well. Then again, Lisa was the one that managed to break the one real rule we have at these open get togethers: access by invitation only. An e-mail would have done it. All that ask for an invitation get one usually. I appreciated Lisa's presence and contribution, let's be clear about that, and I also only fully realized she was there as a gate-crasher afterwards when she was long gone (though she told me when she came in, but I assumed she had checked it with Sebastian), but I still think it was a rude thing to do.

The old Leper-hospital, and former University mensa

These open get-togethers work because it's transparant up front who you will meet and what their background is, which makes getting into meaningfull conversations quickly easier. And also, it is up to us organizers to try and get a nice mix of people coming to these events, that we think will be able to add perspective to the topic at hand. This time all went well, let me say that once again, but coming un-announced can disturb the context of openness and trustworthiness we need for our dialogues, which then will reflect back on us as initiators. If anyone thinks of showing up unannounced next time, I promise I'll bill you my usual day-tariff for facilitation, E1000,- excluding taxes.

Blogwalk: bloggers walking in Nuremberg

Back to the meeting. After a morning of intense conversations, concentrating somewhat on organisational level problems around education and learning, educational systems and the politics behind them, we enjoyed lunch on a sunny terrace overlooking the Peglitz river. Living up to the name BlogWalk we then strolled through Nuremberg and some parks, crisscrossing and following the river. Around 4pm we returned to the Krakow-tower, one of the towers in the medieval city walls, where we tried to bring our discussion to the very personal level by combining our own stories about self directed learning to the vast number of post-its we created in the morning. Story telling gradually grew into group discussion, which rounded of the day. Drinks were served, and dinner was enjoyed on top of the city walls.

the First Windows Wiki: all yellow notes, seen from the outside

Saturday was spent relaxing over drinks and cake with Gabriela Avram, sightseeing with Sebastian Fiedler and Lilia Efimova, and with the two of us alone. This was rounded off with a tasty asparagus dinner, prepared by Katja, Sebastians partners. Thanks!

Even the trip back brought interesting conversations with Lilia, while we drove over the sunlit Franconian hills towards home at a leisurely 160km/h (100mph). German highways are nice that way.

All in all a great BlogWalk, and I am already looking forward to the next one, on July 4th in Krems near Vienna.

Some things I will reflect on and maybe blog about later:

Natural language as information architecture, and/or vice versa (Thomas Herr, with a tip of the hat to Ludwig Wittgenstein)

For more postings about BlogWalk 2.0, see Topicexchange where they are all aggregated.

Nuremberg, medieval streets

More than enough words for now, on to the pictures.

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(posted by Ton Zijlstra at May 31, 2004 09:48 PM)