Barcamps, Unconferences and #A11y

@vdemson, @patricktimony - DC Public Library

• Venetia: – What, Why?

• Patrick: – How?

Accessibility Unconferences

What?

• Unconference:– A facilitated, participant-driven conference centered on a theme

or purpose, but without high fees or sponsored presentations– Example: AccessibilityCampDC1 – Oct 10th, 2009

• Barcamp:– Network of unconferences, focused on web applications, open

source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats – Example: BarcampDC3 – Nov 14th, 2009

• #A11y– Twitter hashtag (subject identifier) for “Accessibility” – Discussion over #AxS vs. #A11y

• Accessibility:– Ease of use of a system regardless of the ability of the user

Unconference

• Earliest known use of the word: 1974Nat’l. Council of Teachers of EnglishMichigan Conference

- lots of workshops- few speeches- cooperative work- informality- drinking, music and volleyball

Unconferences

• Origins in the tech community

• Harrison Owen: “Open Space Technology: A User’s Guide”

• Foo Camps and Foo Bar

• Bar Camps

• Brain Jams, Mashup Camps

• Government 2.0

Open Space Technology

• Early 1980s: Harrison Owen – presents paper on “Organizational Transformation” at traditional management conference

• Participants urge a conference to address issues and opportunities

• 1983 & 1984: 1st & 2nd annual symposia in traditional conference format

Open Space Technology

• 1985 : 3rd annual open technology symposium

• Owen really didn’t want to organize all the details

• Retreated to a bar

• Claims he there discovered “Open Space” approach at the bottom of his 2nd martini

Open Space Conferences

• Minimize gruntwork by leadership

• Maximize productive learning & contribution by participants

Open Space Philosophy

• Open space =

the void at the edge of Chaos from which life erupts and order begins to manifest

Open Space Technology

• 5 Basic mechanisms

• 4 Conditions

• 4 Principles

• 1 Law

• 2 Fundamentals

OST: 5 Basic Mechanisms

1.Invitation

2.Arrangement

3.Bulletin board

4. Marketplace

5. “Breathing” or “pulsation” flow pattern

4 Conditions when OST works best

• High complexity

• High diversity

• Real or potential conflict

• High urgency

OST: 4 Flow Principles

• Whoever comes are the right people

• Whatever happens is the only thing that could have

• Whenever it starts is the right time

• When it’s over, it’s over

OST: One Law• “Law of Two Feet”

“If at any time during our time together you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your 2 feet to go somewhere else.”

-Harrison Owen

Butterflies Bumblebees

OST: 2 Fundamentals

• Passion

Without it, no one is interested

• Responsibility

Without it, nothing will get done

OST Outcomes

• Action

• Growth

• Learning

• Community building

• Transformation

OST: Some Session Formats

• Birds of a Feather

• Fish Bowl

• Lightning Talks

• Pecha Kucha

• 9 x 9 Long Lasting Greetings

• Flash Debates

Birds of a Feather

• Discuss any topic of mutual interest to participants

• Allow group interaction

• Informal, but with a discussion leader

• Alternative to a panel discussion

• Anyone can organize

• Set space aside for this session type

Fish Bowl

• Inner circle of 4 or 5 chairs

• Volunteers act as discussion leaders

• Chairs for other participants in concentric circles around the inner circle

• Open fish bowl: 1 chair in inner circle left vacant: When participant moves into circle, one from inner circle moves out

• Participants frequently enter & leave

Pecha Kucha

• Japanese onomatopoeic word for “chitchat”

• 20 slides for 20 seconds each (6:40 minutes total)

• Meet

• Show work

• Exchange ideas

• Network

Lightning Talks

• Several speakers in one session

• Short presentations last no more than 5 minutes

• Like speed dating

9 x 9 Long Lasting Greetings

Exchange 9 business cards with 9 people you don’t know in 9 minutes.

Flash Debates• Topics determined by group

• 2 teams, 3 folks each

• Fixed topic

• 2 minutes per speaker

• 2 – 2 / 2 – 2 / 1 – 1 minute sessions

• Have fun – cleverly rebut & insult your opposition

• Show off your knowledge

Other Unconference Facilitation Techniques

• Appreciative inquiry

• Dotmocracy

• Knowledge Café & World Café

• Multi-voting

• Nominal Group Technique

• Speed Geeking

• TeachMeet

Tim O’Reilly

• Tim O’Reilly, founder O’Reilly Media

Chronicler & catalyst of leading edge development

• “We create products that we want to use.”

Products must be useful, interesting and truthful.

O’Reilly Mission

• Change the world by spreading knowledge of innovators

• Identify technology trends that really matter

• Galvanize their adaptation by amplifying “faint signals” from alpha geeks who are creating the future.

Friends of O’Reilly = FOO• FOO bar

• FOO Camp - “Wiki of conferences”

• By invitation only

• Mechanism for finding innovators

• Attendees nominate new, interesting people for invitation to future camps

Unconference Benefits

• Serendipitous learning experiences

• Ad hoc discussions – flexible, automatically optimized as you go

• Spontaneous group activities

• Opportunity to drill down into topic & discover nuances, not just generalities

Unconference Benefits

• Participant driven – folks show up & talk about their passion

• Create energy around a topic

• No audience – only participants

• All sessions – on the record

• Spawns movements and useful applications that benefit society

Why?

• Purpose:Bring together developers and users

• Librarianship issues:AccessDigital divideLibrary as community place

• Systems Issues: Open source

Goal of AccessibilityCampDC

Nothing about us

without us

How to Run an Accessibility Camp

1. FIND a few good helpers and a good location

2. PLAN and delegate tasks

3. RUN the day of the event

Find a few good helpers

1. Presenters (Salespeople)

2. Organizers (Mavens)

3. Networkers (Connectors)

Jamal MazruiSilver Spring,

Marylandhttp://nonvisualdevelopment.org/Bio Software

developer and policy analyst; progressive and libertarian politics; husband and father

70 Following 437 Followers 11 Listed

1,172Tweets

Name Carolyn Klinger Location Maryland, http://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynklingerBio Technical writer who cares about the people who read her stuff. Mom, wife, volunteer extraordinaire.

Name Sam J Location Arlington, VA Bio Accessibility professional. Jazz enthusiast. South Park junkie. 209 Following 188 Followers 4 Listed 1,528

Shawn Lawton Henry http://www.uiaccess.com/profile.htmlBio accessibility evangelist; author, speaker, communicator; W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Teamer; youth group leader, mentor; cook, gardener; sea kayaker 62 Following 467 Followers 66 Listed 126Tweets

PRESENTERS

John F Croston III Washington, DC http://www.jfciii.com/Bio Web developer that

uses XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, Microformats, and SQL to improve web accessibility for all, as the Web Content Accessibility Manager at ARMY.MIL

William Lawrence Washington DChttp://zaxbypass.com Bio vê, vé, , ℣vrijeđati, versus, višeobličje, vruć, vođa all stand for veeliam. And, he stands for accessibility.

Name patrick timony Washington DC Web http://sttsdc.blo... Bio Adaptive Technology Librarian, DC Public Library

Venetia Demson Washington DC http://www.dclibrary.org. Bio Chief Adaptive Services, DC Public Library

ORGANIZERS and STAFF

Name Jennison Asuncion

Location Toronto Web

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennison

Bio He's a convener, practitioner, and researcher in the IT accessibility space, with interests in jazz, networking, live comedy, public radio, & xc skiing.

Name Leslie Bobbitt Location Arlington VA Bio Live each day as if it were your last.

Name Peter Corbett Location Washington, DC http://www.istrategylabs.com/Bio Interactive strategist and producer. Makin' it happen since 1980. CEO of iStrategyLabs

NETWORKERS

Name Mika Pyyhkala Location Boston http://profile.to/mikaAccessibility, new media internet tech, airline industry, Boston, other random musings/thoughts. President National Federation of Blind of Massachusetts

FIND a Place

• Public Library

• University

• Private Venue

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library

Accessibility C

amp D

C

BarC

amp D

C 3

George Washington UniversityDigital Capital Week Tech Festival?

ADOBE – A11yBOS

PLAN

ORGANIZERS:

Web Presence

• Registration and Sponsorship site

• Event website

• Google Spreadsheet for online schedule

• Twitter, Facebook, email and telephone

Accessibility Camp DC Website

EventBrite Registration and Sponsorship site

• Twitter:– public instant messaging – 140 characters per post. – You can “follow” anyone on

Twitter.– Twitter encourages brevity.

• Tips: – @ means twitter user– # is a subject tag– RT is retweet

Sponsorship

Food and Entertainment

• T-shirts with a list of sponsors

• Food: breakfast, lunch, snacks, drinks and misc.

• Open bar after-party at night

                                     

 JX2 Professional

Use theseTools• Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In - Networking, Publicizing • EventBrite - Registration, Sponsorship• Google Docs Spreadsheet - Online Schedule• 20/20 Captioning - Remote CART service• Skype/OPAL/Ustream - Archiving, Remote participation• WordPress - Publishing

Staff Responsibilities

Facilities and Audio Visual Support• Tables, Chairs, Lights• WIFI• Ethernet connections for speakers and CART• Microphones and Speakers (two input for questions)• Screens and projectors for presentations• Adaptive Technologies for demos (JAWS, MAGic)

Accommodations• Accommodation statement • Remote CART captioning service ($95/hr)• Sign Language Interpreters (6-8 interpreters)• Braille and Large Print schedules

CART Real-Time Captioning

Day of the Event

9:00 – Registration

10:00 – Intros

11:00 – Sessions

12:00 – Sessions

1:00 – Sessions

2:00 – Lunch

3:00 – Sessions

4:00 – Sessions

5:00 – Clean-up

8:00 – Open bar

Online Schedule of Presentations

Take-Aways • Free Tools

– Creole Translation App, "SeeClickFix“, “DC-311”

– Jamal and John are working on web apps

• Accessibility DC Meet-up– Demos and Presentations– Networking, Continuing Education– Group of friends - Serendipitous discovery

• Network of Friends and Continuing Professional Development– Modeled on DC Night Out

Resources• Jennison Asuncion podcast transcript on social media and accessibility with EASI

– http://easi.cc/podcasts/itnews/itnews-tr/jennison01.htm

• TEDxSiliconValley - Victor Tsaran, Yahoo!'s Accessibility Program Manager TED talk

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsJB73c38yw

• more on Victor Tsaran

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfHVHTRCxVU

• Yahoo!'s Accessibility Lab

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfLnSk0sPWI

• Twitter Accessibility Roundup from WebAIM

– http://webaim.org/blog/twitter-accessibility-roundup/

• Accessible Twitter

– http://www.accessibletwitter.com

• Web Axe Podcast and Blog

– http://webaxe.blogspot.com

• Accessibility-Camp-DC summary

– http://cleartypemedia.com/press/2009/10/accessibility-camp-dc/

• Accessibility-Camp-DC slides

– http://www.accessibilitycampdc.org/slides.shtml

• Accessibility-Camp-BOS website:

-- http://a11y-bos.org/• Open Space Technology

-- http://www.openspaceworld.org/cgi/wiki.cgi?AboutOpenSpace

More Resources• Public Media Camp Planning Document – Peter Corbett, iStrategy

– http://publicmediacamp.org/2009/10/18/the-publicmediacamp-field-guide/• O’Reilly site

– http://radar.oreilly.com• FutureWeb2010 videos

– http://www.youtube.com/user/Futureweb2010• Is the iPad accessible?

– http://atmac.org/ipad-assistive-technology-disability-round-up• Youtube iPad baby Demo

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT4EbM7dCMs&feature=fvw• Youtube iPad senior Demo

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndkIP7ec3O8• Youtube iPad cat Demo

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9NP-AeKX40&feature=related• Youtube iPod VoiceOver Demo

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8NrX0ZH3Dk

Thank You

• For copies of presentation and handouts Email:

• patrick.timony@dc.gov

• venetia.demson@dc.gov

• 202-727-2142