FeedBackAye2002

How about remembering to ask, and to note: What should we keep doing, and build on?

Even the US Army structures their after action reviews into sustain and improve. Without the sustain part it's easy to focus on only the bad stuff. And noting what worked puts people in a better frame to address the stuff that might work better next time. So, I think you should sustain at least these things:

The workshop-y organization with big time chunks. And the experiential / discussion emphasis. Content that is process and reflective oriented, vs. the latest tech du jour. The shared meals, which make built-in mingling time. However the hosts are selected, that's working, so keep doing that. There are two things I am curious about, so this is a question and maybe a possibiility, rather than a suggestion. I'm not that sure.

I'm wondering how to do some work of some kind, together at a conference like this. Something kind of like a BOF, but intended to maybe accomplish something. I am curious about the backstories of many of the people I met, or at least curious to know more of the backstories. I am not sure how to initiate such a thing, but I suspect that it would be valuable. But that's just me. Maybe this isn't a place for such stuff. And I do not suggest that either of these ideas is a better choice than any of the stuff that was done. It was all good. That's probably another thing to sustain.

In terms of content, this conference was an embarassment of riches - I always wanted to be at least three places. That's the right problem to have. Keep doing that.

- JimBullock 2002.11.20

Jim, Thanks for this feedback. Interestingly enough we had a conference call where we started with "what's" working" and other stuff to improve.

Anyone can offer a BOF. They seem to work better when there is more advance notice. The wiki can help with that.

Can you explain what you mean by "backstories"? Someone's background, experiences with application of ideas or some other sorts of experiences???

In terms of content, this conference was an embarassment of riches - I always wanted to be at least three places. That's the right problem to have. Keep doing that.

Do you mind if we quote you?

BeckyWinant 2002.12.09

Anyone can offer a BOF. They seem to work better when there is more advance notice. The wiki can help with that.

OK. I named both the structure and the content, and you latched onto the structure - BOF. Here's the content part a bit more clearly (because I'm clearer now): I'm curious about doing some work where the work product might have some use in the world outside the AYE conference. If we were the IETF we'd argue about some RFC, for a while, push it through a process, and eventually there would be a bunch of systems working together in some way they hadn't before. So we're the people attending AYE. Can we work together on something? Should we? Do we want to?

I'm a little suspicious that this might be at odds with the point of view of working on one's self as a tool. "Amplifying your effectiveness." I'm a little suspicious that it might not be possible to sustain the attention. And I get this same idea every time I get involved with a gaggle of smart, talented people all in one place - what could we go make in the world?

Can you explain what you mean by "backstories"?

Backstory = in part the answer to the question: "How did you come to be here."

I'm borrowing terminology from the storytelling arts here - theatre, novels, movies, TV and so on. Even mythology. The work tells the story of some chunk of time (or doesn't. I'm leaving out structural experiments with non linear storytelling for the moment.) Somehow all the characters got to the state and the place where they start out in the story you are telling. That's the "backstory".

Examples, let's see:

In the beginning of Casablanca, there's that bit of exposition about the tortuous route to America, and getting stuck in the city in Viche France. In a lot of stories, the plot is about discovering the back story: Who is Kaiser Sousa? The libretto in a lot of stage stuff gives you just enough of the backstory for each character to make sense out of where they start out. Pick any film noir. The characters all have huge backstories - stories that make them damaged, and noir. The folks at AYE are interesting to a fault. And none of them is at AYE to get certified on the latest tech fad du jour. How'd they get there? Why spend money on something like this? How are they able to? What else do they do? How did they come to realize that "effectiveness" was both necessary and learnable?

Michael Bolton knows a lot of theater things. He's probably got more to say about backstories than I, and more directly useful content.

Do you mind if we quote you?

Sure, go ahead, as long as you spell my name right.

-- JimBullock, 2002.12.09

Jim, I am intrigued by the idea of doing some work (perhaps in a BOF) that produces some tangible product.

The LAWST (Los Altos Workshop on Software Testing, I think) sessions do that. They meet for 2-3 days and have facilitated discussion of a particular topic. Usually the topic has been pretty narrowly define and the question refined over a period of time prior to the session.

At least this is what I *believe* happens; I never been to one of the LWAST workshops. Maybe one of our merry band has?

Anyway, there are various ways to facilitate a discussion on a topic and capture parts of the discussion as a small product. I do this sort of work with groups sometimes.

What sort of topics?

ED EstherDerby 121002

I had a similar thought about wanting to do some work with people from AYE for the last 2 conferences, without a corresponding willingness to give up one or several sessions to do it. I think it grew from "why can't it be like this at work" to "imagine what we could accomplish together". Indeed, look at what we do accomplish together! Is there a mad genius out there who can find a way we can work on something bigger than a WIKI page after we go home? (Is there something bigger than some of the WIKI pages we worked on last year?)

As far as the backstory on how we got to AYE, perhaps we could be encouraged to put that on our Guest Book page. I am as curious as Jim.

SherryHeinze 2002.12.10

AyersWorkingTogether Topic the first - Non-BOF, BOF Topic for doing something together.

I'm making this up, and I'm in brainstorming mode, so these won't be complete (or put another way, the topics will be "untested").

Do we maybe want to do some code? Pick an opensource project and a problem or enhancement, and see what happens? What about pooling our experience on something, to make a "what we know" guide? What about adding to the canon? The student is also a teacher. Maybe the product is additions to the AYE-BOK from folks who have a lot to say, but don't yet get their stuff out there. Charity work. Coordinate with Habitat for Humanity to build a house the week we're at AYE. Other Critical mass is one constraint

Enough people who are interested in the problem or the solution Enough skill to get some traction Enough time (& other resources) to do the work Why bother?

Reflection and integration, I think, would differentiate doing this at AYE from doing the same stuff in other settings. I'd be delighted to hear about "How I'm working with the stuff from the sessions thus far." from others. I'd be delighted with some mechanism to remind me to pay attention to that. My journaling habit isn't making it. David Socha's journaling requirement in CSE403 was brilliant, I thought, although he's hardly the first to encourage doing such a thing.

When I return from something development-y, I end up a little disoriented. Here I sit, back in my little life, with this pile of new tools and insights that look like they ought to be useful. I don't know that they actually are useful. I don't know how I might use them. For me, the measure of amplified effectiveness comes with doing real stuff in my life.

Mad Genius

I'm getting better at noticing what I can and can't handle, although I've still got to work on communicating that effectively (Give me some slack here. The notion that I should actually admit there are things I can't handle, or choose not to handle is recent.) So I'm not up to being this particular flavor of Mad Genius at the moment - too much else going on.

A Middle Way, between Doing and Not Doing

In the current state, there's some ad-hoc teaming of one kind or another among AYE attendees, before, after, even during. Teaming on things of varying degrees of reality. Then there's "The AYE Project" which is the real thing we all work on (or not) together, perhaps over years. I am thinking that maybe producing a product with some use in the wider world may be a middle way thing. Maybe the contribution is owning the context - facilitation like - vs. the doing of stuff.

See, this is what you get when you ask a "P" for input.

- JimBullock, 2002.12.10

Topic the Second: Backstories

My guest book page, of course, is a glib and offputting bit of fiction that like much fiction attempts to represent truths that aren't accessable straight out. The backstories from the AYE guest pages are pretty juicy, compared to lame resume type things, or fruitless acquaintence "let me introduce" type conversation. They're also a lot less juicy than the AYE people in person. Maybe this is an inevitable problem.

I am reluctant to suggest requiring some kind of personal revelation from AYE folks, or even encouraging some kind of personal revelation. Something session-like, built around "who you are, today" feels more right - and is way vague.

- JimBullock, 2002.12.10

Guest Book entries - that was encouraged, not required. Actually, it always has been encouraged, but most people don't even put names there. Journaling - consider whether your journaling habit is making it, but on the AYE WIKI and SHAPE. I'm an introvert, but I find myself thinking out loud here a lot. And I am really glad to see that someone else does not want to wait until next spring to use the WIKI.

SherryHeinze 2002.12.10

I like Jim's idea of collecting BackStories, so let's start a page and let people hang their back history stories off it if it pleases them. Having them hang off a central page should make them easier to browse through. I think that mining guestbook pages is low signal/noise work.

Let me compose a bit. Jim, are you ready with your backstory to post?

BobLee 2002.12.10

I rally like the ideas I've seen here. The notion of accomplishing something is compelling and adds continuity of community. Nynke and I have been working on how to accomplish something through a combination of face-to-face and wiki using a focused topic and some prepared exercises/ tasks. Perhaps working on such a format and in this format could provide the same for people at AYE. Meet one year, do a year-long project and meet at the end for retrospective?

I like the idea of everyone coming together. Johanna has also mentioned this. Maybe Jim's thought about using the community intelligence and creativity to develop "What We Know" or extend the canon is good food for thought.

Hmmmmm.

BeckyWinant 2002.12.20

Above, Esther asked about LAWST. I've been to a few LAWSTs, and she's right. The questions are defined in advance. We're supposed to bring our stories and data. The facilitator is quite strong (necessary, given some of the personalities). For almost every LAWST, at least one person has published at least one article. Frequently there are 2-3 articles out of a LAWST. It's a model that works. Becky, it's only the 19th, not the 20th :-)

But, is there any more feedback about the conference?

-- JohannaRothman 2002.12.19

Things that really worked for me at the conference was the interactive stuff where, as Jim steates, I learned someone's backstory, understood how it applied in his life and found parallels to my own life - or similar examples. Experiential learning is always better for me. I think it is a great idea and would really be great if we could actually maybe even have a general session of answering the question "how did I come to be here?" and it really allows people to answer it with any story they want. I'm not much for the what do you want to get out of this session so much because I think the facilitators/instructors already have in mind what they'd like to make known and through experiential learning, each of us will learn the pieces we need to and apply them in our lives as it makes sense to do so. I think the Satir material is great to always review and especially Jean's session on modeling it at work - it is a live example that we can all be a part of. I'm more for a guide or something that says we know this much, or here's what we know. A project that runs for a year...well, if the object was to produce the guide, ok, maybe I'm in...but if it is to write a program, test a concept, deal with the technicalities of how to do this or that...sounds like way too much work for me. But I'm also not a very structured person.

LynnMarieHill 1/24/03

So what is a BOF?? AlanSmith 2003-07-25

BOF is an acroynm for "Birds Of a Feather", a self-selecting group that gathers to discuss a certain topic. A BOF is less formal than a SIG (Special Interest Group). Many conferences leave blocks of times for BOFs. Some BOFs might be planned before a conference, others spring into existence with people discover a common interest

Updated: Wednesday, November 19, 2003