Humanize the Earth!

WikiSym, Portland and my trip

September 29, 2005 at 8:54 am | In transportation, the Commons, technology, personal work, open space |

I’m really getting excited about this trip. The WikiSym Conference in Santa Barbara is going to be really cool, even if I’m actually more excited about the journey than the destination.

I’m going to get to stay at Brandon’s house and meet his wife, I’m going to get to meet other Portland folks (haven’t talked with Grimes yet - he’s on my hit list). I’m going to get to spent 4 days on the road with some really cool folks interested in lots of cool stuff, with a plan to hear about each of our passions and see how we can work together going forward. I’m going to get to see cousins in Portland and some cousins once removed! :-)

I was initially worried that I’d have a really hard time plugging myself into an academic-type conference with speakers from the front and all that, after experiencing so much open space. I decided the only thing to do was to take my own personal open space attitude with me and not worry about the format, using the Law of Two Feet liberally, and maybe not attendingn sessions at all if they didnt’ seem to be serving me.

And then a curious thing happened. I went through the conference program in detail and found something I was interested in for every time slot of the conference. Sure, I may still be wrong and need to wander out, but there aren’t any unscheduled blocks for me, and that’s a surprise.

So off I go in two weeks, on a new adventure to the northwest and then southwest and everything in between.