At ChangeCamp Ottawa, I was proud of the way we worked with Twitter as a “back channel” to facilitate information sharing and collaboration. This is a quick set of bullet points on what I think worked and what I think could be improved at future versions of ChangeCamp. At the end of the post, I’ve embedded the archived tweets from ChangeCamp Ottawa. I’d love to hear from ChangeCamp participants about what they think worked and how Twitter “back channels” can fit into the next ChangeCamps.
What I think worked
- Short Twitter hash tag, #cco09 was suggested by one of the core organizers as the ideal tag for ChangeCamp Ottawa 2009. It was short, compact, and could be easily deciphered by non-participants
- Conversation started before the ChangeCamp at City Hall; organizers used it to help direct attention to ongoing collaboration on the GoogleGroup
- Active monitoring and engagement with Twitter by conference organizers for references to the venue, “ChangeCamp” (in all forms: Change Camp, ChangeCamp Ottawa #changecamp #cco09
- Core group of dedicated Twitter users logged in and working the back channel regularly, including @scilib, @caitinkealy, and @nickcharney
- Reaching out to participants via Direct Message, @ reply and in-person; encouraging people to use the hash tag and the wiki
- Free reliable WiFi connectivity (sponsored by Atria Networks)
- Organizers available in blue “Change Agent” shirts ready to help
Tools we used to tweet
- Laptops/iPhone
- TweetDeck
- TwitterBerry
- Twitter Search
- Dabr: “a mobile web interface to Twitter’s API”
What I’d change
- Remind people at the opening circle to use Twitter as a means of collaboration
- Print out “hash-tag reminders” to post near the Grid; late morning we added the tag to each of the flip-charts
- Provide a projected Twitter-wall to encourage tweets; the location at Ottawa City Hall didn’t lend itself too immediate
- Increased integration with the wiki “gardeners”; increased suggestion to cross-pollinate ideas
- If possible add a live Twitter projection, for this you will need:
- projection screen/white wall
- good quality projector
- extension cords
- volunteer monitors/facilitators
- Two Canadian tools can be used to help project at a live event ScribbleLive & CoveritLive can be used to capture tweets; also FriendFeed can also be set up as an aggregation RSS feed
[Thanks to Nick, Richard, and Caitlin for reminding me about the tools used to help facilitate the Twitter stream; photos by BluRasis, MCM Photography, and Richard]
Aggregate of tweets from ChangeCamp Ottawa 2009
<a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&task=viewaltcast&altcast_code=b1358ebd2f” mce_href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&task=viewaltcast&altcast_code=b1358ebd2f” >ChangeCamp Ottawa</a>
