WalkMesh - call for guides

For WalkMesh on June 15th I am putting out a call for guides.

A guide will have three responsibilities.

Pick a place where WalkMesh should stop - a city park, a public lobby, a great cafe, an interesting company.

Lead us from our previous stop to the new stop (we'll coordinate ahead of time so that the order we stop in makes some sense and no walk is too long without stops)

But most importantly - guide us not just physically but with some questions to discuss, something to look for as we walk, help us see something new (or something old in a new way).

WalkMesh is about the physical walk, the urban hike and exploration.

But it is also intended to be a workshop and conference - a chance to share ideas, get feedback, input, suggestions and have discourse. Discourse in motion, with pens and paper (or small handhelds) not laptops, but still conversations much as we might have at any other conference.

Though I think by being in motion, being outside, and having a shared physical experience, our conversations will be different from a "typical" conference. The city around us can't help but impact what we talk about - as will the spaces we stop in and spend time encountering.

So, if you are interested in join us, rsvp via upcoming, leave comments here, blog about it and invite anyone you want to walk with and spend a day seeing the city while in conversation. Technologists, artists, entrepreneurs - anyone and everyone is welcome.

If you want to be a guide, email me and we're start collaborating on a schedule. I think we'll have at least 5 guides (including myself) but could have a few more depending on where we want to stop.

WalkMesh - Walkabout in San Francisco June 15th

I would like to invite anyone interested in MeshForum, networks, design, and visual thinking to join me on June 15th for an new way to hold a conference, a bit of exercise both mental and physical, and a great way to spend a day in the city of San Francisco.

WalkMesh will be the first of what I hope will be a series of Walkabouts, conferences held in motion, with stops along the way.

If you are interested in helping shape WalkMesh, please join me in planning it, leave comments here and watch this space for links to how to participate. Everything about WalkMesh is open to discussion. A few initial framing plans.

The plan is to walk, but also to stop frequently at a series of engaging spaces. These will be opportunities for new people to join us.

We will likely end the day at the Brainjam's event scheduled for the evening of June 15th, where (and when) we start and where we stop along the way is open to discussion.

I hope that each of you not just attends and participates but also invites others to join us, as a walk outside we can be as small or as large as we want to be, I'd love to have lots of engaging, interesting people join us.

For this first WalkMesh, donations or contributions are optional, but also a matter to discuss, with a little bit of contributions we can help organize and pay for items such as a small gift/token/memento for all who participate, transportation options for anyone who doesn't/can't walk but wants to join us at the stops along the way, and meals and beverages along the way - as well as any admission fees/tickets needed (group rates on trolley tickets for example or for a future WalkMesh a ferry ride).

All I ask, however, for this first WalkMesh is that if you want to join us you bring a pen (or pens), a stack of notecards and a binder clip, good walking shoes, money (and if the weather suggests it a light jacket and/or umbrella - we'll go rain or shine, fog or clear skies, though in the case of rain our schedule might adjust as necessary). Cameras are also welcome. For most people, I'd suggest leaving your computers at home - letting us focus on the experiences in front of and around us. We'll likely use cell phones, flickr and email to note where we are/where we are heading for anyone trying to meet up with us.

If there is sufficient time and funding (sponsors or donations) I'd like to arrange for WalkMesh travel bags and/or t-shirts etc - in no small part so that we can tell who is participating (or at least who contributed).

If your company or organization would like to join us and/or host us as a stop along the way, please post a comment here or contact me directly. As the details firm up I'll update this post and post more details, including a registration page.

Visual Maps of MeshForum 2006

Thanks to Eileen Clegg of Visual Insights the visual maps she created from Monday's sessions at MeshForum 2006 are now available online.

Go take a look at the visual maps of our Monday speakersfrom MeshForum.

In the upcoming weeks we'll be exploring a variety of other ways to share the MeshForum experience. If you have not already signed up for our MeshForum Discussion group at Google, leave a comment or contact me (or reply to the invite if you were an attendee at this year's MeshForum). Later this summer, the audio from MeshForum will be available on IT Conversations.

Thanks Eileen!

Shannon

People writing about MeshForum 2006

Several of the attendees at this year's MeshForum conference in San Francisco have been writing their thoughts.  Have a peak.

• Christopher Carfi at The Social Customer Manifesto
• David Levinson at The Transportationist
• Howard Greenstein at his Random Thoughts from HowardGr
• Dave Davison at Thoughts Illustrated
• Dave Gray at Communication Nation
• Jon Lebkowski at WorldChanging

There were many others with blogs at the event, and I may have missed some others.

CHANGE of Venue - Open Space at Adaptive Path

The Tuesday sessions at MeshForum - in Open Space format have MOVED.

We will be at the offices of Adaptive Path.

363 Brannan St.
San Francisco, CA 94107

We will start the open space sessions at 9am.

See you there (if you haven't registered and would like to support MeshForum financially you can at http;//meshforum2006.mollyguard.com)

Innovation by Reorganization

Dinesh Tantri writes Breaking Social Networks Versus Building a Learning Organization

FastCompany has an article by Chris Trimble of the Tuck School Of Business about the impact of social networks on innovation . He says while existing social networks are a necessity in the idea generation phase of innovation, they need to be broken and re-created in the execution phase. Quoting from the article :

"Breaking networks is the only way to prepare an organization to take innovation efforts beyond mere ideas. You can train an individual about what an innovation is and why it demands different behavior, but you can't retrain an organization simply by training the individuals within it. The individuals may acquire knowledge, but organizations are more powerful than individuals, and organizations reinforce the past.

So often in my work chronicling innovation efforts, I've observed major turning points for the better following substantial reorganizations. Why? Reorganizations break those involved with an innovation out of their existing network, and force them to forge new relationships and new networks from scratch. "

I particularly like how Dinesh summarizes his own view on this article.

Reorganization, because organizations reinforce the past seems to be a quick fix - A classic case of addressing the symptom and ignoring the underlying problem. To build a debate culture, to surface assumptions as a group and challenge them, to question everything that is conventional wisdom would the key. And this is the training managers would need to ideate and execute innovation. Fundamental changes are tough but these are the long term capability building steps to be taken - IMHO, reorganizing for innovation might not be sustainable.

Food at MeshForum 2006

At MeshForum 2006 we will enjoy food from a variety of local restaurants, farms and companies.

Breakfast on Sunday and Monday (light - fruits, cereals and yogurt) will be provided by Ruby Red Labs an innovative new firm in San Francisco building Web 2.0 and Mobile applications.

Lunch on Sunday and Monday will be catered by Mistral, a Rotisserie Provencale whose food is local, organic and fresh. On Sunday lunch will include a selection of sandwhichs featuring rolls from San Francisco's Acme Bakery with sides of beets, yams, and fresh fruit. On Monday lunch will be a selection of roast meats with a variety of sides and green salad.

For snacks in the afternoon we will have a selection of organic fresh fruis, as well as local nuts and dried fruits from Capay Farms. We also hope to feature a selection of organic chocolates one afternoon.

In addition to the standard bottled waters and sodas, MeshForum 2006 will feature juices from Adina World Beat Beverages.

Sunday evening MeshForum will have a group dinner at Canton Seafood. The 10 course menu includes: Dim Sum, Canton Style Filet Mignon, Peking Duck, Garlic Spicy Chicken, Calimari and Scallops in Birds Nest, shitake mushrooms and snap peas, and more.

Monday evening MeshForum attendees will dine in small groups, to prepare for Tuesday's open space sessions.

Tuesday's Open Space sessions will be held at Canton Seafood, with a light Chinese style breakfast and a simple lunch. Canton's 2nd floor banquet facility offers MeshForum a large, open space well suited to group discussions and conversations.

Eileen Clegg - Visual Insights at MeshForum

Attending MeshForum and covering Monday's sessions visually will be Eileen Clegg. Arrangements will be made for future access and liikely prints of the murals that result for all attendees and interested parties.

Eileen Clegg is a visual journalist, futurist, and founder of the company Visual Insight (www.visualinsight.net ), creating large-scale, real-time visual language murals to help organizations capture emergent knowledge. Her clients have included IBM, Federated Department Stores, Thomson Learning and the Gates Foundation. She has been a research affiliate for Institute for the Future (www.iftf.org ), in Palo Alto, California since 1999. Before that, Eileen was a daily newspaper journalist for many years with special emphasis on education and environment. She has published and/or illustrated numerous articles and books including: The 21st Century Corporate University (Jossey Bass Pfeiffer, 2005), a chapter in Creating a Learning Culture (Cambridge University Press 2004), Claiming Your Creative Self (New Harbinger, 1999), Goodbye Good Girl (New Harbinger, 1998), Becoming a Wise Parent for your Grown Child (New Harbinger, 1997). She developed a practice using visual language for storymaps in 2001. She has a B.A. degree in Philosophy from University of California, Berkeley.

Schedule for MeshForum 2006

MeshForum 2006 will be May 7-9 in San Francisco, at the Commonwealth Club on May 7th and 8th and at Canton Seafood on May 9th.

Our schedule is:

Saturday May 6th

3pm - 6pm Registration table will be available (location TBA) to pick up badges and conference materials.
6pm - 8pm Opening night informal reception - suggestions at MeshForum wiki

Sunday May 7th

9 am Registration opens at Commonwealth Club
9 am Light breakfast (fruits) and coffee available at Commonwealth Club
9:30 am Opening remarks by Shannon Clark, founder of MeshForum
10:00 am Opening Keynote - Manuel Lima, founder of VisualComplexity.com
11:00 am First Interstitial - Art of Networks - Rachel Beth Egenhoefer
11:15 am Naked Conversations, the corporation in a blogging world - Robert Scoble and Shel Israel
12:30 pm Lunch workshop on storytelling with Heather Gold
2 pmLarge Scale Social Networks, the members - presentations and discussion with Anil Dash of Six Apart and Aaron Burcell, PodShow
3 pm Second Interstitial - Art of Networks - Spot Draves, ElectricSheep
3:15 pm Afternoon break - Global Chocolate Tasting
3:45 pm Large Scale Social Networks, multiple networks - presentations and discussion with Mike Jones, Userplane and Marc Senasac, Broadband Mechanics
4:45 pm Third Interstitial - Art of Networks - Dicky Davies, The Dicky Box
5 pm Walk to group dinner
5:30 pm Group dinner at Canton Seafood, 655 Folsom St.

Monday May 8th

8:00 am Registration opens at Commonwealth Club
8:00 am Breakfast at Commonwealth Club
8:30 am The Economics of Transportation Networks, Dr. David Levinson, University of Minnisota
9:30 am Fourth Interstitial - Art of Networks
9:45 am Political Networks, managing large scale Social Networks, Jon Lebkowsky, worldchanging.com, Zack Rosen, CivicSpace Labs
10:45 am Fifth Interstitial - Art of Networks
11:00 am Value Networks, Verna Allee
12:00 pm Visual Thinking lunch workshop led by Dave Gray and Dana Smith of Xplane
2:00 pm Breaking old Networks, Jamais Cascio, Howard Greenstein, and Christopher Allen
3:00 pm Social Network Analysis, Dr. Karen Stephenson, Netform
4:00 pm Continuing the conversation, moderated by Heather Gold a short presentation of topics to discuss over small group dinners and on Tuesday.
4:30 pm Walk to group dinners, leave Commonwealth Club.
5:30 pm Group dinners at private rooms reserved at area restaurants. Speakers and other surprise guests will be available to continue the conversation and start new ones.
8:00 pm Conversations continue at location TBA

Tuesday May 9th
Canton Seafood, 655 Folsom St., San Francisco

On Tuesday the format is Open Space (or unconference format) with multiple small group discussions and workshops. As topics and session organizers come forward, we will post the topics here and on the wiki but sessions are open to all attendees and anyone may propose a session to open.

8:30 am Breakfast available
9:00 am Opening of the Space, Michael Herman
9:30 am First workshop sessions
10:45 am Morning Break
11:00 am Second workshop sessions
12:30 am Lunch, small group discussions continue
2:00 pm First Afternoon Sessions
3:30 pm Afternoon break
3:45 pm Second Afternoon Sessions
4:15 pm Closing of the space
4:30 pm End of MeshForum 2006

Later that night the Organizers and others will meet for drinks and dinner in San Francisco, all attendees who are staying in town are welcome to join us to give feedback and suggestions for the next MeshForum.

make your net work - Join me at MeshForum 2006

As we lead up to MeshForum, I find myself talking, emailing and chatting with lots of people, explaining to each of them why they should join me at MeshForum 2006. I talk about the great speakers, the lunch workshops, the Tuesday Open Space, the experiment in conference format to make a conference that is highly interactive, focused, but also extremely diverse, on the record and open to contributions across disciplines, industries and backgrounds.

But that is all too wordy.

My good friend Jerry Michalski in response to one such explanation I was sharing with him this evening suggested a far better explanation of why you should attend MeshForum, and what you will experience once here.

make your net work

In four short words it captures what MeshForum 2006 will be about.

It is about the tools needed to make your net work - visualizations, visual thinking, analysis techniques.

It is about what you have to think about to make your net work - the issues of scaling, what happens as things change, the impact of technologies.

It is about the power of a net - to create beauty, to entertain us

Join me and see what will make your net work