Fall 2008 Unconference Madison

THE JA-SIG FALL 2008 UNCONFERENCE IS COMING!

Who. What. Where.

Dates	October 6-8, 2008 October 9-10 optional post-conference activities
Place	University of Wisconsin-Madison, Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street, Madison, WI 53706-1420, Front Desk: 608-262-1122
Registration	Registration is now open open at this link. You should also list yourself on the wiki participants page (which you can feel free to do even if you are unsure you will be able to make it). The registration fee (which includes breakfast, lunch and snacks) is $175 for attendees from JASIG Member Institutions and $225 for non-members. See the wiki for more information on membership and a list of current members.
Accommodations	The Edgewater Hotel $129/night Reservations can be made by calling 1-800-922-5512 or 1-608-256-9071. Make sure you ask for the JA-SIG room block and rate! Be sure to reserve a room by September 13th to qualify for the "unconference" rate! More info is available here. Note: due to a football game, there are no rooms available at this hotel for the night of 10/4. Other hotels can be found though Google
Travel Information	The Dane County Regional Airport (MSN) is approximately six miles from UW-Madison. You can also fly into Milwaukee (MKE) (1.5 hour drive) or Chicago O'Hare (ORD) or Midway (MDW) (2.5 hour drive) and complete the journey by renting a car or using the daily coach bus service. More information and tips are available here
Things to Do	For information on places to eat or things to do, go here

What's an Unconference?

"An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is driven and created by the participants, generally day-by-day during the course of the event, rather than by a single organizer, or small group of organizers, in advance."
-Wikipedia

JA-SIG has always been about people coming together to share and learn in an open environment, and this is what an "unconference" is all about. The unconference format fits very well with our community values and goals. Last year's inaugural unconference was a rousing success and this year's promises to be even better.

This October event will provide both spontaneous and planned opportunities to collaborate on all JA-SIG community initiatives as well as initiatives from other community open source communities as well. Mark your calendar, make plans to join us and register now!

What are we going to do?!

It's up to you! Activity Ideas people are talking about so far include some of the following:

Lightning Talks - Volunteers talk for up to 10 minutes. Any topic goes.
Code Clinics - Bring your uPortal, portlet, or CAS code or problem and work on it with core developers
Screencast Factory - Show off your work while a facilitator captures it to share with the community.
Strategic Planning - What should JA-SIG be focused on next year? In three years? Join the conversation.
How-to's. How-not-to's. Tips and techniques.
Questions - Conversations topics attendees are interested in and who they would like to have involved.

As part of the un-conference format the final schedule will be determined in real-time, interactively with the attendees. See a list of ideas for activities and add your own.

OK, I'm Interested! What do I do next?

If you're planning to join us, please do the following:

Register for the Unconference here.
Visit and add your name on the Unconference Planning Site on the JA-SIG wiki. This is a great place to indicate your interests---what you'd like to discuss, learn, share or teach. It is also a good place to note your travel arrangements. This can assist in coordinating with others. You can also add activity ideas to the Fall 2008 Unconference Activity Ideas page.
Reserve your room at The Edgewater Hotel

But I can't make it - is there a way to still participate?

We will look into the possibilities for remote participation. If you are interested, please add your thoughts on how to best accomplish this here.

See you at the Unconference,

The Fall 2008 Unconference Organizers

More on the Wiki

UnSchedule
List of Participants
Topics of Interest
Activity Ideas
Question Talks
Lightning Talks
Things to Do
Collaborative Development Ideas
Remote Participation
Hotel Information
Travel Information

Participation 2.0

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