Knowledge Craver: February 2013

In the previous posts in this topic, I tried to provide information that can be useful during the process of organizing a VoCamp. In this last part of the series, I will deal with the fact that, in our human nature we are always under the effects of Murphy's law. However, we can still try to avoid as much as possible those things that can go wrong.

Here you have a list of some potential risks to avoid, suggesting possible actions to escape from them. Feel free to add your own.

Low attendance

The VoCamp results do not reflect the consensus of a representative number of people.

Solution:
Improve the dissemination of the VoCamp to attract more participants. If it is too late for doing so, share and discuss the VoCamp results.

Difficulty in travelling to the VoCamp

The chosen location may be far away from people interested in participating or, in these times of economic downturn, people just cannot afford to do so.

Solution:
Organize two simultaneous VoCamps. This will require doubling the organization roles and effort, so don't do it unless it is crucial. Besides, you will require having two parallel agendas with some common sessions (beware of time zones) and videoconference and chat facilities to ensure a fluid interaction.

VoCamp becomes a tutorial/technology show/flyting/<insert here>...

Unless the activity is planned, the risk here is that people does not work in the VoCamp objectives.

Solution:
It will depend on what you want to avoid: ensure that participants satisfy the VoCamp pre-requirements, leave a small slot for people to showcase their work, or don't invite sharp-tongued poets.

Teams do not work as good as they could

Teams are composed by persons and there may be multiple reasons that make a group of persons not to work as a charm.

Solution:
Be careful when defining teams and ensure that everyone understands and follows the rules of the game. Also, be flexible, allow people changing from team to team if they want to do so.

Low participation

The VoCamp is packed to the rafters but no one is opening their mouth.

Solution:
Change! Change the format of the VoCamp, change groups, change collaboration techniques (or come up with a new one), etc. If you are lucky, you still have one more day when you notice this problem.

Lack of continuity

Nothing moves once the VoCamp ends. People does not know if the VoCamp produced some useful outcome or not, or if there are some next steps.

Solution:
Have a clear list of tasks to be performed after the VoCamp and monitor them and their results. Don't disregard the potential commitment of people to these tasks or even their availability to carry them out. Also, support the VoCamp continuity through some initiative (e.g., association, consortium, standardization body) that ensures impulse, monitoring and resource availability.

Apart from these things that could directly affect the VoCamp goals, there are other things that influence the VoCamp as a personal experience and that should not be ignored. Some things can enrich the VoCamp personal experience, such as having free food and drinks or a nice gala dinner. And other things can spoil it, such as bad food, bad weather, or lack of Wi-Fi.

Finally, if you have withstood the five-part series on organizing a VoCamp, I would like to know your sincere opinion about it.

Please comment!

How to organize a successful VoCamp:

Part 1: Before the VoCamp
Part 2: VoCamp participants
Part 3: At the VoCamp
Part 4: After the VoCamp
Part 5: Potential risks at VoCamps (this post)

In this post we continue with one of the main messages of the last post: The VoCamp does not end with the VoCamp!

After having a good time, and once you thought everything had finished, there are still some things to do.

Review and complete results

Maybe in the VoCamp only a conceptualization was drafted on board and now you want to implement it as a ready-to-be-used ontology. Or you already implemented an ontology full of ontological commitments but you still have to improve its documentation.

In any case, review what you did. Don't trust what was done while ten people were talking at the same time in a room.

Document and disseminate results

I already mentioned properly documenting your ontology, either if you have implemented it or if you have just some drawings or photos. Other interesting things to document are the discussions or the rationale that led to taking some decisions instead of others; these can be collected in minutes. And don't forget to take note of those things about the VoCamp process itself that may help you or others in the future such as lessons learnt, best (and wrong) practices, etc.

Once you have finished, don't keep all that information for yourself! The VoCamp web page is the best place to publish this information or to provide links to where the information can be obtained.

Discuss results

Even if you have gathered the most brilliant minds in the area, inevitably they are not representative for the whole community around a topic. Therefore, try to discuss your results with others or to present them to other audiences. Surely you will gather some good feedback!