After spending the last year or so heavily focused on teaching, I’m trying to find space for research and writing again. As part of that plan, I’ll be starting off the year by attending AdaCamp this weekend in Melbourne, and the Technology Conference 2012 in LA next week.
AdaCamp is an unconference organised by the Ada Initiative, “a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing participation of women in open technology and culture, which includes open source software, Wikipedia and other open data, and open social media.” There’ll be some academics working in my field present, but also activists and people from other backgrounds. The sessions which have been offered over the mailing list so far sound great, and I appreciate the thought that is being put into making sure that AdaCamp is a safe and welcoming space for participants.
Technology conference 2012 is a much more traditional academic event, although I do like that they’ve incorporated talking circles into the conference programme. I don’t have experience with talking circles, but they sound like they might be a good way to get real discussion happening. It’s also great to see that the plenary speakers for the conference are a little more diverse than at many other conference I’ve been too (but, sadly, all still white and from a Western background as far as I can tell). My paper will be on the ways in which social movement scholars understand technological change, drawing heavily on the research I carried out in India early last year.
If you’re going to either event, please feel free to say hello in the comments or while I’m there. Coming all the way from Perth it’s always good to see a friendly face!
leftover words 