I like to thank Dave Evans and Hugo Russell for a great Azure Open Space Coding Day at Aston Science Park yesterday. I learned a lot and am now a convert to the Windows Azure cloud computing platform.
I was a bit unsure of what to expect from the event, but the fact that there’s no set agenda makes it quite fun. Open Space events are organized to a set of four principles:
- Whoever comes is the right people: this alerts the participants that attendees of a session class as "right" simply because they care to attend
- Whatever happens is the only thing that could have: this tells the attendees to pay attention to events of the moment, instead of worrying about what could possibly happen
- Whenever it starts is the right time: clarifies the lack of any given schedule or structure and emphasises creativity and innovation
- When it's over, it's over: encourages the participants not to waste time, but to move on to something else when the fruitful discussion ends
In addition to this, there’s also a rule that states: if at any time you find yourself in a situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, go to some other place where you may learn and contribute.
This last rule aims to ensure that no one should sit in sessions that they find boring; instead only people genuinely interested in the topic at hand should attend.
Once people overcame their initial reticence (myself included), it becomes a very interactive event. I found myself wandering from room to room, dropping in on sessions to learn about something, then taking myself off perhaps with one or two others to try it out for ourselves, and occasionally helping others who were having problems.
I would definitely attend future events of this type and recommend them to others.