In a little while, I will hop in the car and drive up to Boston for Gov20camp. It is an unconference about using social media tools and Web 2.0 technologies to create a more effective, efficient and collaborative government. I always approach unconferences with a little trepidation.

Often, they start off with a time for everyone to introduce themselves. With large unconferences this sometimes gets skipped, or everyone is asked to describe themselves in three words. This is complicated by other factors. One of the rules of unconferences is ‘No Rockstars- everyone is an equal’. On the other hand, people go to unconferences to network and to find the next fun new project.

So, write now I’m thinking of introducing myself as an ‘Activist, Writer, Geek’. I do hope I find some interesting new ideas to explore and I sure hope that the conference will be dominated by discussions instead of presentations.

I also typically approach unconferences from a group dynamics perspective that I’ve gained from going to Group Relations conferences in the tradition of Tavistock, A.K. Rice, and Wilfred Bion. During my drive up, I’ll be thinking about how I approach the conference. How can I listen and learn as much as I can, while at the same time sharing whatever information I might have and doing any networking that might lead to fun new projects?

Looking at the agenda and ideas posted on the #gov20ne wiki, I see space for three sessions. Another rule of unconferences is the rule of two feet. If you are in a session that just isn’t doing it for you, get up and go to a different session. I hope that I won’t end up hopping around sessions like that very much. Walking into a new session part way through can be a little disorienting. Are the questions you are having things that have already been discussed? So, hopefully, I’ll only attend three sessions. Maybe it will be four or five. However, it is likely to be much less than the twenty six session ideas currently listed on the wiki.

Some sessions are likely to be introductory. What is Gov2.0? How do you tweet like a pro? What are ‘camps’ (or unconferences)? They would be good to go to, especially since I’m helping organize PodCampCT, but I’m not sure these sessions will be as valuable to me as some others. Some sessions will have an international flavor. What can we learn from the Haiti Quake response? What can we learn about organizing data from the Dutch Taxonomy Project? There is a session on Web 2.0 and foreign policy. Again, these sound pretty interesting, but probably have less of an immediate impact on me.

There are a couple session listed on Geographic Information Systems or GIS that seem particularly interesting, but again, may be getting a little too nitty gritty for my interest this time around.

For me, the big issues I’m looking at are around engaging citizens, video and public meetings, and the role of the new media. Hopefully, these will be lively discussions that I’ll tweet about during the day and have some good blog posts about afterwards.

Okay. I’m getting excited now. I need to wrap up a few things and get on the road.