Cool events are afoot!

Cool events are afoot! My colleagues at Berkman are preparing for Wikimania, the annual homecoming of the Wikipedia/Wikimedia movement to discuss the future of all things wiki. It will be the first Wikimania I’ll be attending, and I appear to be moderating one or more discussions. Since I’m not actually speaking – and I feel capable of moderating, so long as I only have to do it in moderation – I’m not feeling nervous, as David Weinberger, who is giving the closing keynote, is. He’s posting his notes in progress on a wiki which means, I suspect, that you can shape the direction of his talk if you act now.

After Wikimania, there’s a daylong “unconference” on Citizen’s Media, organized by Dan Gillmor and the Center for Citizen Media, where I’ll be moderating… or unmoderating… a conversation about citizen’s media and the challenges of being heard. Should I get nervous about my immoderation, I will post my notes like David and you can help me out.

In between Wikimania and the Unconference, my sister is getting married. Yay Liz! Yay Ann-Marie! Unlike the previous two events, you’re not invited, and I probably won’t be blogging the proceedings. But it’s a cool event nevertheless.

And speaking of cool things – my friends Bill Pflegling and Minda Zetlin have published a very smart book called “The Geek Gap: Why Business And Technology Professionals Don’t Understand Each Other And Why They Need Each Other to Survive”. I thought it was so smart that I volunteered to write the introduction for it. No, I don’t get any money if you buy the book. But you should buy it anyway – it’s an excellent study of the ways geeks and suits talk past each other, and how you can improve communications between the two camps. Eweek’s got a nice article on Bill and Minda (who are married – you see, this post does all fit together!) and the idea behind the book if the concept interests you.