The Social Space Station

IRGO is pleased to be hosting the inaugural IRGO unConference on the 23rd and 24th of November 2009 at the Centre for Innovation, University of Otago, Dunedin (New Zealand).  The topic of the unConference is “New Zealand’s Digital Futures.”  Our opening address will be by Professor Greg Hearn, Director of the Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation at QUT.  Our closing speaker will be announced shortly.

The unConference aims to bring together scholars and practitioners from around the region to discuss the future of the internet from multiple perspectives.  In particular, the conference will focus around three key questions.  Firstly, what might be possible for the future internet of the region?  Secondly, what will citizens want from the internet in the future (two, five, ten years ahead)?  And thirdly, what potential internet problems or issues will we have to navigate in the immediate future?

As this is an unConference, the direction of the discussion is up to you.  We are using a submission system where people can suggest topics for panels, nominate panelists, and even vote topics up or down.  The final list of topics will be decided by popular vote — and you do not need to be a registered attendee to vote!  We will be making conference artifacts available online, so anyone interested can nominate and vote on topics.

Finally, thanks to University of Otago, registration is FREE. However, places are limited, so please register ASAP to confirm your place.

For general information on the conference: http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/glance.html

To connect to the submissions system: http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/submissions.html

For registration: http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/registration.html

Please feel free to forward to any interested colleagues.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us through the website or via email: irgo@otago.ac.nz