Grassroots effort helps shape future IT community at Stanford

More than 300 information technology professionals at Stanford gathered on campus earlier this month for an "unconference" to share information face-to-face, to raise awareness around common IT issues and to lead discussions on a theme. The recent unconference offered more than 300 IT professionals - some of whom only knew each other through email exchanges - the chance to share information face-to-face, to raise awareness around common IT issues and to promote change that would benefit the university. "Unconferences are probably a little more common in IT than in other areas," Clebsch said. "The notion behind an unconference is that the people on the ground with the technical knowledge probably have a better idea of what the topics and things people are concerned about might be, compared with someone like me." The organizers chose the theme, "Building the Future IT Community at Stanford." They lined up 10 sponsors - six of Stanford's seven schools, Information Technology Services , Stanford University Libraries , Administrative Systems and Residential and Dining Enterprises. "It was a 100 percent grassroots effort," Clebsch said. And based on some of the positive feedback from some of the people who attended the event, a successful one: "How did you get Hennessy? To have 20 minutes open Q&A with him was AMAZING!!!!!" "The best part is how this is part of a major shift in thinking about collaboration and technology. The university is talking the talk AND walking the walk!" "The agenda (idea creation) went MUCH more smoothly than I anticipated and was very interesting.