Heaps of wikiosity at Northern Voice this year…

The wiki way will be strongly present at Northern Voice this year. John Maxwell is one of those terrifyingly smart people whose presence makes working in this field such fun. Great guy. I’ve never seen him formally in action, so I’m looking forward to what the Designing a smarter wiki Moose Camp session will hold.

Stewart Mader will be holding forth on Saturday. I should probably do a separate shout-out for this, but have no time… so do check out his recent project Wikipatterns, which appears indispensable to anyone who wants to support the growth of wikis in their own environment. I love the way it is structured, and everything I’ve read so far has really impressed me.

Joining Stewart is someone I have previously raved about as a speaker, John Willinsky. Dr. Willinsky is immensely knowledgeable, always provocative, and usually hilariously funny. I’m not sure what he plans to discuss at NV, but I do know his course wiki / online lesson plan database is a very impressive achievement. For me, this session is THE must-see… hopefully things will be going sufficiently smoothly for me to attend.

And is it just me, or does the Moose Camp wiki seem like a much livelier space this year? Not only more sessions being proposed in advance, but more evidence of collaboration as well. And I’m pleased to see that so many of the sessions appear to take an experiential tack, rather than being a stripped-down lecture or pitch. I expect to acquire some hands-on skill at Mash-ups for non-programmers, More than just a blog…, and hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in Photocamp which was the smash hit of last year’s Moose Camp.

Oh, and if you want to get a sense of the diversity and energy of the attendees, do check out Planet Northern Voice… it should be running increasingly hot over the next few days.