Still hyped from last night’s blogger meeting, I am following up on Jay Cross’ suggestion to hold an Emergent Learning Forum (ELF) Flash Meeting. Cameron, Chris and I discussed having an informal social gathering in Sackville for October. We’re looking for a location, and think that we might be able to negotiate a spot like the president’s cottage at Mount Allison University, or the local pub, or if worse comes to worse – my place. The ELF mission is in line with our practices to date, and I think that it might be a good thing to be part of a larger movement – ELF is:
Mission
Promote understanding and use of learning in industry and government worldwide
Provide a forum for resolving issues impeding the progress of eLearning
Identify and publicize new developments and emerging best practices
Host a global virtual conversation of vital eLearning issues
Values
We tell it like it is
We value the impact of eLearning on human performance improvement
We are stridently non-commercial
We practice what we preach
We dare to be at the leading edge
We believe in sharing best practices freely and without boundaries
How We Operate
We encourage our members to network with one another
We do not offer consulting services and do not charge for research reports
We promote applied best practices
We think of ourselves as innovators and provocateurs
We eject people who use our gatherings for blatant, uninvited sales pitches
Membership
Membership is free and open to anyone who makes decisions about eLearning.
Our community includes designers, training managers, consultants, product developers, academics, researchers, and business managers.
Fifty to sixty people attend [the San Francisco area] monthly meetings.
Our mail list includes 1500+ opt-in members.
This all seems pretty good to me, so tell me if you’re interested in:
- Trying this out under the ELF umbrella.
- Having an informal gathering to meet people who are interested in the digital economy, new business models, some techie stuff, and have a sense of community both locally and globally.
- Limiting any presentations to 5 minutes (inspired, isn’t it?).
- A continued focus on social networking software, small business, and open source business models.
- Having it take place in Sackville, with suggested dates of any afternoon during the last week of October, the 25th to 29th.
In the meantime, we will scope out locations, and remember that Sackville is less than a two-hour drive from Halifax, Charlottetown, Miramichi, Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton.
ELF and SackvilleELF seems like a good organization, but is it the right umbrella for our little club? Would potential members feel that they may not be invited if they dont’ work in online learning, but are natural enterprises/internet business/open sourcers? Or would this only be for people that worked specifically in online learning? Just a thought, I’m wondering what everyone else thinks.
Sackville seems like a good location though. It’s central and would have a small town charm.
Will Pate
ELF GoalsYou’re right Will. Maybe we should change the mission to : focus on technology, business, design, and learning. We are all learning, but our focus is more on technology and business. Labels can be a real problem.
I know this is an older post but I’d like to know if there are still monthly meetings in the San Francisco area. I would be interested in attending a meeting if that’s possible. I would also like to know more about the organization. I tried the (ELF) link above, but the page would not load. I am always looking for new ways to network and learn from others. Please feel free to email me any information you can provide. Or, I will check back in a few days to see if there is a response to my comment. Thank you.
It appears that the ELF site is usually up and they were just having some ISP issues.