Metadaten-BarCamp, an in-person SWIB24 node in Cologne, Germany

SWIB24
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Already in 2018 we had a SWIB breakout session about the environmental cost of travelling and possible changes for the SWIB format. Last year, at SWIB23, we had a breakout session about “Shaping the future of SWIB”. In the slides for the session, we outlined the idea of complementing the international online SWIB with “nodes”, regional in-person meetings around the core event:

Possible features of SWIB24ff

  • three days of SWIB around the globe
  • a streamed core event with 2.5 hours of live talks (and recordings to be published soon afterwards)
  • around this core – depending on the time zone, before or after – local events of different sizes and formats can happen
  • a permanent chat forum for the global community
  • hbz/ZBW keep hosting the website where nodes can be registered and are listed for interested participants
  • photos are shared via social media to foster the community

What’s in a node?

  • a plurality of regional nodes differing in duration, formats and size
  • from small groups watching & discussing the live stream together to bigger events with an additional programme of workshops, to bar camps, get togethers, etc.

As a first experiment in this direction, we are organizing a “Metadaten BarCamp” at hbz on the last day of SWIB24, It will be a German-speaking event limited to max. 45 participants, with two bar camp sessions, a collective watching of the SWIB24 live stream rounded up with a meet up at the pub.

We invite all the German-speaking metadata folks who want to shape the BarCamp, connect and discuss with others. For programme details and registration see Metadaten-BarCamp in Köln - Veranstaltungen - metadaten.community

If you have any questions or ideas re Metadaten BarCamp or SWIB nodes in general, I’d be happy to read your comments.

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Report from the first in-person SWIB node

If you are capable of reading German, you might rather enjoy the original report at Metadaten-BarCamp in Köln - #6 von acka47 - Veranstaltungen - metadaten.community

The Metadaten-BarCamp happened as planned on the third day of SWIB24, November 27th. It was a get-together of a small and heterogenous circle of metadata practitioners (from two library networks, national library, university libraries, a special library and more).

We had a fruitful exchange and a very good time, here is a photo of the participants.

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Schedule

The schedule looked like this:

Time Programme
from 9:30 arrival and welcome coffee
10:00 session planning
10:30 1st session block
11:45 presentation of session results
12:00 Lunch break with catering
13:00 2nd session block
14:15 presentation of session results
14:30 coffee break
15:00-18:00 watching the SWIB24 live stream together
ab 18:30 joint Braushaus visit with dinner (on self-pay basis)

As we were quite a small group, we started with an introduction round before the session planning.

Two session blocks with 2-3 sessions each

In total, we had two main sessions per block and took notes together in a session pad. The topics ranged chances and problems of subject indexing, over open/accessible metadata and how to address historicity of controlled vocabularies to metadata community growth (see links in the original report in German). A two-person session addressed additional topics.

Lunch break & demos

With two session blocks and eleven participants, the number of feasible sessions was limited and we could not accommodate all proposals made in the session planning. So we spontaneously added a demo session where three software solutions were presented:

SWIB stream and Brauhaus visit

Watching the SWIB live stream together definitely is more fun than watching it alone in front of your computer. We enjoyed all the talks and were especially carried away by @airobert’s walk ‘n’ talk performance.

The benefits of an in-person meeting especially came to fruition when we closed the day in a Cologne Brauhaus.

Conclusion

Here are some take aways of this first SWIB node:

  • It is very fruitful having metadata practitioners with different backgrounds coming together for personal exchange, looking beyond one’s horizon.
  • A BarCamp works really well even with a smaller number of participants which will also lead to vivid and interesting sessions.
  • However, we should advertise possible successor events more and earlier to reach more people from even more areas, e.g. researchers and public librarians were missing.
  • We should schedule the event so that people with a travel time won’t need to book two hotel nights for a one-day event.
  • Regarding the setup for live stream watching, we better should have broken up the seating order by then so that all the seats would be placed in front of the screen. Sitting around the tables made it sometimes hard to read the slides.
  • Though it was announced as a SWIB node, it was an event in itself – with another event language (German), another scope (all things metadata not only LOD or machine learning) and another format (BarCamp).

It would be great to have more in-person SWIB nodes in the future, in different locations, languages ans formats and to share photos in community or even have a live connection to the different events. If you have read until here, why not think about setting up a SWIB25 node at your location?

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