What are BrainJams?

A BrainJams event is an unconference which combines knowledge networking and confersations in open spaces. We strive to bring people together from Non-profits, Technology, Business, the Arts and Government to share our insights and experiences to accelerate the pace of postive change and innovation in the world. The organizing principle of each event is separate from the format. While each BrainJams event can focus on different topics, the principal focus of our conversations at present is on how real people are using emerging social media tools (i.e. Web 2.0, citizen journalism, blogs, podcasts, social bookmarks, open collaboration, etc.).

A new level of trust and understanding needs to be cultivated between people with different skills, backgrounds and perspectives. Technologist/developers and marketing/business people need each other - together they form a whole brain which can have much more of an impact than either could alone. The ability for teams and organizations to collaborate will be the key factor in determining success. To this end, we feel that diversity yields better results for the projects we undertake - so we have baked this idea into the foundation of BrainJams, taking a 'structured serendepity' approach towards diversity of inputs.

While we do set an organizing principle for each event, it is up to the participants to determine the exact content of the event within a basic framework that includes one-on-one knowledge networking in the morning and open space inspired discussions on how to best use social media technologies in the afternoon. The knowledge and information shared amongst participants will be gathered and redistributed online to further the discussions, learning and idea manifestation after the event and beyond on the mind maps page.

Knowledge Networking is the extension and reimagining of a proven way of thinking about community - the kind of thinking that drove the Company of Friends when Heath Row was originally building that vibrant community. We feel the concept needs to move beyond the realm of anyone person's or organization's ability to define its scope, which is one of the reasons we formed this non profit.

Some people have pointed us back to the idea of the Chautauqua from the beginning of the 20th century. We like that approach and hope to learn a lot from what they did back then, but if BrainJams is somewhat similar in any regards, it is also quite different as a result of the application of Open Web technologies.

Besides, BrainJams just sounds cool and fun and important - at least we aspire to make it so. We hope you will find a way to join us and help in whatever way makes sense to you.