WHAT: Information Management Summer Reading Group
WHEN: June 20 through September 25, 2010
WHERE: In person or online
WHO: Participation is open to anyone from the UW information management program, including students, faculty, staff, alumni, and incoming students
WHY: To explore information management issues outside of the formal curriculum, and to promote social connections throughout the summer.
HOW: With as few rules and as much flexibility as we can manage. If you want to read just one book/article/paper over the summer, you can do that; If you want to read 20, you can do that… as long as at least one other person reads the same item and you meet to discuss it at least once.
- Sign up for an account at SummerReadingGroup.info.
- Commit to readings and meetings
- READINGS
- Select the readings you’ll commit to from the tracking spreadsheet; you can change your selections at any time.
- At least one other person has to also commit to reading an item in order to make it “official.”
- Add new items to the list, if you wish, but they won’t count for the group if only 1 person reads them.
- MEETINGS
- Within the spreadsheet, declare how many meetings you’ll attend over the course of the summer.
- Commit to at least one.
- One of the main purposes of the group is to encourage in-person gatherings, but meetings can also be virtual: use a discussion forum, online meeting, phone call, etc.
- READINGS
- Form groups around each reading.
- Groups are self-organizing; each group will need at least one volunteer to lead the discussion and organize meeting details for each reading. Groups should determine how long they’re going to take to read the material, and how often they’ll meet. A group could last for the whole summer, for just a few weeks, or for just one meeting.
- Multiple groups can form for each reading to accomodate different pace, geography, in-person/virtual mode, etc.
- In order to bring benefits back to the larger group, group leaders are encouraged to post brief discussion notes after each meeting.
- Use the groups and forums at SummerReadingGroup.info to coordinate meetings, ask questions, hold discussions, and/or post meeting notes.
- There will be (modest) prizes given at the end of the summer for things like (for example) most readings, most meetings, best questions posed, most unusual meeting location, etc.
- Have fun! Your group can be as casual or committed as you like; it’s entirely up to you.