VRM CRM 2010

Overview

VRM + CRM 2010 is a workshop for VRM and CRM developers and other professionals, where the process of building out common ground between the two can begin. It is hosted by ProjectVRM and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and will take place at Pound Hall in Harvard Law School on Thursday and Friday, 26 and 27 August. It's free of charge, and you can register here.

The common ground to be built out is the marketplace where real two-way relationships can take place, and economic value can be unlocked and grown with mimimal friction. This marketplace is potentially enormous, but as yet it does not exist. It is the intention of ProjectVRM and many other interested parties that on 28 August this new marketplace will be born and start growing. (Background posts are here, here and here.)

The purpose of the workshop is to get this work started. Since this will be the first VRM+CRM event of any kind, the potential leverage of participating in this workshop is quite large.

Agenda

This is a workshop, rather than a conference. We will have speakers and panels, but only in the mornings, and mostly for the purpose of briefing participants and helping everybody get acquainted with each others' work -- in particular what VRM developers have been up to over the past three years, and how this matches up with where CRM (and social CRM) are going as well. The meat of the workshop over both days will be in the breakout sessions, where topics are chosen by the particpants in an unconference open space format. You can read more about open space here.

Doc Searls, who runs ProjectVRM at Harvard's Berkman Center, will lead the workshop. Kaliya Hamlin will guide the unconference/open space parts of the workshop. Kaliya is a veteran facilitator of open space workshops, and co-runs the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW) series with Phil Windley (who will also be at VRM_CRM 2010). VRM has from the beginning had a second home at the IIW workshops, and much VRM development has either originated at IIWs or been moved forward at them. We expect the same kind of progress at this workshop as well.

Here are the tentative agendas for both days:

Thursday, 26 August

Note: This is tentative at the moment and subject to change.

9:00am Welcome and agenda - Doc Searls

9:10am Introductions around the room and prep for 2nd half of the day — Kaliya Hamlin

9:30am VRM Baseline

• VRM overview, setting the stage
• VRM developments
  • R-buttons/ListenLog/Emancy - Doc Searls, Adam Marcus
  • Legal developments - Renee Lloyd
  • Search - Joe Andrieu
  • Personal Data Store (PDS) - Iain Henderson
  • Personal Data Exchange (PDX) - Drummond Reed
  • Context Automation, Kynextx Rule Language (KRL) - Phil Windley

10:45am CRM baseline talk and panel

• CRM baseline - Dan Miller
• CRM panel - Dan Miller, Denis Pombriant, Josh Weinberger, John McKean

12:00pm Lunch at Harkness Commons

1:15pm Setting topics for the afternoon breakout sessions - Led by Kaliya Hamlin

1:45pm Breakout Open Space (unconference) Sessions

5:00pm Closing session, with reports on breakout sessions - Led by Kaliya Hamlin

6:00pm Briefing for Friday - Doc

6:10pm Dinner (tbd)

Friday, 27 August

Note: This is tentative at the moment and subject to change.

9:00am Welcome and agenda - Doc Searls

9:10am Introductions (for those who missed Day One) and prep for unconference sessions — Kaliya Hamlin

9:30am Verticals panel

• Real Estate - Bill Wendell
• Health Care - Adrian Groper
• Government (GRM) - Britt Blaser
• Telecom - Julian Gay
• Moderator - Chris Carfi

10:30am Setting topics for the breakout workshop sessions - Led by Kaliya Hamlin

11:00am First breakout sessions

12:00 Lunch at Harkness Common

1:15pm Remainder of breakout sessions

5:00pm Closing session, with reports on breakout sessions - Led by Kaliya Hamlin

6:00pm Recap, thanks, view toward next steps - Doc Searls

Location and Getting there

Pound Hall is on Massachusetts Avenue on the Harvard Campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Here is a map. It is a modern brick building diagonally northeast of Cambridge Common (a park) and just south of a new building still under construction.

Street parking is limited to only two hours, and is strictly enforced. Public parking tends to be expensive.

The best way to come is by subway. Pound Hall is a short walk up "Mass Ave" from the Harvard station on the MBTA Red Line. If you are driving, we recommend parking at the Alewife station at the end of the Red Line (it's at the inbound end of Highway 2). The cost is $7 per day, trains run constantly, and the cost of a ride is $1.50. Harvard is 3 stops (only 8 minutes) from Alewife.

If you are flying in, there are many hotels close to the Red Line. The Harvard station is about 20 minutes from downtown Boston. From Logan Airport, you can take the Silver Line to the South Street station, also on the Red Line. Take the inbound train toward Alewife. (It becomes outbound when you pass the Park Street station.) Again, it's $1.50, leaves frequently, and is nearly as fast as a taxi. If there's traffic, it's faster.