OFU started in 2013, put together in under a week by a handful of practitioners curious about how dialogue, deliberation, and other group processes might be delivered online. Over the years a good handful of OFU gatherings have taken place, mostly run on volunteer time and small budgets. After four years in hibernation mode, OFU came back in 2025 with more than one hundred participants from all over the world.

OFU is an unconference. There is no program until the people who show up make one. Sessions are proposed on the day, and the schedule fills in live. No keynotes, no vendor pitches, no submission deadline, and nobody deciding months ahead what you need to hear. If a session is not working for you, you leave and find another one. That’s not only permitted, it is encouraged.

OFU exists as a global learning exchange. The goal is to provide a space where people can trade notes, share their expertise, ask questions, discover new tools, and – most importantly – meet new peers.

Since 2017, OFU has been hosted by the Center for Applied Community Engagement LLC and runs on a cost-recovery basis.