A piece of theory might be useful in thinking about "conferences" online.
The time-space geographers and sociologists are teaching us that space and spatial configurations aren't merely containers that hold the events that go on within them, but are "constitutive": that is, they shape, or constitute, those activities. So: if a "conference" is going to take place in a building that has a lecture hall and classrooms and seminar rooms, those spaces, and the need to have all activities take place in real time, help to shape the structure of what we call a "conference." We've learned, I think, from our experience with distance learning that when you move instruction from the bounded spaces of a "campus" to the new environment of cyberspace, the tendency is to replicate in the new environment what has always been done in the bounded spaces. So: we do online instruction in much the same way we do it on campus in classrooms, and we are given software that insures that we do the new work in the old ways. And so many institutions and their faculty new to distance learning look for ways to move all of the same real-time apparatus of instruction as it exists on campus intact and unchanged as it migrates online. It would seem that we want to do the same with "conferences." For example: if the exigencies of time and space constraints of :real" means that we have to crowd all of the speakers and all of the discussion into one day, or three days, why that's what we're going to do with online "conferences": jam the experts into the old program formats. I'm aware that there are other besides me who find virtual conferences virtually unsatisfactory, and tend to avoid them--mostly because they use formats designed for face-to-face conferences which don't work as well online. The "listserv" is a mode of dialog that fits the genius of the online environment, and thus there are thousands of them, and they will continue to flourish and multiply. If we want to make good use of experts around the world meeting together and sharing their expertise widely we might do better to search for forms of such collaboration that are suited to this medium, and the search for such forms might be hastened if we didn't try to mimic the face-to-face "conference." Steve Eskow [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Abeles" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "The Digital Divide Network discussion group" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "John Hibbs" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 8:56 AM Subject: Re: [DDN] Yale "Global Flow of Information" Conference - Apr. 1-3,2005 > John has hit the nail on the head. First, for a "global flow" conference > its decidedly being seen through US eyes. Secondly, the home base for > the conference organizers is the Yale Law School which further narrows > the scope of the conference and finally, as John has so perceptively > picked up on, its a conference where most of the materials could just as > easily be put up as a web cast or even as web pages with comment > software to allow exchanges between all. And, in that respect it is > anachronistic. Additionally, in most of these cases, panelist have > expenses covered making the movement of bodies to the conference a > decidedly costly event when most could be "conferenced". > > This conference provides a brilliant opportunity to better understand > where the golobal flow of information is, today. > > thoughts? > > tom abeles > > John Hibbs wrote: > > > With all due respect, Eddan, why do I have to travel to Yale to > > participate in the conference? Arguably, Web based conferences are > > better than physical ones. And a whole lot cheaper. > > > > Nope, we can't duplicate the warm and fuzzy the comes from shoulder to > > shoulder linkages at physical conferences. But everything else can be > > done exceptionally well, especially for attendees of a kind that are > > likely to attend the Global Flow of Information Conference. > > > > NOTE: Several times we have tried to hold combination conferences - > > where there are virtual and physical attendees. I am not sure these > > work well enough to justify the work and handicaps. However, I deeply > > believe in the idea that "one-to-many" lectures and power point > > presentations (in all their glory) should be put up on the web in > > advance of the physical convention. Attendees can do themselves a real > > service by viewing these presentations in advance, leaving more time > > for Q&A....the best part of all lectures, in my opinion. > > > > At 7:08 AM -0500 2/3/05, Eddan Katz wrote: > > > >> The Information Society Project at Yale Law School is proud to announce > >> that registration is now open for The Global Flow of Information > >> Conference 2005, which will take place on April 1-3, 2005, at the > >> Yale Law School. > >> > >> <http://islandia.law.yale.edu/isp/GlobalFlow/registration.htm> > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. > _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
