Artur,
Thanks for keeping this conversation alive, and extending the options
for next year's WOSonOS to have a good and beneficial online presence.
I hope to join the London conversation in person as well and have some
passion for this question and would love to help if possible.
There was an event a couple weeks ago where some folks wanted to come
but couldn't be there in person - so they had a camera and a TinyChat
window open on a laptop to help remote people participate. I'd managed
to convince the group to meet in a circle - though it wasn't a full on
OST event. (This was an Occupy Missoula General Assembly by the way!) It
was interesting to watch the facilitator pushing to break the energy of
the circle and get everyone to talk to the laptop at the front of the
room and a horrible lectern instead of to the circle. But then the power
of the circle won so instead the facilitator took the laptop with the
camera into the circle and aimed it at the person speaking. The
facilitator also spoke out questions/comments that got typed to the group.
In my judgement, the online participation was very disruptive to the
energy of the circle when the facilitator tried to force everyone to
comply with the needs of that darn laptop. But when the facilitator, who
clearly had passion about including the online people, moved the laptop
to the center and occasionally brought in the thoughts of the online
attendees - it felt like it added to the circle.
This is a tricky one! There are challenges and benefits. Opening events
to an online or recorded presence can either harm or bless, and usually
it does both!
At the WOSonOS in Berlin in 2009 I recorded video and audio of some of
the events - and that seemed to energize some of the conversations and
make it more animated as well as make it possible to share the power of
the conversations. But one session I tried to record with audio caused
discomfort to the convener of the session and I can understand how even
just turning on an audio recorder (let alone a video camcorder) can
change the feeling of freedom and safety of the participants. This is
definitely a dance which can be gracious and also clumsy.
Whoever Comes and Wherever it Happens both seem to be increasingly
extending out into the internet and online - either with cameras and
microphones or with twitter and blogs. However this happens - it would
be great to have the pre-work help it be more of a blessing than a curse
when WOSonOS comes to London.
Blessings!
Harold
On 10/23/11 11:11 AM, Artur Silva wrote:
Hi Phelim,
The problem with "Whoever comes are the right people" is: what does it
mean "who comes" in these days?
I have heard of companies that have made OST meetings with
simultaneous gatherings in two or more different locations, connected
by ITC. In my opinion all the people in any of those gatherings "came
together"
I have attended many conferences and meetings with people in many
different locations. These people "come together," still being away
from each other, in a "coming together" that was mediated by ICT and
not by plane (with a lower ecological footprint, btw).
We all know of "communities" whose members are far away and even never
seen each other (the two of us, as members of the "OST Community", are
a good example).
And when someone in one place connects with many people in many
different places, using Skype or any other tool - including the
telephone - are they "coming together" or not?
During the OSonOS of 2003 in "SvenMark" the reports of the breakout
sessions were immediately putted in a Wiki and displayed in the web,
were they could be commented by people not in the meeting and
eventually re-commented by the people in the gathering. Being ill in
bed with a lot of free time I was one of those long distance
participants. IMHO those outside that followed and commented the event
were also "coming", in a form of Jean Lave's "legitimate peripheral
participation".
If OST changed the way we do meetings, ICT is changing the way we
"come together" and create communities. I am sure that we can have the
best of those two worlds if we are able to think about that in an
innovative way.
I agree with Susanne's suggestion of creating an international support
group to help the London Hosting team with that.
Anyhow, I am planning to go to London, so this is not a personnel
interest; it is something I think we must consider and the sooner the
better.
Care
Artur
PS: You also wrote about "being able to view something through a
camera like a security guard". What I think you are missing is that
people that are seeing "through the camera"*are not*security guards.
They are OST facilitators, members of the community, that in many
cases have already attended OST events and maybe even previous
WOSonOS. If that was not true they would never know about the
transmission, neither be interested in following it.
--
Harold Shinsato
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
http://shinsato.com
twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
