Question about M2F -- Was Re: [DDN] Yale Global Flow of Information Conference - Apr.1-3, 2005
Kevin Rocap wrote: That saidthere is a module add-in for PHPBB (PHP Bulletin Board) called M2F designed to crack the nut of e-mail to forum and forum to e-mail communication. The project web page, FYI: http://m2f.sourceforge.net/ I'm anxious to try M2F but don't want to be on the bleeding edge. Our System Admins are volunteers with limited time to help RTPnet. It looks like M2F is still in Beta. Does anyone know when we can expect an official release? Also, it looks like this is a Mod to phpBB. We recently did an emergency upgrade of phpBB and lost the two mods we had on it. It took quite a while to install those mods. I'm worried about asking the System Admins to install mods that take a lot of time and have to be reinstalled after an upgrade. Judy Hallman ([EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.rtpnet.org/hallman) Executive Director, RTPnet, NC (http://www.RTPnet.org/) ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org 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.
Re: [DDN] Black history: best taught in February or all year long?
Personally - I don't see why it is limited to a month or why we should be grateful that congress upped it from a week, or why there should be a continued decision about whether to make the the contributions of Africans to this country part of a comprehesive history. The disingenious nature of finding real solutions to this delimma spill over into all aspects of life in the United States, including the digital divide. It continues to be a point of shear frustration and irritation for me, to have to fight for what should be automatic. So I say, YES, the histories of all peoples who contributed to making this country should be included and not sidebar discussion held in February or around Cinqo de Mayo, or something else that limits or undermines the brilliance of the people and their contributions. But, the truth about the types and nature of all contributions should be a part of the discussion as well. Cynthia C. Laramore, Director A.C.T.I.O.N., Inc. Active Citizens Together Improving Our Neighborhoods, Inc. 417 N.W. 16th Street, Suite 1 P.O. Box 16 Belle Glade, FL 33430 561-993-9100 561-993-9188 (fax) ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org 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.
[DDN] An Introduction to Activism on the Internet
From the UNDP... -ac An Introduction to Activism on the Internet This document offers a brief introduction to a few different techniques of electronic advocacy using email, the Web, and other new media to bring about social change. This document is not intended to endorse electronic campaigning tactics at the expense of other offline tactics. Constituencies that are less connected to the Internet, for instance, are less likely to be reached by Internet organizing alone. Any campaign determining its strategy should analyze its goals and consider the best way to influence, facilitate, create, or seize power. Electronic campaigning techniques may work best when supplementing offline tactics... or may be entirely unsuitable given a campaigns intended audience, targets, timing, or resources. As with other campaigning tactics, strategies that work in one context will not necessarily work in another. http://www.backspace.com/action/all.php -- --- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.tsunami-info.org Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com --- ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org 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.
Re: Question about M2F -- Was Re: [DDN] Yale Global Flow of Information Conference - Apr.1-3, 2005
Judy Hallman wrote: Kevin Rocap wrote: That saidthere is a module add-in for PHPBB (PHP Bulletin Board) called M2F designed to crack the nut of e-mail to forum and forum to e-mail communication. The project web page, FYI: http://m2f.sourceforge.net/ I'm anxious to try M2F but don't want to be on the bleeding edge. Our System Admins are volunteers with limited time to help RTPnet. It looks like M2F is still in Beta. Does anyone know when we can expect an official release? Your best bet is to contact the developers. I see that this is available on their site through their forums. I think you can safely register. O_o Also, it looks like this is a Mod to phpBB. We recently did an emergency upgrade of phpBB and lost the two mods we had on it. It took quite a while to install those mods. I'm worried about asking the System Admins to install mods that take a lot of time and have to be reinstalled after an upgrade. If you really want to try it, do a site backup first. The second things look strange, recover from the backup. -- Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxgazette.com http://www.a42.com http://www.worldchanging.com http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net Criticize by creating. Michelangelo ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org 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.
Re: Question about M2F -- Was Re: [DDN] Yale Global Flow of Information Conference - Apr.1-3, 2005
Dear friends, I initially sent this from a non-subscribed e-mail account, so. Original Message Dear Judy, Hi! Deja vu, eh? I know we reviewed this issue of e-mail-to-forum-to-email on our Community Networking list. This is still the only reference to anyone trying to build that functionality into an Open Source product that I know of. And I don't know more information than can be found on their site about when they'll be out of Beta. So, like you, I'd welcome news of other better, potentially easier software solutions. You raise an important additional issue, though, around volunteers and Open Source. I'd say most Open Source solutions do require a bit more attention to the details of installation than do commercial packages installed through an Install Shield wizard (or something similar). It often is not THAT difficult, but you do have to go into PHP files, or do other customized editing of files. That in itself can feel a little iffy to the novice ;-), but feels better when it all works right. Butyou also need some memory or record of what changes you made and to which files if you want to make modifications, upgrades or fixes in the future. And I think that is also the rub. Volunteers are most likely part-time and what one volunteer starts another finishes. The only partial solution I can think of at the moment is to encourage a culture of documentation where volunteers keep a physical or e-notebook for each piece of software regarding what they did to which files, as a kind of helpful history and reference for others. Other ideas? In Peace, K. Judy Hallman wrote: Kevin Rocap wrote: That saidthere is a module add-in for PHPBB (PHP Bulletin Board) called M2F designed to crack the nut of e-mail to forum and forum to e-mail communication. The project web page, FYI: http://m2f.sourceforge.net/ I'm anxious to try M2F but don't want to be on the bleeding edge. Our System Admins are volunteers with limited time to help RTPnet. It looks like M2F is still in Beta. Does anyone know when we can expect an official release? Also, it looks like this is a Mod to phpBB. We recently did an emergency upgrade of phpBB and lost the two mods we had on it. It took quite a while to install those mods. I'm worried about asking the System Admins to install mods that take a lot of time and have to be reinstalled after an upgrade. Judy Hallman ([EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.rtpnet.org/hallman) Executive Director, RTPnet, NC (http://www.RTPnet.org/) ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org 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.
Re: Question about M2F -- Was Re: [DDN] Yale Global Flow of Information Conference - Apr.1-3, 2005
Kevin Rocap wrote: You raise an important additional issue, though, around volunteers and Open Source. I'd say most Open Source solutions do require a bit more attention to the details of installation than do commercial packages installed through an Install Shield wizard (or something similar). This might sound like I am splitting hairs to some - but many Open Source packages are *commercial* packages. Commercial means that it is done for profit, and lots of Open Source software is done for profit. The Free Software/Open Source community does include people who donate their time and energy to software products, and those aren't commercial (yet?!). It often is not THAT difficult, but you do have to go into PHP files, or do other customized editing of files. That in itself can feel a little iffy to the novice ;-), but feels better when it all works right. Butyou also need some memory or record of what changes you made and to which files if you want to make modifications, upgrades or fixes in the future. And I think that is also the rub. Proprietary software - where the code is not available for viewing - tends to be much slicker to install because it will only allow one to install it in certain ways. Most Free Software/Open Source solutions instead allow the user more customizability through editing of the files or what have you. And that is actually going away in the commercial Open Source packages because of the same problem - it *is* scarey for a novice. So 'Open Source' has the same problems as Proprietary software (in the context of 'commercial'), and sometimes more so because it's easy to be intimidated by having to edit a file. A task that people do every day, actually, in English or their native language. Documentation is a key issue in any commercial software, and Open Source/Free Software has had a problem with this. It's getting better, but the real strength tends to be the community. The community always amazes me, though since I am bleeding edge I get to be the one who doesn't get answers. But I write them down when I come up with them, and that's how it works. Volunteers are most likely part-time and what one volunteer starts another finishes. The only partial solution I can think of at the moment is to encourage a culture of documentation where volunteers keep a physical or e-notebook for each piece of software regarding what they did to which files, as a kind of helpful history and reference for others. Other ideas? The concept of the CVS is good if you use such an idea: https://www.cvshome.org/docs/manual/ However, for dynamic documentation shared amongst volunteers - Wikis are really the best bet. Yes, people may need to learn how to use Wikis - but they aren't very difficult to use (you can get the basics in under an hour) and allow for the sort of documentation you require. Incidentally, something such as Burrokeet (http://www.burrokeet.org ) is also something worth considering for documentation. It can even take OpenOffice documents and convert them to PDF and HTML - unfortunately, it cannot do that with Microsoft Office products, but Microsoft Office may not be the majority office software in the future. -- Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxgazette.com http://www.a42.com http://www.worldchanging.com http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net Criticize by creating. Michelangelo ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org 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.
Re: [DDN] Yale Global Flow of Information Conference - Apr. 1-3, 2005
Steve Eskow wrote: Taran Rampersad writes But you see, people are slow to adopt things. Perhaps this is one of those enduring fictions, helped along as it is by Ev Rogers' taxonmy of early adopters and the like. The speed with which people all over the world are adopting the new technologies is astounding. The digital divide is caused more by poverty than by resistance to change. In a quantitative analysis, that's right. But qualitatively speaking, if the people who can adopt do not adopt, then that has more weight in the context of the technology than poor people being unable to adopt. There are few people who will adopt at the bleeding edge, but it's because of those few people that others do adopt. Consider Linux - a few early adopters assisted in the creation of an operating system which people in poverty could not access. But through the adoption process, it has become extremely accessible to even those in poverty when compared to proprietary software. People are indeed reluctant to disrupt styles of work and play that offer them important satisfactions because an outsider--often a marketer of some new product--tries to convince them that if they throw out the baby as well as the bathwater they will be happier in the long run. This is the main problem. Many of the new technologies are available at no cost, but the generation of mine and the generations preceding it are probably late to adopt because they feel that 'there has to be a catch'. Because of this discomfort, they may not adopt. And yet, there are no 'catches', it simply requires some personal effort. This is why we're using listservs for most of the communication here on the DDN, because many are simply not comfortable unless they can use Microsoft Outlook to inform us when they are out of town (perhaps so that someone can burglarize them and they can make insurance claims? I do not know). Perhaps on a busy day, such as when you sent this, I would not respond because I'm up to my neck in other listservs. I am one of those who prefers to use Outlook and remain comfortable. (I don't quite get the point of the burglarize reference.) I don't choose to get uncomfortable unless there are important benefits --benefits that appeal to me--offered to me in exchange for my discomfort. I don't yet see the benefits--to me--in what you are proposing. I hate to sound like I'm bashing Microsoft products, because I'm pretty balanced about Microsoft products. However, Outlook has shown time and again that it is unsafe and is a dependable vector for viruses. So while we talk about the comfort of the user, perhaps we should talk about the comfort of other people that user communicates with. I'm sorry, I view Outlook as a social disease. It's a personal opinion which is substantiated by all the emailed viruses I do get from people who use Outlook. What Outlook did do is get people using a technology. It did a good job of it as well. But when I get all these viruses emailed to me, I must wonder - should I blame Microsoft for selling something that can do that, or should I instead be upset with people who don't care enough about the safety of the data of people that they communicate with? I don't care who people paid, really. That's not my problem. There are other email programs out there (you won't see them advertised because they don't take your money). Mozilla has a great system that I use, which blocks all sorts of things. But it doesn't block everything (but it certainly doesn't send all the garbage that Outlook is often automated to do!). I still get lots of SPAM despite triple filtered email addresses and Bayesian filtering. Is there a better way? I think so. But I suppose until people actually want to improve communication, we're stuck where we are. There are forms which are not as self limiting. As you say, all forms are self limiting - but the degree to which they are self limiting varies. For broad communication with large groups, websites are less self limiting - and are decreasing even further over time. Email hasn't really changed in the last 10 years that much... however, website technology has changed quite a bit, and has shown itself to be more adaptive to the demands we place on this medium. It even uses email as a tool at times. The hand-held hammer is not more limited than the jackhammer or the piledriver: indeed, for certain purposes the more powerful tools are almost useless. A good analogy, but don't forget the 'swiss army hammer'. Much of the technology being discussed is easily tailored for the job. I, for one, don't want to have use shortcuts or insert URLs into a brower to conduct email eschanges: I much prefer the speed and simplicity of the listserv. I may be fooling myself, but I don't believe that preference is because I resist change. *chuckles* You do anyway. It's just easy because you click on the links. I think Outlook still has that ability, but it doesn't allow opening links in
[DDN] Statement -- Eyes on the Prize
-- Forwarded message -- Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2005 19:18:08 -0600 From: Bruce Hartford [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Statement -- Eyes on the Prize In meeting assembled, Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement adopted the following statment of support for the protest screenings of Eyes on the Prize being organized by Downhill Battle (http://www.downhillbattle.org/eyes/). We will host a solidarity screening on February 8 in Berkeley, CA. The statement will be forwarded to Downhill Battle, posted on Civil Rights Movement Veterans website (http://www.crmvet.org), and distributed to the press. Movement veterans who wish to add their names to this statement are encouraged to do so by sending messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Bruce Hartford Webspinner, Civil Rights Movement Veterans http://www.crmvet.org --- Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement Statement: Eyes on the Prize February 8, 2005 We who are veterans of the Southern Freedom Movement of the 1960s support efforts to open the corporate copyright vaults and allow people to view Eyes on the Prize. We strongly defend the original purpose of copyright which was to protect creators, -- artists, composers, performers, photographers, writers, and others, -- from theft of their work, and to ensure that creators could make a living from their craft. But today media conglomerates have imprisoned the copyrights that once belonged to the creators, seizing the income that rightfully belongs to those who did the work, denying access to those who cannot afford to pay their exorbitant fees, and sequestering information that runs counter to their corporate political agendas. Information, -- and particularly history, -- is as much a necessity of intellectual and economic life as food is of biologic life. Not only is it morally wrong to deny people the necessities of life, it's impractical because when people cannot afford to buy food they steal it. As citizens we know that without full access by all to multiple sources of news and information, democracy itself becomes a myth. And as Toni Morrison told us in 1986, Access to knowledge is the superb, the supreme act of truly great civilizations. To us, knowledge is a human right every bit as important as the right to vote and the right be treated with courtesy and respect. Therefore, we do not believe that reading, or viewing, or listening is, or should ever become, a crime. Nor should access to information become a luxury sold only to the wealthy. The events, images, narratives, and songs of Eyes on the Prize were not written, created, or performed by the corporations who now have the copyrights under their lock and key. It was those who gave their lives in the struggle, the heroic children of Birmingham, the courageous citizens of Mississippi, the Selma marchers, the school integrators, the sit-ins and Freedom Riders, and the people of a thousand colleges, towns, and hamlets across the South who created the Civil Rights Movement and we have a right to have our stories told. Therefore, in the spirit of Southern Freedom Movement, we who once defied the laws and customs that denied people of color their human rights and dignity, we whose faces are seen in Eyes on the Prize, we who helped produce it, tonight defy the media giants who have buried our story in their vaults by publicly sharing episodes of this forbidden knowledge with all who wish to see it. Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement http://www.crmvet.org Chude (Pam Parker) Allen Hardy Frye Miriam Cohen Glickman Bruce Hartford Don Jelinek Wazir (Willie) Peakock Jimmy Rogers Jean Wiley ### Art McGee Principal Consultant Virtual Identity Communications+Media+Technology 1-510-967-9381 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org 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.
[DDN] Narrowing the divide - radio, eBay and profits
From Creative Radio Listserv http://groups.yahoo.com/group/creative-radio/ On Wednesday 02 February 2005 21:04, George Lessard wrote: Lifeline radios are the windup radios from http://www.freeplayfoundation.org/ Ed Girardet, just back from Aceh and once again in Kabul. I am in the process of reporting a piece for the December 2005 edition of National Geographic on Frontline Aid workers: who are they and why do they do it? This will also explore key issues of humanitarian aid in the 21st century plus how aid has changed over the past 25-30 years. Edward Cherlin, Simputer Evangelist http://www.ryze.com/go/Cherlin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: One major way it has changed is represented by National Geographic's partnership with Novica to sell art and craft items from developing countries through their eBay store and their own Web site, http://www.novica.org. eBay, Overstock.com, and other sites are major outlets for tens of thousands of individual producers in dozens of countries. Overstock.com was certified last year as the largest employer in Afghanistan. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,63932,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1 Instead of the five cents an hour that you hear about for child labor in rug factories in Asia, these sellers get about 70% of the final selling price. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's IT Challenge to Silicon Valley http://news.com.com/2010-1069-964507.html?tag=lh points out that low-cost computers and wireless can let developing economies leapfrog the conventional development process. This idea is gaining wider acceptance in the response to the tsunami. The other leg of the new approach is microbanking and village banking, which raise large numbers of people out of poverty (as locally defined) every year, enabling many to escape crippling lifelong debt for as little as $20. When you put e-commerce, computers and wireless, and microbanking together, you have the platform for delivering health care information, educational materials, economic opportunities of many kinds, and much more to villages that can now afford them. The whole enterprise can be carried out at a profit to the villagers, the suppliers, and the microbanks, so once we get properly started we won't have to wait for funding from governments, foundations, and individual donors. We still need to improve some of the software and the training programs for villagers, and create a lot of content for health care, education and so on in local languages, but we are ready to put all of the basic components together and start rolling out the program. I just wish we could have done it sooner. Here are some other links for you. They, the Free Software movement, and e-commerce for developing countries represent the Best Practices I know of for aid in the 21st century. Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, Sri Lanka Five-stage program of village development, on Gandhian principles http://www.sarvodaya.org/ Partners in Health Zanmi Lasanté, Haiti Free health care for 700,000 of the poorest people in the world, including HIV/AIDS and TB treatment http://www.pih.org/ See also Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder Fantsuam Foundation, Nigeria Computers, health, education, economic opportunity, and more http://www.fantsuam.org/ Global Catalyst Foundation, US and Tanzania Computers and communications in a refugee camp, connecting victims with family, friends, government services, and job opportunities http://www.global-catalyst.org/kasulu.htm ITC e-choupal program One computer per village raises farm income significantly http://www.echoupal.com Grameen Communications Village Computer and Internet Program http://www.cityshelter.org/08_itc/ex/10_itc_ex.htm One particular question I am exploring is whether any serious efforts (within the first week or so) were made in Aceh, Sri Lanka etc. following the Tsunami to help inform affected populations. As far as I can gather, no wind-up radios etc were distributed in Aceh and apart from certain efforts by Internews to train local journalists, there was - and still is - no appropriate lifeline media/public awareness outreach aimed at informing the affected communities. I have it on *my* list of appropriate technologies, along with Simputers and such, but the oneVillage Foundation, which I work with, is not in on the councils of the big NGOs. We are talking about such things with the Sarvodaya Movement in Sri Lanka, which has one of the biggest reconstruction plans in the region, since it operates in about half of the villages in Sri Lanka. The project would involve sending several volunteer wireless network engineers/designers/builders, and training villagers to do construction, installation, operation, and maintenance. Sarvodaya has been working for some time on Simputers and wireless for its village banking system. We also have plans for satellite radio in local languages in Africa and elsewhere, using various receiving devices,
Re: [DDN] Wiki's as trees, By Taran Rampersad
There's no need to repost something so recent; members can look it up in the archive. http://mailman.edc.org/pipermail/digitaldivide/2005-February/date.html thanks, ac John Hibbs wrote: Brilliant! Worth re-reading. Please, Andy - or the other DDN moderators - allow this post from Taran to be sent again. If you read it once, do youself a favor and read it again. (Blind copies sent to a good friend in the education/publication world. Jim?) -- --- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.tsunami-info.org Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com --- ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org 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.
Re: [DDN] Yale Global Flow of Information Conference - Apr. 1-3, 2005
John Hibbs asks if a technologized alternative to the traditional lecture would enable students to learn more, and suggests an answer: Would the students (attendees) have learned more if they had listened, in advance, to the lecture at a time convenient to them? Or if they had read the text commentary and looked at the links provided - all well in advance of the physical meeting place? The search for technological fixes for education is of course as old as Socrates who used an early version of Power Point to help the slave boy learn the Pythagorean theorem. Some may remember an old New Yorker ( a U.S. humorous periodical) cartoon which showed a reel-to-reel tape recorder sitting on the instructor's desk, obviously delivering his lecture. In the classroom were 30 tablet arm chairs for the students. The seats were unoccupied: on each chair was a smaller tape recorder, recording the lecture. The question, Would the students...have learned more embodies a philosophy of education: the problem of education is quantitative, and education, like any business, can produce more learning if it becomes more efficient and one road to such productivity is, of course, technology. That is: if the tape recorder delivers the lecture, the instructor can be doing something else concurrently, a large increase in productivity. And if the tape recorder can take the lecture notes rather than the student, the student can be studying something else while the machine is recording, clearly a further gain in productivity. In his 1962 book EDUCATION AND THE CULT OF EFFICIENCY Raymond Callahan explores the period 1900 to 1930, the span of years during which the business mind and the practices of industrial capitalism permeated the practice of education. In the US it is still common for business executives to write, or have written for them, books outlining their views on fixing education. Recent books by David Kearns of Xerox and Louis Gerstner of IBM come to mind. And in the US legislation like the current No Child Left Behind act are attempting to fix education by imposing the logics and the rhetoric and the practices of industrialism on education: the results are not promising. As budgets are cut, the marketing consultants are flourishing, as they promise to restore enrollments and dollars using the same techniques that sell cereal and cosmetics on television. Callahan wonders early in his book how this penetration of education by the culture of industry and marketing had happened, was allowed to happen. Education is not a business, he says. The school is not a factory. But the schools were indeed allowed to become little businesses, little factories. A more recent study that rehearses much the same ground is Bill Reading's THE UNIVERSITY IN RUINS. Narrowing the digital divide will clearly require that we enlist the new communication technologies. The new technologies do not determine how we use them to do the work of learning. We can the new tools according to the logic of the factory, or we can use them in a way that respects the culture and the needs and the rhythms of those who teach and those who learn. Steve Eskow [EMAIL PROTECTED] Would the students (attendees) have learned more if they had listened, in advance, to the lecture at a time convenient to them? Or if they had read the text commentary and looked at the links provided - all well in advance of the physical meeting place? - Original Message - From: John Hibbs [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Steve Eskow [EMAIL PROTECTED]; The Digital Divide Network discussion group [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 11:18 AM Subject: Re: [DDN] Yale Global Flow of Information Conference - Apr. 1-3, 2005 At 3:31 PM -0800 2/6/05, Steve Eskow wrote: My point is that although we call both forms conferences, they really have little in common with each other. Better: they ought not to resemble each other, since they are using different technologies with different strengths and weaknesses. The fac-to-face conference ought to improve by understanding and exploiting the virtues of assembling people together what you are calling proximity. The online form ought to exploit the lack of proximity--the overcoming of time and space restrictions at the expense of proximity. It seems to me the same could be said for conventional education (vs. distance education). In conventional education, as with most physical conferences, the students (attendees) come to class (keynote), sit quietly, - and go on their merry way. Do they learn? Were they motivated? Or did they just get their Attendance Sheet marked as proof of appropriate reverence? Would the students (attendees) have learned more if they had listened, in advance, to the lecture at a time convenient to them? Or if they had read the text commentary and looked at the links provided - all well in advance of the physical meeting place? Had they been able to insert their
