[OSList] Happy wosonos - From Chile to London

[Harold Shinsato]

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
harold at shinsato.com <mailto:harold at shinsato.com>
http://shinsato.com
twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
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