Informing
I'm thinking that I'd first have to be able to find out which conferences are available to people such as myself. This is because I don't have a reason to look for conferences. I currently can't attend them. So having a single place to look to find out which conferences are open to digitally attending, and to what extent, would be really useful. More than one and we'd have a way to reach many demographics for many kinds of conferences.
Second, I'm thinking it would be good to have lessons learned from such conferences and their interactions shared for the benefit of other efforts in this direction. This way the continued efforts become part of a distributed iterative design effort. We learn from each other to progress farther, faster.
Third, any conference that is open to digital attendees should link to the sites and sources that tell about their openness. This is not just being nice, but a way to help each other.
Serendipity
As Danial Livingstone put it in a comment, "A large part of any conference is the coffee break chat and random mixing." I not only agree whole-heartedly, but want to find a way to facilitate this. Honestly, I'm not sure yet how to do this. It's a high priority to me. Maybe it's a little absurd to dream of something like a speaker phone at every table at a physical conference, but it would be nice to have the atmosphere and conversations between events happening. I'd love to hear some ideas on achieving this in a digital scenario that doesn't require 3D virtual worlds. Better yet would be a way to have people in totally different environments chatting with each other, but like I said, I'm not sure how to do that right now.
Schedules
These are normal for a physical conference and important to even a fully distributed conference. This is what makes it an event. This is what makes it special. The schedule holds the key to it all, and is the first step towards understanding the true potential of the idea. I'm going on at length about how important the schedule is to get your attention. Here's where we get to the meat, after the appetizer and salad of course.
When you have to rearrange your schedule to attend an event you are dedicating time for it. You become more receptive, because you are investing time into the event. Things that you can access at anytime become normal, and can be put off. Other things are pushed aside, pushed out of your mind to focus on the event at hand.
Then there is the effect of grouping the pieces of the event, like gathering coals in a fire. While they may continue on their own, the heat they put off is not the same. This is why having a scheduled event is so important.
Remoteness
So you dedicated your time, and can chat with people during breaks, but it's still not the same. Well, there is a possibility that opens up through remote viewing, remote venues. Who's ever heard of a conference that is being held in multiple locations at the same time? That's what I'm talking about. Local venues allow people to have the conference with those of similar interest locally.
How about chatting with people at three different locations at once? Text, voice, video it's all possible. By using the communication tools available we can facilitate discussions between different locations while they still are participating in their local conference. Wait, there's more.
There are social sites where one might organize discussions and viewings, plus other options. While these people are not in the same location, they can still participate in something similar. What could I mean? Forums, Teamspeak, networking sites, Ning, Moodle, blogs, Second Life and the list goes on for a while. Each have their advantages and disadvantages. All can be used by people far away from each other to have conversations during an event.
Synchronization
Taking the schedules and remote venues we can see how the numbers might increase and how discussions might be multiplied many times in the matter of seconds. So, when the discussions start popping up in real life and on the internet, more people are up-to-date. Those who want to get up-to-date or join in have the ability at their fingertips. With more who can participate, the number who will is likely to increase, or at least more will be informed about the interesting things going on.
Those that are working on solutions can be aware of others working on the same problems. Partnerships could be born out of those common goals. When one effort goes down, the remnants could be picked up by another effort, even if it is just people. A lot is possible with better communication.
Syndication
Presentations, conversations, comments, reactions and revisions all distributed to those interested enough to pay attention. If we want people to know about what we are doing and talking about, then we need to give away the information, not hoard it or discuss it in places where few know to look. More than that, taking those things and putting them together where potentially interested parties will look increases the chance of being picked up.
There are many people who have no clue these discussions are going on. How many students? How many teachers? How many parents? If we don't get the information to them, who will?
Have fun, spread the word and tell me what you think,
Igen Oukan
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