A couple of days ago, Maha Bali wrote about connecting virtually (link). I was very interested in the ways she explored personal and continuing learning in her post.
Part of her experience was ‘attending’ conferences through the presence of others. I see this as vital in a world where there are so many conferences with a variety of registration, travel and subsistence costs. Partnering someone remotely overcomes the difficulties of cost and distance.
It does nor replace attendance. I am mindful that many people gain immense satisfaction from being present and part of “the hallway and social conversation at the conference”.
However, connecting virtually does offer the possibility of connection in a different kind of way. It is an issue I have been thinking about a great deal.
This Summer, in July, I am facilitating an unmeeting and (un)hack in Moscow with Malte Siegle, Martin Lames and Alexander Danilov prior to the Symposium of the International Association of Computer Science in Sport (link). We have a tentative program to explore data from the 2018 FIFA World Cup Finals and prospecting to Qatar in 2022:
Saturday: 6 July
18:00 PM: Arrival, Registration and Brainstorming
Start of hacking, working and analysing.
Sunday: 7 July
09:00 AM: Morning coffee and recap of Saturday
09:30 AM: Networking and brainstorming
10:00 AM: Hacking, working and analysing
Noon: Lunch
13:00 PM: Hacking, working and analysing
16:00 PM: Break out session
17:00 PM: Elevator pitch presentations of ideas (3 slides, 3 minutes per group).
18:00 PM: Announcement of winners and on to the opening reception of IACCS conference.
This is a framework that we can adapt. Throughout the process, I have been aware that not everyone can attend. There are lots of other opportunities around the world including Seattle and Paris.
I am travelling from Australia to Moscow for the (un)meet and (un)hack. I do take Maha’s point strongly that those who are attending in person can partner with those not there. I wondered if we might connect in real or lapsed time through social media and online platforms. I am going to use Twitter (link), Mastodon (link) and GitHub (link) as part of my aim to connect. I will be using the hashtag #iacss19connect to support this remote sharing.
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