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How to get everybody online?

Submitted by Sheri Madrone on April 3, 2006 - 20:15.
A question came from the hosting team of Evolution Salon 3 to the facilitation team of Moving the Edge: How did you get everyone to open up and share on the wiki, (during Moving the Edge and quickly following the gathering) ....?  

Finn asked: Well, what did we do? Any insights?

Thank you for this offering

Submitted by Ashley Cooper on April 9, 2006 - 18:52.

I want to thank each of you for offering these reflections. They are so helpful and I am learning a lot from your words and experience.


With much gratitude,

Ashley 

Fear and social practices on the net

Submitted by Tina Ranløv on April 7, 2006 - 11:28.

Being a part of the conviening team of MTE I have had to dig into what social tecnologies can do for us when it comes to connecting with the world and communicating our intentions to those interested. I must say that I have matured dramatically in the process, but I am still often confused and struck by alienation. Untill a week before the gathering I was doing most of my reading and writing in a nearby coffeeshop that logged me out every fifteen minute without saving. I am one of those who  struggle with resistance when it comes to using the net, though it seems more and more irrationel not to.

I think MTE helped me integrating something and I think like some of the others that it had to do with the enthusiasm among some of the participants and that the issue was brought up on several occasions in its own right within and without the circel. I asked about if it could be explained to me severel times, what potential people saw in it and slowly it worked its way on me.

I also think that the fact that people were invited to bring their labtop, that we sat up tables in our main working room did some good. One day I experienced six people working on their labtop in a break, one person meditating, three people dancing to music while two were having a conversation by the window - all in the same room.

I have been looking into this resistance and I assume that I am not the only one. Since I can find no rationel reason not to use it and since it undoubtly support the dreams I hold in my heart for the world in terms of connecting fields around the world, being able to communicate with people and share insights I sense that resistance has to do with fear.

The fear, I think, is banal, it has to do with letting go of control. It is based on the fear of sending something out and having no control over how it is recieved, interpreted an used. So it is a task of letting go of controlling selfimages, possibles conflicts etc. in other words a lot of my personal related ego stof.

Another dimension of the fear is related to, I think, deeply inherited experiences of deadly misuse of tecnologi in the hands of people and nations seeking power. It sounds dramatically in this context, I know, but I think there is an element of that i the resistance. What I also then realize is that especially this type of fear makes it as an argument for really get to know about it and to learn to make use of all the potential it holds for preventing violence and manipulation. 

I am interested in what kind of social practices that is needed when using the net in this way. I allready mentioned one in the above which is 'letting go of control' and personal identification with whatever is being written.

Please add more...

 

What's in here makes sense

Submitted by Martin Ludvigsen on April 4, 2006 - 16:02.

I find myself often being quite reserved towards social technologies on the web (which is odd given that this is an aspect of my research interest). I have subscribed to several different services and tried several software platforms in the past years. I think that this disappointment have made me think twice before engaging in a new platform.

The difference from those experiences and this one is that the content is there and bears meaning to me and to the others here – at least that’s my firm impression. The point is that in most social softwares the point of participation is the participation itself – that there is nothing else shared than the interest in each other. Here we have a field of inquiry that we are all interested in. somehow this could relate to the model Jan drew on MtE-Tuesday where most technology enabled social spaces find themselves stuck in the “pseudo” community state. Here, at evolutionary nexus, we are moving beyond this, I think. We are of course not as synchronized as we were in the MtE gathering – being present in the same physical space. But I still find myself moving through the “chaos” – a bit confused, heading towards community as we approach what I call "collective action" (in my research work) in the exploration of the collective itself.

I don’t know, but this makes sense to me right now.

Walk - don't talk!

Submitted by Finn Voldtofte on April 4, 2006 - 14:42.

I got Sheris question ("how did yo get everyone to open up and share...") in an email, noticed it had energy for me, and responded to her, that I would reflect on it, and be back.

I passed the question on in a mail to the participants in Moving The Edge - and now the reflection has emerged here (by way of Rias initiative - things happen by someone doing something), before I got back to the reflection I promised to engage.

This - and the comments before this - makes me think of another principle of "how to get online...?": Do it - don't talk about doing it. Do it - and it happens.

More generally I find my self more and more often being in situations where we can not talk about doing something, say talk about talking about next steps of a proces - it happens as we try to talk about talking - if I, you, we, the work is connected. 

What got me on line

Submitted by Jan Nouwen on April 3, 2006 - 22:45.

This is the mail I sent back to Finn in answer to the question what made us show up and share in cyberspace. To talk for myself: the sheer passion for sharing in cyberspace as shared with us by George, Yann, Thomas, and Ria and others. I was beginning to open myself a little for these new things and they pushed me across the borderline. So, passion about the possibilities (George: Ït’s there for us to use it!”), the abundance we can create in sharing, the possibility to use it to keep moving…

And, what certainly helped is that we could start our cyberspace journeys while still in the meeting. That was great. So we didn’t have to start on our own at home… Start with it while still together in the gathering and offer all the help needed.

Jan

The big community is taking the next step

Submitted by Ria Baeck on April 3, 2006 - 20:36.

I see two dynamics that can be part of the explanation here.

First is that it was one of the perspectives that we held as the facilitation team to keep a connection with the people who were not there in physical space. This led to some very practical things like:

- we asked everybody to bring their laptop and we made sure that the internet connection was easy. 

- we placed the table for the laptops in the room where we always gathered 

- I was making an online report every half day and participants were reading it in the breaks or in the evening

- we hang on the wall some email messages we got from 'the outside world' 

The other dynamic that I see at work is that the enthusiastic, supporting and teaching support (from Yann in MtE) was also present in the recent Sacred Circle in Boulder (done by Jean-Francois, teaching participants the importance of wiki's and showing it) and also done in the Girl Geeks gathering in Seattle (done by Nancy W., surfing the web together and explaining wiki's and tagging etc.). So I see it is definitely 'in the air' and it gets done when someone is not just talking about it, but inviting people in in what they know and are passionate about and teaching the others to join.

First answer by Judy

Submitted by Ria Baeck on April 3, 2006 - 20:19.
This was send in an email by Judy:
 
I think Yann's enthusiasm and willingness to teach us drew the group into the realm of cyberspace participation.  He helped us to understand the importance of an on-line presence and identity.  Ria and George supported that by their presence there. And then our group discussion about the importance, from a conscious evolutionary perspective, of putting our ideas and conversations into a greater conversation (that transcends borders, fees or costs,) was certainly a catalyst.  Along with that came the idea of being willing to put oneself in front of a video camera.  To let go of personal reservations to put what we are doing into a larger context.
 
We can join in the true freedom and invitation to dialogue and participate in the greater collective intelligence that is forming and taking voice (and image).  I certainly saw it as an opportunity, and also a responsibility.  In addition, for me, putting out ideas for on-line conversation is a way to jump in, to not hold back, to let go of whether others will agree or disagree (because they will do both). It is a form of commitment. It is even more so a tremendous opportunity for expanded collective knowing which really has no limits and is open to all.  It is so beyond any one person and yet needs all of us.

Judy