Convenings

Past Learning Exchange Reports:
Seattle, May 3–5, 2002

Breaking Conventions Discussion Group: On-line Dialogue

Participants:  Liz Lerman, Michael Warr, Lisa James, Elise Bernhardt, Tamara Goldbogen, Pat Romney, Marty Pottenger, Andrea Assaf

Don offers Some Resources:

• POV Interactive – approached by a public network about doing documentaries on-line
• Web Lab – organization that experiments with using the internet as a forum for public conversations
• SPARC and their digital tech project with the Great Wall

Questions and interests from the group:

• Open Sourcing – Dance Exchange wants to put choreographic processes on-line, for sites that participated the Hallelujah project, so that people can use them.  Post structures, discuss them, report on how they work, etc. – using written documentation, description, video of phrases (web stream), and more ...
• Possible compliment to dialogue trainings – instead of 2-day trainings, could we keep communicating and educating each other on-line, over time?
• Early stages of a project – collecting material via computer
• Personal website:  how to make a column an on-line dialogue
• SF Opera – content provision via the web, such as synopses, music snips, interviews with artists, and sales.  Currently it’s all outgoing, and we don’t know how to get the incoming rolling.  How do you get info flowing 2 ways?
• How do you have an on-line dialogue?  In a chat room?  How do you structure it in a way that is useful for the institution?
• We tried a bulletin board, but with no moderation or facilitation, it’s not useful exchange.  Organizational staffing issues about will manage it.  Time and capacity questions – how much time does it take to do it well? 
• Ford Foundation wants to see how it can work, what people are thinking, how to suggest what folks should think about in utilizing it.  We get a lot of proposals that are not very clear.
• Children’s Theater Company – developing critical literacy through storytelling program; how do we serve 400 kids?  On-line pen pals?  Ways to be resources for teachers and students?
• Schools and the climate for learning for Black & Latino students; using email discussion groups; issues of equity and access
• Intermedia Arts – We’ve been talking for years about having an on-line dialogue, especially art and activism programming for youth.  How do we get it going?
• Ethical questions about moderating and censorship:  how do you facilitate on-line?  How do you make responsible choices?
• The Jewish Museum proposal included web/on-line dialogue, but because of the media reaction to the exhibit, chose not to.  Didn’t want  people who hadn’t seen the show to enter the on-line dialogue.  Concerns about how to set it up; not to control it, but to manage putting something out there
• Policy question – can you ask people to agree not to post obscenities? 

Don:  We organized people doing community cultural work for Bellagio.  We facilitated  communication between participants four months prior to gathering, discussing cultural policy and democratic practice on-line.  You have a lot of options, and there’s a range of how complicated you can get.  Here are some possibilities ...

Options:

• Web Lab has developed on-line software that automatically moderates discussion forums.  A system that will “take it to scale” – looking at what is the optimal size of an on-line group.  Usually 40-60, depending on the intensity of the postings.  Monitors for evaluative purposes, but not to have anyone intervene.  It should be a limited number of people, but diverse.  People fill out a survey, and the software automatically forms groups.  Time limited – 10 months or so.  People can create threads, follow a conversation.  They’re just getting to the point where non-profits can license their software.  It’s coming, but it’s expensive now. 
• Co-op has made human / collective agreements about:  How often will you respond?  What is non-response assumed to be?  If you’re going away for a while, you have to let everyone know.  In face to face discussions, we decided issues of what people would weigh in on; this has affects on the culture of the organization, and is useful for internal organizational use (or groups like ADI)
  In free public forums, the trade off is advertising (ex. Yahoo).  You can use a moderated list in which the moderator has to approve every posting before it goes up.  You can also limit the number of participants.
• On a listserv, if anyone can sign up, you will get an overload or burnout.  My philosophy is, you need to be able to control it in some way.  You can also be the single person who collectsor receives all the email, and then post it to a website; this isn’t really a dialogue, though.  You can make choices about what inputs you give people before they respond.

Questions and Answers
Q:  What kind of time and resource does it take to do this?

Don:  A lot of forums just die.  The challenge is how to catalyze the discussion.  We used a  phased plan of questions that we suggested to them.  We invested quite a bit of time – maybe quarter time.  First was introductions, then began to feed substantive questions.  Coaxing out certain people.  Invest time in getting people to participate.  The quality of dialogue is enhanced by posing questions.  When you see something provocative, make that input.  Contact people directly to engage them. 

Use a combination of email and web.  In the first year of POV, two documentaries got a lot of attention – one was about women who were committed to asylums, and the other was “One Nation Under God.”  A lot of closeted people participated actively, and probably wouldn’t have in a public in-person forum.  Anonymity creates a safe space.   And issues of mobility – people who can’t get to a face to face meeting participate on-line.  Dialogue can combine face to face and online interaction.

Q:  What are the first five steps?

Don:  Lobby with Kiosk – people sign up for a short-term discussion list.  A moderator gets the conversation going.  A staff member screens, edits, arranges or organizes material; or, it could be a free-for-all; or you could pre-screen people, and then just let it go ...

Q:  Could you give people the choice of signing up for the edited list or the free for all?

Don:  Yes, you could give people a choice.  You can also ask them if they’d like to receive all the  individual emails or a DAILY DIGEST (either mechanized or moderated).

Q:  We tried to get people sign on at a certain time every week, but didn’t work ...

Don:  Live typing – it can be excruciating, because so many people don’t type fast.   Asynchronicity is the advantage of on-line dialogue – you can do it on your own time.

Q:  How do you nudge?  How do you get people to go to an on-line forum and participate?

Don:  Focus it in time.  Initiate personal contact.  Orchestrate input that you think is significant.  Call people, interview them, and with permission, post it.

Additional Suggestions:

• Marty:  The website for Abundance was just launched.  People can respond to questions and email themselves or others the answers.  “Abundant Art” – people can submit art (photo, drawing, poem, etc.)
• Lisa:  Post-show online discussion group
• Liz:  Within an organization, people can post notes about what they did during the day/week

Discussion of Ethical Issues
Andrea:  Does anyone else have ethical issues with editing people’s input?

Elise:  I say, EDIT< EDIT< EDIT!

Michael:  It’s building a community.  On-line.

Tamara:  Are people using web cams?  As a theatre, are there models where people are using web cams with real-time discussion?

Lisa:  Quality is a real issue with live webstreaming ...

Tamara:  Kids – legal question of how much information to divulge. Is there a place where I can check?

Global Kids – check it out on the web.  Raising the consciousness of U.S. kids about kids in other places around the world.

Don:  Ethical issue of releasing participants’ email addresses!

Lisa:  Democracy includes responsibility.  If people can’t be responsible for brief, clear comments,  don’t be afraid to edit!

Liz:  I don’t feel as blithely about it as most people here.  In tomorrow’s session, I’ll be talking about editing as an issue of ownership …