Thursday Meetings at Berkman Blog

05/12/2005 Meeting Notes

These notes are a best effort.

Blog your corrections and commentary.

Attendees:

• WK: Wendy Koslow
• BI: Bill Ives
• AH: Ann House
• BS: Brett Stilwell
• DF: Deborah Elizabeth Finn
• LG: Louis Godena
• JA: Josh Ain
• MF: Michael Feldman
• MS: Marshall Spriggs
• EG: Erica George
• EY: Elaine Yuan
• WS: Will Sage
• DW: David Weinberger
• SR: Shimon Rura (via IRC)
• RF: Randy Fenstermacher (via IRC)

Audio!!!!!!

Agenda:

• Beginning random talk
  • For all those still unaware, WK is moving to Canada to be married in 3 months
• Blogging 101
  • MF: Wiki – Defaced again recently, so we may need to restrict access anyway
  • MF: Blogging 101 prototype website – changed the icons to VHS cassette tapes. Clicking leads to a requested popup.
  • MF: looking for volunteers to make these 3 pages
  • 1 categorize & organize the links to other tutorials and FAQs already on the wiki
  • LW: What platforms still need tutorials made?
  • MF: Nearly all. Wiki has list of those suggested / signed up to. We haven’t yet decided which we’ll feature at top level yet

• Template letter for bloggers to request press access
  • MF: Drafted a letter, both general info about blogging and our blog group, sample for individual blogger to introduce themself, sample of request for the increased access
  • MF: This is the sort of thing that appeals to a company’s PR department. It’s not as farfetched that we might get this kind of access as it used to be. As individuals we have better chance of getting access by being affiliated with the group.

• **Crisis in the blog group! What do we do?**
  • LW: Can I present the schedule I drafted and sent to the yahoo discussion list, as a jumping off point? (Does so – Schedule gets changed enough during mtg that it’s not repeated here). Items include: Tagging Is Crap! (SHIMON); How to Have a Traffic Jam (AMANDA); Blogging 101 Tutorial Video Show; Mass Live people who have a citizen journalism thing going on (LISA); Group Artblog; Food Blogs
  • JA: Committee not a good idea. Let’s have a closed planning wiki so everyone can contribute, schedule themselves into open slots. We’d be flexible. People can invite a speaker, can request more time, etc. Allows everyone to take responsibility for helping provide the content of the group.
  • BI: An affinity group I’m in had similar issues. We decided we’d have one person to moderate each meeting, and another to lead a conversation around the topic at hand.
  • EG: We don’t really need moderators aside from the discussion leaders of specific topics, right? But we do need as a group to acknowledge specific tasks:
    • * take notes
    • * monitor IRC
    • * make sure sound will work
    • * open up & lock up & log into computer: has to be a Harvard employee and be OK’ed by Berkman (currently WK, j, EG)
  • SR: If those 3 are leaders I’d like them to take the group further
  • Wk: we are facilitators, we have a role to play, but we ought not shoulder more responsibility for content than anyone else
  • BI: 2 distinct roles, logistical facilitator and then content-focused organizer
  • MF: if group goes further it must be because of all of us not just 2 or 3 pushing in a certain direction. If we find projects we can all get behind we can make things happen. It’d be nice to make more happen, not just focus on discussion. I’d like to produce something, be project-oriented. I’d like one part of each mtg to be for project coords to talk re their project, as well as broader discussion.
  • JA: how do we need that structurally? project updates aren’t getting edged out right now.
  • BI: topics are what expand the group
  • JA: we all are able to bring someone in, to think of an interesting topic.
  • EG: why don’t we each commit to brainstorm a new topic? not just a few people?
  • LW: we do have a lot of content, but now & then we run out and face the abyss. Maybe we need set regular times to look ahead in the schedule and make sure we’re not running out
  • MW: subtext of all this is: purposeful achievement, ongoing above the topics on the agenda, is what MF is talking about.
  • JA: as individuals and also as group members we do have projects, we do check in on them (blog101, frassle, lisa’s calendaring, steve’s vlog stuff)
  • MF: I’d like more. Want another conference
  • MW: do we need more projects or to concentrate and expand our efforts on existing projects
  • j: people can do projects on their own and report back – brings new projects into the group
  • WK: lightweight collaboration (to quote Ethan Z)
  • LW: we all try to be polite about not pressuring other people in the group with deadlines to follow, but we are all busy. We had a leader once and all had real problems with that. Nobody wants to return to that, or push anyone else around. But to get things done we may need to get beyond our reticence about pushing each other a little
  • MF: projects people do on their own – let’s have ppl talk about them. but other projects that are possibly more rewarding require group effort.
  • LW: I personally need a specific date to be able to make things happen. Small deadlines. So it helps to have things on the schedule. IE, a deadline for getting our tutorials out to the world will encourage us all to make the ones we volunteered for, and will give us a set of cool things we can then promote. We might then get people not part of our group to contribute
  • DW: meta-comment: everyone here has been through this sort of meeting before. i defer to Clay Shirky, on this: we are having the explicit discussion of the constitution of the meeting. My experience is that this is often the sign the group will fall apart. Why: we all get along pretty well until it turns out that everyone has different ideas about what they want to do. People discover that they have very different visions, and once the topic is raised there’s pressure to follow one vision and the folks with other visions may leave. This is not a great outcome. We still can work through this, we’re not doomed, but this can be dangerous. One way to resolve is to back down – we now have a better sense of what people want. We’re all more aware of what people here want to be happy. I’m worried that we won’t be able to resolve this concretely and also keep the group together. Let’s NOT come up with a set of things we need to do that defines this to the degree it excludes people
  • BI: I second. In the group I mentioned, our big debate was inward focus vs outward focus. Individuals do outside projects but group is inward focused. includes some time for shooting the shit. I come here cos like David I like to talk about stuff. I’m happy to bring an agenda item but I don’t want to feel like a self-promoter.
  • AH: me too
  • LW: we’re not in much danger of being too organized. these topics aren’t meant to take over the whole meeting each week.
  • WK: all these great ideas – it might be too much, to do all at once. we often build agendas organically
  • JA: I’m more interested when there’s a solid agenda item every week
  • WK: i agree with that. but we have a lot of BIG topics all in a row week by week on this summer schedule. we need preparation time, time for people to get enthused about prepping for each one. it’s summer, people have less time
  • LW: how about we start with the first 2 weeks, pending checking schedules, and go from there
  • Move tagging to 26th – for both DW and landsman. Shimon says OK
  • MW: Amanda might work best for June 16
  • MF: i like listening to smart people talk about what they’re really interested in
  • LW: I’ll email Sam re the Forest of Wikis, tent. date for june 23.
  • LW: for next week, what? Blog show & tell?
  • EG, WK: go-round-the-room of our blogging stories, why and how and what your parents think of it
  • JA: 15 minute thing on Livejournal (EG: Yay!) – for next week as well

• Boston WiFi Summit, May 19
  • DF: I was at the organizing meeting for this…
  • LW: “How do you know you have an extroverted nerd working for you? They stare at *your* shoes!” (from MalW)
  • DF: Sum-up: I’m not a wifi expert. There’s a movement for getting municipal wifi for Boston. Sooz posted some stuff too. John Tobin has been champion. Unclear what will happen or how big project will be.
  • MF: Verizon et al are in opposition. Fear of Skype etc.
  • DW: yeah, that’s an argument against air, too 🙂
  • DF: lots of pieces. I was initially dismayed that the wifi people weren’t connected in to the DDN (Digital Divide Network), the recent Grassroots Use of Technology conference, etc. But Sooz is connecting them. Anyway there’s lots of connection still to be made. I encouraged them to connect with more nonprofits. One of my clients, TechFoundation, and others also want to be in on the table, ie Boston Fdtn (funding wifi study), MassINC. Idea of online civic engagement resource, web based, more than civic calendar, that anyone could get anywhere once there’s wifi….. (group:cool!)
  • LW: Coming from the commercial sector I find govt and nonprofits opaque – I bet it’s msotly commercial people in the wifi group, who don’t know how to work w/ nonprofits. What about a Mass nonprofit news blog: gawker meets nonprofits
  • DF: if i said everything i know about everyone they wouldn’t hire me
  • DF: there IS a local scene of nonprofit techies (501 club – nonprofit techies, some are bloggers). Should I try to get some of them come visit us? (Group: YES!).
  • wifi summit info on John Tobin’s blog: http://www.votejohntobin.com/blog/WirelessInternet
  • DW: we need model legislation so what happened in Philly won’t happen elsewhere, so Verizon etc can’t get legislature to ban municipal wifi. Berkman is an obvious place but there’s nobody with the specific expertise. Any leads, suggest it.
  • DW: also Brookline is looking to wifi too.
  • DW: in Philly, when outside it’ll be free, but inside isn’t part of the deal – it’s public spaces, with some edge bleed

• Other Stuff From Agenda:
  • Getting the Wikinews folks to return
  • EG: add ’em to the potential guests – first ask when they can come…. I’ll talk to Brandon/Pingswept
  • Social outing: Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
  • Well wishes for Gregory – He’s doing better recently but still needs our positive thoughts
  • j has totally messed up wrists. Erica will take notes. (Erica totally rocks, er, contradances, er, something!)[Or rather, Erica is going to be contradancing after the meeting ends]
  • What else?
    • Eat: Uno’s
      
    • Chang Sho last week