Hello dear friends: No, this is not a reflection about VOSonVOS. It is a reflection about OST, based on a personal and incomplete experience with what has been called Virtual OS (an the memory of many old experiences with BBS's and WWWboard)
I think that there are some "principles" (or "principles-like" or "presuppositions") that have never been written because they are obvious and need not be clarified in a normal OST meeting, where people really meet together). But they need to be clarified - and probably one must find "virtual" equivalents to them - if one wants to have virtual conferences that are meaningful and OST-like. I will call them "presuppositions" (things that are present but have not been made explicit - and probably need not to be - because they always happen in normal OST settings. Presupposition 1 - Human beings have volume! (The volume implies that they can be seen by others and by oneself; that when They enter (or leave) a room everybody will understand that this particular volume Has entered (leaved) the room. Presupposition 2 - Human beings are animals (they can see the others, the others' movements; feel the warmth of others, interpret many signals that we transmit to each other - as the other animals do to each other of the same species). Presupposition 3 - In OST the non-verbal signals that people transmit to each other are vital ingredients as important (more important?) as the law and principles. Presupposition 4 - People (volumes) cannot be in two places (rooms) at the same time Presupposition 5 - To go from one session to another people have to LEAVE the first one (and that will be noticed by everyone that is there - and before leaving one knows that the others can see that), to spend some time WALKING from one place to another (they are NOT real bumblebees - the bumblebee metaphor is just that - a metaphor) and then ENTERING the new room (again, being seen by everybody that is there). Presupposition 6 - if one is speaking in a room the others must be listening - if not, no one will understand and everyboby will leave - if no one is listening there is no communication. Presupposition 7 - Each person that is speaking in a room can see the others and their non-verbal reactions. Presupposition 8 - except in very special conditions, there can't be two different discussions at any time in one single "room" Presupposition 9 - The fact that a new break out session is scheduled for the same room implies that the current session has to stop (or be renegotiated). The principle "When its over..." is enforced by the physical conditions of the conference and the natural tendency to continue "saying nothing" (as it happens in many meetings") is impossible. (to be continued - and revised) Regards Artur PS: As Wurman once wrote, in the information age the main problem of any person is information anxiety, information overload, shat sometimes is called "infoxitation". We need tools that help us avoid infoxication. * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html