[sustran] Sustran Skypecast conference (trial run on Monday)

[Eric Britton]

Dear Sustran Colleagues,

I have heard from several of you that the timing of the Friday session
(see below) does not work for you, so I have scheduled a session
specifically forma Sustran perspective for next Monday, the at 09:00
GMT, hoping that will be convenient.  You can see the proposed work plan
for the discussions at
https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?message=
talk_updated&id_talk=377833.

It describes itself as follows: "A first open group conversation (a) to
trial and comment on the potential of Skypecast audio conferences for
our network collaboration and exchanges here at Sustran; and (b) to
discuss in particular if and how the New Mobility STEP - Sustainable
Transport Emergency Program - initiative might be put to work in cities
in the Global South."

For those how have yet to sign in to Skype for this, I attach last
weeks' note with all the gory details. 

Hope this will work for at least some of us, and that once it is over we
will be able to report to the rest on its potential for our
collaboration and exchanges in the future.

And it is just about as CO2 free as you can get, so that's one more
argument for trying.

Eric Britton




Dear Sustran Friends,

Those of you who have got to know me over the years are probably well
aware that my self-assigned mission in the fight for sustainable
development and social justice is to do what I can to create open
'collaborative knowledge networks', including the dozen or so that we
have jointly developed in the last two decades under the New Mobility
Agenda. Indeed as the title line of the Agenda's web site refers its
exact mission is: "The Politics of Transportation: New thinking &
world-wide collaborative problem-solving". That says it pretty well. And
in this context we have steadily since the mid eighties sought out,
developed, tailored, poached, used and supported quite a number of group
work tools and techniques to support out collaborative work, of which
this forum is one as well as the fairly numerous supporting web sites
and other communications tools that you will see at
http://newmobility.org. Enough!

I personally like these tools a great deal because I believe that they
can not only be efficient and effective for our purposes, but also that
when we get them right they can permit us to be honest practitioners in
our own work and lives - i.e., in this way avoid excessive air travel
and all the environmental loads that it places on the planet and its
future. This is not to condemn either physical meetings or even getting
on a plane when we really need to, but it does give us some real options
once we learn how to work with them. And it not only helps to save our
environment but also our own health and gives us more time with our
families and those we love. Who could ask for anything more?

Now on to the new tool that I want you all to know about today and maybe
put to work with us:

1.	Summary:  
You are invited next Friday at 15:00 Paris time to pop in and check out
the first of what we hope will become a regular weekly series of public
conversations on key issues and strategies to support to the huge CO2
reduction target set by the Clinton Climate Initiative and the Large
Cities Climate Leadership Group - with specific reference to how we can
help people to get around better in all respects in our cities. This is
of course the stuff of the New Mobility Agenda, complete with its dogged
insistence on the importance of our concentrating on the 2-4 year period
directly ahead. (We leave the rest to the others more competent in these
longer range matters.)  This takes the form of a Skypecast, and which if
these first trials work we intend possibly to organize on a regular
weekly basis and specific topics of concern. They cost nothing and if we
get together to put our collective brains on this, we should get some
very useful results. Read on if this strikes a spark:

2.	What is it?
a.	Skypecast: A new group communications tool just announced by
Skype which I think we can put to work for our good cause.  Read all
about it at http://www.skype.com/help/guides/skypecasts.html .
b.	Here in their words is the rundown: "Skypecasts are large,
hosted calls on Skype. Let your opinion be heard on subjects close to
your heart in groups of up to 100 people participating from anywhere in
the world."  
c.	We rough trialed it yesterday and found it a platform which we
think we all can build on and put to work to advance our joint concerns.
You will see some comments on our first round trial run yesterday just
below.
d.	If this gives satisfaction we propose to organize an open weekly
group conversation in which we can not only get together to air the
issues and our ideas for how to do better. Our focus in this first cycle
of meetings will be our eventual contributions to the in support of
Clinton Climate Initiative and Large Cities Climate Leadership Group and
their important efforts to curb greenhouse gases by very significant
amounts and in the near term future (i.e., the next few years). 
e.	The next New Mobility Agenda conference is slated for Friday, 9
February at 15:00 (Paris time, GMT +1) You can see all about it at
https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?message=
talk_updated&id_talk=351748 )
f.	Here in a nutshell is how you can put it to work.

3.	Participation Guidelines: 
a.	Sign in to get a Skype account  -- takes less than five minutes
at www.skype.com, costs nothing and is secure and easy to use.  But you
will need broadband to be comfortable. And make sure you get the latest
version, 3.0, which is necessary for the conference.
b.	When you sign in, please be so kind as to indicate in your
"Profile" your name, city, country, and if possible put in a small photo
(you will see what this is important once we start to meet together on
this.)  (I also tend to put in my regular phone numbers in my profile
just in case I am not on line with Skype so that you can call me
directly if useful.)
c.	Once you have it installed and have checked it out, you can then
call me via ericbritton (newmobility also works just fine) and we can
test and tune your link.
d.	You will then automatically the periodic notices announcing
future New Mobility World Conversations - and the time and topic
interests you, sign in and participate. 
e.	Make sure that you check the guidelines for participation, just
to be sure that it is a comfortable experience for you and the others.
f.	Language: For these first sessions, we will be using English,
but this des not stop us from organizing World Conversations in other
languages. But a caution here for English language mother tongue
speakers. Many of our colleagues have English as a second, third or more
language, and it is important that we show our respect for them by:
speaking slowly, articulating clearly, avoiding the use of jargon, and
yes please! we really need to avoid that might appear to native speakers
as humor or even irony. What may be funny to your culture may be
incomprehensible or even offensive to others. And as to politics, we do
not address specific political personalities in these conversation and
certainly not in a derogatory manner. So if you wan to blow off steam
about Bush, Chirac or your other least favorite leader of the day,
please to it elsewhere.
g.	In the early sessions, I would ask you to be patient and
cheerfully experimental in your attitude. There will be glitches and
occasional strangeness, of that we can be sure. But with your good
attitude and support we really should be able to do something useful
with all this - even from the very beginning. So call it up on your
computer, go make yourself a nice cup of tea or coffee, get comfortable,
lean back and join the action. Don't be shy when you have something to
add, just ask for the mike and for sure I will hand it to you. (That
said succinctness is a great courtesy, as always in meetings of any
kind).
h.	Have an idea for a session or would you like to make a
presentation in one of the Conversations (five minute max please)? -
get in touch via email and we can work it out together.
i.	And always, please do not hesitate to let me know what needs to
be fixed or somehow adjusted to make this a better and more creative
experience all around. Thanks in advance for that.

4.	First trial run to check it out - Post mortem of yesterday's
session:
a.	In the spirit of being willing to try anything which might
possibly permit us to build knowledge and competence if possible without
getting on to one more airplane and thereby encouraging it to do what it
does so well to our assaulted atmosphere, I thought I would give it a
first whack with a little trial run. 
b.	So we did just that this afternoon under the heading "New
Mobility support for Clinton/Large Cities Climate Initiative
<https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?id_talk
=350711> " . You can see the opening page I hastily hammered together to
guide the session at
https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?id_talk=
350711. You will also see there the link to our experimental site in
support of the Clinton/Large Cities Climate Initiative which you can
visit at http://co2.newmobility.org <http://clinton.newmobility.org>   
c.	I spent an hour or so educating myself as best I could on this
new tool, then set up the test site and contacted a dozen or so of the
people on my Skype network who participate in our group here, to tell
them that at 16:00 yesterday at Paris time I was ready to go "on the
air" and invited them to check in if their time permitted. (Eventually
since it was so last minute we only had Carlos Pardo drop in, but he was
very useful to the discussion and in helping me fine tune the whole
thing. Thanks Carlos.)
d.	What happened? Well, in many ways it was a real rough ride but
certainly not without its interest.   
i.	Something like 50/60 people eventually showed up, from around
twenty identified countries, and if there were a fair number of people
there from Eastern Europe and Russia, well you have to consider that it
was their evening and they just happened to be on line. But we also
heard from people from Mexico, Brazil, Singapore, China, India, Israel,
Morocco, Colombia,  Panama.
ii.	There were something close to ten useful exchanges in all that.
There would have been a lot more of course if the whole thing had been
properly prepared.
iii.	Since it is the net and 2007 we had the usual occasional useless
visitors, but I think this can happen at any kind of public event so
there is not use losing time to whine about that. 
iv.	Initially I had an open mike, but the confusion level proved
quickly impossible as people started to roll in (from many different
kinds of places and with very different ideas as to what this was all
about). So, I put everyone on hold, and then took five minutes or so to
introduce the meeting and provide some kind of background and some
suggested ground rules. 
v.	I then tried giving the floor to anyone who asked for it, but
after a few you can imagine whats, I tightened things up and bit and
required that each person who wishes to speak should send a chat message
asking for the floor, also identifying themselves by name, city,
country. Along with a reminder about the topic of the meeting.  This
worked pretty well for us. 
e.	What I learned was that this works more or less like a good
conference crossed with a call-in radio program. 
i.	It requires an alert host/moderator, and some kind of agenda if
it is to work. It seems like an hour is just about right if we have all
the planning in shape, but I will organize the first in this new series
for up to 2 hours, just for those people who might wish to hang around
and keep talking on some favorite points.  
ii.	In our case we shall need to take care with getting the agenda
right, and giving people a chance to review and comment in advance.
iii.	It also provides a fine forum for up to five minute
presentations of ideas and positions, and these too will do well to
advance organize.
iv.	It goes without saying that such group get-togethers can be
organized by people other than myself. Or we can handle it
collaboratively as you wish.

That's where this stands today. So now you know and I do hope that many
of you will respond to this with your ideas and suggestions, and of
course to get involved in the next sessions. If we put our heads
together I am confident we can do something useful with this.

Eric Britton




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