<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="MS Exchange Server version 6.0.4630.0"> <TITLE>Sustran Skypecast conference (trial run on Monday)</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY>  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 <A HREF="https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?message=talk_updated&id_talk=377833">https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?message=talk_updated&id_talk=377833</A>. 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 <A HREF="http://newmobility.org">http://newmobility.org</A>. 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 <A HREF="http://www.skype.com/help/guides/skypecasts.html">http://www.skype.com/help/guides/skypecasts.html</A> . 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 <A HREF="https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?message=talk_updated&id_talk=351748">https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?message=talk_updated&id_talk=351748</A> ) 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 <A HREF="http://www.skype.com">www.skype.com</A>, 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 “<A HREF="https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?id_talk=350711">New Mobility support for Clinton/Large Cities Climate Initiative</A>” . You can see the opening page I hastily hammered together to guide the session at <A HREF="https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?id_talk=350711">https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?id_talk=350711</A>. 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 <A HREF="http://clinton.newmobility.org">http://co2.newmobility.org</A>  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 </BODY> </HTML>