Joho the Blog
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April 25, 2005
I'm at the second Microsoft Social Computing Symposium in Redmond, a group of about 100 academics and normals. Last year, the conference was useful mainly outside of the presentations (and I say this as one of the presenters) because we didn't quite figure out how to talk with one another in a public forum. This year, it's more discussion-oriented. They even switched from last year's One Big Room format to a hotel with some nooks and crannies. The main room is a typical set up: long tables with chairs, all facing forward. (I'm sitting next to Liz!). But Shelly Farnham has us do an unusual opening exercise: A person stands up, says a few sentences about herself, and throws a ball of string at someone she knows, creating a physical knot of people. The IRC is at irc.freenode.net #scs. Come join us. [Technorati tags: scs SocialSoftware] Posted
by D. Weinberger at April 25, 2005 12:20 PM
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Comments
What is a normal?
Posted by: Nancy White | April 26, 2005 01:33 AM
Nancy, I was teasing. We're all not normals.
Posted by: David Weinberger | April 26, 2005 01:49 AM
Dave....
has there been any buzz/talk about the fact that the conference is "legitimizing" Microsoft in the wake of its decision to withdraw support for legislation providing equal rights to lesbians and gays in the workplace?
Doubtless the controversy erupted too late for the participants to "boycott" the conference, but you folks really should try and come up with a statement of some sort, condemning microsoft for throwing up roadblocks to the implementation of a "real world" society that is as egalitarian as the "social computing" you are discussing....
Posted by: p.lukasiak | April 27, 2005 12:53 PM
There's been a very little discussion of the topic during the breaks, and it's been along the lines of a shared set of values, namely that MSFT should have stuck by its position. It's just not the topic of the conference. MSFT is hosting the conf, but it's not about MSFT.
Posted by: David Weinberger | April 27, 2005 09:43 PM