I have just finished an interesting Skype call with Tony Carr, Staff Development Co-ordinator in the Centre for Educational Technology at University of Cape Town as well as the organiser of the upcoming e/merge 2006 conference (10 - 21 July 2006 ), who was inquiring about the possibilities for a live online event, to showcase best of synchronous collaboration tools, just like we did two years ago at the last e/merge conference.
At that time, I run both a recorded online showcase of the best synchronous collaboration tools for the academic world, as well as a full set of Jungle Tour sessions.
Listen here to my conversation with Tony Carr:
(just press the Play button and wait - in a few seconds the audio will start playing)
Jungle Tours are live online sessions in which I actually take a real group of people to test and try-out new synchronous conferencing tools. It is called Jungle Tour because it is a tough call to get a group of unknown participants, with widely varying technical skills to such an online adventure. Issues of compatibility, insufficient system requirements or plain bad luck are major obstacles for anyone who is not somehow technically savvy.
On the other hand Jungle Tours offer such a great learning experience for anyone skilled enough to participate without being much influenced by technical issues that there isn't really a similar experience to compare this too.
It feels like true, adventurous exploration, although in the digital domain.
It offers opportunity to try out first-hand new technologies while in the safety of a playful group and with the ever-present helping hand of an expert guide.
It allows you to ask questions and try out answers in the shortest possible time.
And those are, I think, some of the good reasons why Tony Carr, the organizer of this year event, is looking to re-enable one of these rare happenings.
So, while me and Tony think more about it, here is your turn to chip in and say what you think. Shall it be jungle tour again?
Or shall we invent something better?
(just press the Play button and wait - in a few seconds the audio will start playing)
