Plug-ins are important to computer users. In Global Voices Summit this year, I really feel this issue. Participants all gather around plug-ins, and I face tremendous problems during the time because my converter doesn’t fit. This time in iSummit08, the situation is much better. I don’t need a converter in Japan, and better of all, I bring my own extension lead. Sitting comfortably on the chair, looking for plug-ins is never a problem to me.

But we have to look for food.

Japanese people, or people overall, love the word “limited”. It has magical power to make people crazy, either in a good or a bad way. They line up for hours, days, or weeks for limited items, such as luxury bags, toys, concert tickets, and even donuts. I personally hate to line up and wait for anything, especially for food.

In iSummit08, however, you really have to run for it.

You have to observe carefully when the food is available. You certainly don’t want each session before lunch ends up late. Don’t get in line, act quickly, as the food is limited. In the reception, I didn’t remember this tip. In the end, it seems like my staple is souse. This definitely doesn’t create a positive towards the whole event when people face nearly empty plates. At the second day, I learn to either leave the session five minutes before it closes, or run instantly after it’s done. That’s how people get a little mountain of food with a victory smile.

It’s also not a very good idea to place coffee machines at one place. That will only create a long line waiting for a small cup. Separating coffee crowds in two areas will surely look better.

Overall, never underestimate how hungry, thristy or greedy participants are when organizing a conference.

Another frustration in this summit is about language.

Chris Salzberg’s post on GV has touched upon this issue already. All I want to do is add a little personal flavor. There are Japanese-English simultaneous translation service during keynote speeches, but other than that, you’d better choose your field/session carefully. My English-speaking ability is not good enough to compete with native speakers in several sessions, obviously. Maybe it’s because of free and open culture, everyone with compatible English comprehension can freely cut off others’ words and start their counterarguments. Don’t pause when you talk, even just one or two seconds, otherwise others will start.

Several people I talk with during the summit have mentioned the same experience. It makes me understand more clearly how important translation and interpretation is, which is my current job. Language can be a very high barrier in a meeting or conference. In this regard, GV summit has done better. Audience can raise their comments by talks, online messages, or notes. In the closed meetings, our moderators always remind people to respect other people when they are talking (thanks David and Solana).

This experience really brings me a mixed feeling. It’s so good to see new and innovative ideas, but it’s sometimes not so good to feel like an outsider.

Chris, Hanako and I, representing Global Voices Online, visit Sapporo, Japan, for iSummit08. I am probably the one who has the least knowledge/understanding toward free/open content idea in the whole conference. 

You will never know what keynote speech will turn out to be. They are all big names in this field. Some are received and talked about like a star, but in their speech, they only touch upon very general issues or challenges. Those are disappointing ones. Others are amazingly (or unexpectedly) wonderful. On Day 1, one of the best keynotes is from Mohamed Nanabhay from Al Jazeera (also a GV Arabic person). He mentions very concretely about what Al Jazeera are doing, why it is doing them, what channels they are using (YouTube, for example), etc. His speech clearly explains their goals and approaches.

In the Local Context Global Commons lab, I heard several interesting/exciting/amazing projects. Instead of writing posts about iSummit08 for GV, I will probably do several (email) interviews with some presenters I met here. I think it will be more interesting.

Five Minutes to Midnight is absolutely a good one. They hold workshops, for instance, for young people in Kibera, one of the largest slums in the world, learning to use digital cameras to record their life. The results are wonderful and showcased in their book Kibera. In the presentation, Wojciech Gryc, their representative in the summit,  explains what challenges they have in the process, including lack of internet access, high costs of technology, and need for ICT training. It sounds quite relevant to GV Rising Voices project, in fact.

There are more good ones. I will write about them later.

by Paul Jacobson on Flickr.com, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The iCommons iSummit ‘08 is underway in Sapporo, Japan. The Summit blog offers a virtual glimpse into the conference, including the open education track. Paul Jacobson provides a nice overview of the open education projects discussed in the project review session, including Philipp Schmidt’s proposed Peer 2 Peer University, the Open Education Resources handbook, and the OER Case Study Project. Jacobson also summarizes the open education session on legal issues beyond content licensing.

Cover It Live blogging recaps from sessions on promulgating OERs and maximizing community involvement in OERs are also available on the conference site. In addition, you can follow the live action in Twitter and read notes from sessions within the Open Education Track wiki. The next best thing to being there …

Shot Bar

Japanese service staff are so eager to assist, to ensure one is more than adequately served that it is a wonder, in their exuberance, they do not break! It has been said many many times that the Japanese are efficient. Today, Day 01 of the iSummit, I could do with a healthy dose of efficiency to bolster the headache incurred at the hand of the Shot Bar’s skilled shaker of an 800 Yen Martini.

The iSummit kicked off with a pro-active presentation and welcome introduction from Heather Ford, diving straight into global issues and the scope, the urgent need for open strategies to address them.

Heather was also quite direct about the global instrumentalities and institutions that have been largely ineffective in dealing with the very real problems we face… climate change, poverty, land use. Heather points to the need for open commons frameworks, open commons innovations, broad open commons protections to not only provide solutions to our problems, but to support ongoing development in general. Perhaps we need to understand what we mean by development in the context of global and local crisis? If we are to tackle climate change for instance, we need to address consumption and excess… but I digress.

Today Pavel Antenov and I begin work on the Identifying the Commons video. Unfortunately, one of the two camera’s I came here with has not lasted the distance. So, we’re down to one camera and a lot of people to interview… in essence, we are seeking to know what people at the iSummit understand as the commons, what they feel constitutes an information commons and finally, what are the concerns of developing countries in relation to the information/knowledge commons?