Mathemagenic: Ambiguity
Lilia posts something that also nags at me, and shows how I can embrace diverse feelings about the same thing. So if you both like and feel uncomfortable with something, what do you do with it? How do you reflect on it? How do you move forward with what seem like opposed views? How do we act while not doing OR, but instead doing AND?
Mathemagenic: learning and KM insights. "...Growing discomfort with the discussions about linking and power, realizing that I don’t like female A-listers and the tipping point of it – strange inner resistance of adding my name to the speakers list started by Mary Hodder with the idea to make female speakers more visible."
I want to hear and see new people at conferences. I'll admit that I enjoy the opportunity to present or moderate. But I'm also worried about the same self-referential loop. How do we break out of it? Should we -- seeing how this is human nature in action? Can we?
I_don't_know, signsoflife
posted by Nancy White at 2:43 PM
5 Comments:
Hi Nancy, I posted this comment at Matheagenic, but it applies here too:
Hi, regarding the speakers list, no one has to add themselves. The idea there is that when someone is organizing a conference, they can go look at the topics (sort by category), to see lists of people who say they know about those topics. Still the organizers responsiblity to check out potential speakes, but it means there is a better chance of finding someone an organizer didn't know about, in order to bring some new voices into the conversation, than if that speaker's wiki didn't exist. mary
......
I agree, we don't need loops. But seeding a wiki brings issues about who to seed. Do they want to speak? Do they want to be a known speaker? For people less known, I feel that they should enter themselves. So I've seeded with known speakers, who list themselves online, so that there are examples, and when a category sort is done, lots show up. Look at open source to see an amazing list of accomplished women who speak about open source. Men are there too, but what conference organizer could claim that they don't know people (with new voices) to talk about this topic, that are more diverse that the voices they know about already?
ps.. the reason i think people not known should add themselves is because a. they may not have publicly described themselves before and I feel that's something an individual should have control over (in other words, I don't feel comfortable describing someone else) and b. they should control whether they are in there at all. I don't want to force people in. It just feels strange to me.
On the other hand, it leads to a list of more known speakers.. so to combat this, I've been emailing and speaking with less known people in person, often showing them how to use the wiki, if they are interested in placing themselves in the wiki.
But any suggestions you have about helping folks that are less known get in there would be very helpful, that are sensative to individuals own need to characterize themselves and decide whether to be there at all.
thanks!
mary
Mary, I think you are doing a great job of teasing our some of the things I was senseing in my love/withdraw ambiguity.
I think there may also be some of our habits that make the 'self identification' thing harder. Some of us are very comfortable putting ourselves forth. Others are not. This may be one reason why some great speakers never hit the scene.
The one that is probably most bothering me you nailed head on: those self identifying who are known, established speakers (in fact how fast some of them put themselves on the list). Do they perceive themselves as new voices? Less known? (always a possibility - I think sometimes we don't know our own reputations)
By having A listers there, there is that danger of conference organizers going with whom they know. This is a very realistic way to choose, but it defeats the goal.
So it seems that there is an adjunct to this list. First, you have the list where people do self describe and identify (I totally agree with your point there).
Second, there is a way to encourage conference organizers to a) take a risk and b) be able to critically evaluate a new voice for suitability.
So how do we do the latter? Sample podcasts? Testemonials (which you have already built in.) This is a dance where both partners have to know the steps. So far we have a bit more than half of the story.
Maybe we need the insights of some conference organizers?
Finally, I hope you take my sense of ambiguity as a reflection mostly on how I see myself, not a critique of what you are doing. I think the list is a great idea, the right step and important. I think it takes all of us to figure out how it does not fall back into the same old, same old because of the discomfort of folks like me. :-) Discomfort is a sign for me that there is something to be learned!
Hi Nancy,
I wanted to answer the concerns with my thoughts, more to get a better discussion going, than anything else. If we can figure out how to get closer to making this tool useful, great.
If my logic is faulty, I'd like to know. I agree that some folks putting themselves in are A listers and that may not be helpful. But the way I looked at it, seeing how they characterize themselves, and seeing them on a level playing field with everyone else, was kind of nice. I really like seeing someone who hardly speaks with just as much wiki real estate as someone who is tapped all the time.
But maybe it doesn't work well for others. However, an open wiki is an open wiki, and inviting some means inviting all.
Maybe categories such as 'newvoice' might work, though they might also be abused.
I think bringing in conference organizers is a fantastic idea. Some have already shown up on their own, but I'm going to invite in a group of them to give feedback.
Thanks very much for reviewing this project, my logic, and for suggesting things.
mary
So it seems like some experiments are in order:
1) finding ways to both identify and yet not tag totally as "clueless newbie" new voices.
2) finding ways to get those who seek presenters involved
How can I help?
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