Switched on Scribes

Adam,

Given Laszlo's vision of all this, I think we are looking at a new way to run a meeting of this type which calls for a new way of operating. In my minds eye I am seeing a laptop and "switched on" scribe being up near the action of each forum, confident enough to be able to announce to the relevant group that "we have just had a comment from.... etc".

This person will need to have a keen eye, be reasonably good at summarising discussions with the view to posting "blow by blow" proceedings. i.e short bursts of information to the Blog rather than documenting the whole thing at the end. i.e. brave enough to be wrong.

It also allows for some interactivity between groups on the day through chat and continually monitoring the Blog which I see will be the immediate repository of proceedings. Edited, journalist type information will go to the wiki for permanent record.

I think between us with can come up with sufficient laptops - one for each of the forums. I have two I can provide. One is a little one that, while small, is a perfect emailing device) Rebecca has one of these as well.

The runner will still be essential but, if we use this system they may be relieved of a lot of the frantic tedium which is taken up by other means namely emails to the scribes. Instead of someone run-off their feet passing messages back and forth, they can be analysing and reporting more the "mood" and be more relaxed in their interactions with people (its a nice thought anyway).

Obviously though, this is all untried so it will be a learning curve all around. With the energy you have been able to generate in the past few weeks I think people will be ready to try new things. I really think it is worth planning on a laptop per forum and see if we can make it happen. In any case, all emails will still come to a central point as a function of how I have set it up so nothing will be missed if there is not a full compliment of laptops/(suitable)scribes.

Lindsay