A Virtual Audience Adds Umph to Our Live Event!

In the true spirit of Digital Revolution, our big event happening in one day and 20 hours has just gotten bigger and a lot more interesting. Suddenly, we move from a potential audience of 300 (the size of the room) to a potential audience of two billion. PLUS we have added live audience polling to engage both our local, in-person audience and our virtual audience online! How sick is that!

Live Streaming Our Event
Here are some screen caps showing our dress rehearsal for the big event. Thanks to Eric Collyer, who has been experimenting with justin.tv on his blog, we are now set up and running with our own live streaming channel:

http://justin.tv/digiciv

So, if you can't be to our Digital Revolution Event in person on December 9, 2010 (or if you are reading this when it is over and want to see the archive version of the event) click on that address (or just scroll down, since I've embedded our channel below).

Live audience polling leverages our reach further, adding precious interactivity:

Connecting through Events

One of the reasons we decided to stage a major event to conclude our Digital Civilization course this semester is to give our students practice in connecting. Connecting is one of the three pillars of digital literacy (along with "consume" and "create"), and can be done in many ways. An event, however, is a very powerful way of connecting

From Electronic to In-Person Connecting
An event bridges the critical gap between electronic and in-person sorts of connecting. Someone I've invited to the event, Scott Cowley (a former student's husband whom I've followed on Twitter) once told me that his most meaningful digital connections were those that led to in-person encounters. I think that's true. There is nothing like face-to-face, in-person meetings with fellow human beings. We can do so much through electronic communications, but nothing beats flesh-and-bone people.

Connecting in Person: Critical Mass

Dalton and friend on tandem bike during Oct. 2010 Critical Mass ride in Provo, Utah

In a recent blog post Dalton Haslam talked about participating in Critical Mass, a monthly cycling event in which cyclists in various cities take to the road --en masse-- both to enjoy the ride but also to call attention to cycling as an important alternative to vehicle transportation. He got me curious, so I borrowed my neighbors very-sweet-ride and, with about 50 others (including Dalton and class member Morgan Wills) took to the streets of Provo tonight. Now, in some cities these Critical Mass events have caused some consternation, with some of their members using this as a sort of activism. Would we block traffic? Get arrested?