I'm still at Humanosphere for the rest of the week. Will be back here in full swing next Monday.
In the lead up to World Water Week in Stockholm, several organizations are coming together to draw attention to the critical issue of water sector transparency. I have the pleasure of joining the online discussion hosted by Water For People on a Google+ Hangout. You can tune in Tuesday morning at 11AM EST to the discussion and even participate through twitter and YouTube.
I will be sure to keep up a window for twitter (@viewfromthecave) if you have some ideas, comments or questions that you want to get into the tight discussion. There will be a big list of people with only a little time to speak. In the discussion I will lay out why I find the water industry so interesting. Yes, it has something to do with transparency.
More details
On Tuesday, August 21, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM EST, watch the video broadcast LIVE.
Sector leaders participating in this event are:
· Jae So, Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP)
· Patrick Moriarty, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre
· James Leten, Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
· Ned Breslin, Water For People
· Jennifer Platt, WASH Advocates
· Alexandra Malmqvist, Water Integrity Network
· Rachel Cardone, Independent Consultant
· Tom Murphy, A View from the Cave
· Anthony Franco, EffectiveUI
We will discuss themes such as:
· The shifting transparency debate: from expenditures to lasting impact
· How increased transparency improves the quality of our work
· Tools/techniques the sector is embracing to increase transparency
Don’t forget to tune in on the 21st at 11:00AM EST. You won’t want to miss it!
2 comments:
I tuned in yesterday for more or less the entire hour. Technologically I found it a good example of what Hang Outs are able to do: They can bring people together relatively easily and if you are used to virtual work (Skype, webinars etc.) they have real potential for virtual seminars (imagine the travel expenses if all these people had to meet in one physical space!). However, I thought that there were too many people involved-especially if a key aim is to broadcast the Hang Out to a potentially global audience. It may work for an internal meeting if people know each other, but for public events the number of presenters may have to be limited to three or four. The event also highlighted the importance of a good facilitator which is quite difficult in a virtual setting. On a final technical note: it would have been great to 'frame' the event better on YouTube, adding names of participants, relevant links etc. It seems that you can't share URLs in the comment space (?) so the information needs to be there beforehand.
I forgot who made the point, but what I took away as the most interesting comment was the link between technical issues, local politics and transparency and the broader legal framework or lack thereof. I thought about it after the event: If my electricity or water supply is gone I care very little about 'smart meters' or the board of my water company and more about a hotline I can call and the reasonable expectation that someone will deal with my problem. All in all, I enjoyed the Hang Out and look forward to more virtual seminars!
Great feedback Tobias. One thing I will add is the problem of people muting their handsets. I noticed as I was talking at the beginning that others were on the main screen because they were making noise. That has happened in previous Hangouts. Would like to see Google give more control to the moderator.
Yes, a lot of people meant little time for each person to talk. Will be interesting to see if that changes.
Finally, I too found the discussion on local politics and structures to be the most interesting point. It is something that is not often mentioned in the public end of the discussions.
Overall, I am bullish about these Hangouts since they are relatively easy. Hope to see more going in this direction to have regular public discussions. Also check out the comments on the YouTube page. Was well moderated and used by people outside. Question is how to link that aspect with the people participating.
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