Hello all
Just to up date you on the video-conferencing situation –
At the moment I am still waiting on a final response from the AAG.
Although their initial response was an obvious concern regarding expense
and practicalities, I have now hopefully outlined that it is my aim to
simply set up a small mirror session, consisting of a few web-linked
sessions and others web-cammed / pod-cast, but with no interaction
available.
Encouragingly I have had a number of responses from both session
organisers and participants who are keen to be involved. However, as the
submission deadline for abstracts has now mostly passed it may be too late
to organise truly interactive sessions – which would be a great shame.
Notably, a number of individuals have raised the question of simply
presenting through a video – not web-linked – but have struggled to gain
support from the AAG, with regards to reduced fees (as they would not
actually be attending). This question of fees is obviously an important
one for video-conference sessions also, but is surely something we can
easily resolve through negotiation.
I do not need to reinforce how important the problem of climate change is
– although the editorial of the current issue of Ecologist sums it up
succinctly – I would like to stress, however, that I am not suggesting
conferencing as we know it should be stopped, simply that opportunities
can be created which would enable us greater choices to participate in a
manner that we may feel is more responsible.
The technology is there and being used on a daily basis by many across the
globe and with many more conferences being planned and papers-called for,
now would be a good time to start.
As always comments and ideas are much appreciated
Regards
Sophie Wynne-Jones
IGES
University of Aberystwyth
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