Image credit: Audrey Watter’s “oepnedjam”
I wasn’t in Vancouver last week for Open Education 2012, but I was following the hashtag on Twitter pretty intently. It’s an amazing conference for a lot of reasons, but the following two videos shot by Novak Rogic on a boat in Vancouver harbor capture the spirit of the open education conference brilliantly. Some conferences approach the whole thing as a business endeavor, here is how you raid higher education for financial gain, or something along those lines. But what follows captures the other side of that relationship, here is a group of people jamming together to imagine and create something beautiful. The desire for real and lasting relationships is at the heart of education in my mind, and as I watched opened unfold from afar it occurred to me that this community aspires to nothing less than personal communion through the harmony of the spheres. There really isn’t any question what community I want to be a part of!
But Jim, how will that ever scale? 😉
You were missed, buddy, but we did our best to keep rocking in the free world.
Not too mention the reg fee was 1/4 what those other conferences that begin with N or E charge. Scott and crew were masterful organizers, but the people rocking the attitude there made it– the Bava was a large gap we missed ya
We carried the #ds106 masthead to #opened12 & shouted “Our Band Could Be Your Life” … you were missed buddy … here’s to more jams down the road …
@Scott, Alan, and Grant,
I could feel the awesome all the way in Virginia, amazing stuff. The manifestation of personal connections around something that is necessary as intimate as education through rocking out on a boat is a magical convergence of culture. It re-inspires the field, in my opinion. Kudos to everyone involved—it’s an amazing alignment of so many good things, and people ar at the center of all fo them
I too was standing next to a few people via twitter. It wasn’t “the same”, or what I imagine that to be, but is that experience so different from “attending” a remote class? So here’s the kicker, how often did you feel a part of the community and how did those moments occur? That’s what I’ll be unpicking – the rest is inconsequential because J. Groom wasn’t supplying content.
Jim, it’s an understatement to say you were missed. As I said, it was a YEARNING. My only piece of stoicism I can offer is that perhaps if YOU were also in attendance (in the flesh), the universe may have folded over into itself and we may have all imploded from the absolute perfection of having so many loved & respected people in the same physical geographic location. At least now the community still has something to keep striving to achieve.
Finally, I do want to add that you also serve as a very good role model in spending time with your family and domestic dwelling improvements. Anyone who has ever met your family knows that they are worth every second of it.
Novak is a master. That footage is remarkable. And what makes it all the better is all the familiar faces as the camera pans around. It really underscores the harmony of community you and Giulia note. You were indeed missed — there were no Ramones songs, no Joy Division. But there was no shortage of punk rocking, like when Gardner slammed down the mic at the end of Gloria. It was a great conference and a fantastic experience all around and you capture here the some of the magic that made it unique and singularly memorable.
Giulia has already said it much better then I could (kudo’s GF)! The SYNERGY must have been epic…and to be missed so much by the extended ds106 community must be AMAZING. This certainly knocks the socks off opened2011. Wished I could have been there. Thanks for this great post!