David writes:
> But I'm jaded by the ephemerality of conference presentations; 

Me too. And I'm about ready to say "no" to conference organizers who ask 
me to present and does not have a way to record and distribute my 
presentation. Sometimes they will not even allow me to record my own 
session and distribute it. In the past some conferences have had a 
company that audio records all presentations and then sells the 
tapes--that's good!

The FlashMeeting 'tool' I have been using for my live video conferences 
was developed exactly for this sort of peer-to-peer horizontal 
distribution of knowledge. It was developed by the Knowledge Media 
Institute of the Open University in the UK. FlashMeeting is easy to 
figure out and use, if I could do it anyone could. You can pre-load 
slide shows, show prerecorded videos, and of course, live interactive 
video discussions. Hundreds of Thousands, world wide, have viewed 
recordings of my sessions. The FlashMeeting system is available for free 
use via their Open Learn system. Learn more about FlashMeeting here:

http://fm-openlearn.open.ac.uk/index.html

If you want me to set up a session, or series of sessions for you on my 
account just let me know.

The Open Learn system is a wider distance-learning support system that 
has some useful features. Available for free use by anyone working as an 
educator or student. Learn about it here:

http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/home.php

I think you have to sign up at OpenLearn to get an account to book 
FlashMeetings. Participants at a flashmeeting don't have to have an 
account, they can just log in a meeting.

Last year I gave sessions on how to do this at the National Trust 
conference, and at the Computing in History conference.

 > And I wonder whether conferences, in the format to which we are
 > accustomed, are going to be ecologically sustainable for many more
 > years.  The carbon footprint for travel to conferences represents a
 > significant proportion of one's individual annual carbon footprint ...
 > so even if you 'offset the carbon' - which you could do and then not
 >

The FlashMeeting system calculates the carbon footprint of a meeting and 
shows the CO2 saved based on the location of participants and displays 
it on the entry page for a meeting:
http://fm.ea-tel.eu/fm/f14c4e-9541

 > soliciting tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars in sponsorship,
 > don't know where the money for the recording and editing and
 > distribution of these podcasts is going to come from

To put this in plain words: If I can find the very limited funds and 
time needed to do this in my one-person business, any outfit or event 
could do it. All you face is the cost of acquisition and that will be 
low because you probably already have the equipment needed. Don't do 
editing, and distribution is essentially free. To make live distribution 
of a session at the National Trust conference happen all I had to do was 
buy a $60 webcam and send it to my colleague who was at the conference. 
All he did was plug it into his notebook computer and link up to the 
internet via WiFi. That same setup could have broadcast and recorded two 
or three dozen other sessions at the conference. Cost per session? about 
2 bucks. Don't have 60 bucks? Find someone at the conference who has a 
camera built into their notebook, or their cell phone.

The reasons to do this are far more compelling that the reasons not to 
do it.

So, get busy and do the boogaloo.

John
by hammer and hand
by cam and light

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