My last blog posting was eight days ago. Or something like that. The title was "17,000 of my closest friends ..." which is a sentence that might well have end "... can really get in the way of blogging."
The last eight days have been a total buzz. The best of it was the telecentre leaders forum – a workshop that began on Tuesday with sixteen grassroots folks we brought on scholarships and grew to seventy deeply engaged people by Friday. For me, these workshops were a chance to show the wetware and orgware we're imagining, to demo what we mean by telecentre.org. They showed that it’s the creativity of P2P human connections that get ideas moving around ... and that build the foundation for people collaboration for the long haul.
Wrapped around the workshop were a thousand and one high bandwidth / high speed conversations with brand new friends. Social innovators disguised as philanthropists. Inspired young people chomping at the bit to mashup telecentres and social enterprise. And, best of all, mild mannered telecentre implementers turned network evangelists. These connections, and many more, amped up the buzz. Of course, the launch also rocked – although I still liked the talking with people more than the talking at people.
The official WSIS process – which seemed like a distant monotone hum from where I was standing -- ended yesterday. Today is wrap up meetings, the telecentre leaders forum video premier (okay, rough cut) and connections amongst old friends who have all been too busy to find a moment to breathe this week.
More reflections to be blogged tomorrow. Lots I learned. Tons of wonderful people. A lifetime of new puzzles to figure out.
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