The Situation
There are no conferences.
I know what you are thinking: Of course, there are conferences. Online conferences. Virtual ones, during which I hope the WLAN in my office at home won’t cut me off while somebody says something crucial. Maybe it’s a question of personality, but online conferences are not my cup of tea.
No coffee breaks.
No possibility to ask the person who has just completed a presentation some questions in private.
No tastes.
No smells.
Just listening and - barely – seeing.
And, most importantly: While talking myself, I cannot see your faces. Your faces are hidden. Maybe you are just doing push-ups at your desktop not wanting to be seen. But maybe you are making a face at the things I say, disagreeing. If we were in a conference room, live and in color, I would see your face and could address the problem. As you are invisible for me, I feel like I am just talking to myself.
So, what’s the solution? Skip all the presentations for the time being? Not a solution. There are still people in want of information, including myself. Plus, one of my jobs is Preservation Watch. It’s important. Digital Preservation is moving quickly. I cannot ignore everything and everybody as long as the pandemic lasts – especially as it has been going on for more than 500 days already.
Furthermore, it’s likely that live conferences will be less frequent than they used to be.
I need to know what you are up to. I do not have solutions yet. But I have ideas. Let’s talk about the ideas.
Does Social Media help? Which platforms?
Web Seminars
What’s it about
One or two people doing a presentation about a certain topic. My workmate from ZB MED, Cologne, Dino Wutschka and I have done two this year: One about DROID and one about JHOVE. nestor lists all Web Seminars on its "nestor virtuell" page.
Evaluation
Of course there still is the problem that I cannot see you. Or at least, I cannot see most of you. Up to sixty minutes, 50-100 listeners, some theory at the beginning and practical use afterwards. For sixty minutes, I can stand that. Plus, some of you turn your cameras on. It helps.
Ideas
Powerpoint has always worked fine for me while being live at conferences. I used it for bullet points. Not too fancy. Sufficient, with my temper on a stage. But there is no stage in virtual presentation. Much less temper. I need better Powerpoint skills. And, while we are at it: I need better visual skills in general, also about showing something in a nice and comprehensive way. And nice pictures. Preferably no kitten pictures.
What’s it about
It’s fast. It’s too fast for me. I have always used twitter to ask questions. Worked fine in the past. Nowadays, my questions are too difficult (example here). People always retweet, but tend not to answer any more. Besides, I check my timeline not frequently enough to see interesting content.
Evaluation
It’s still good for advertising blogposts and web seminars and for tweets about ongoing conferences.
Ideas
It seems to be too time-consuming to really get something out of it. I try to use it more often, but I guess I must have more content to do so. Like blogposts. Which brings me to the next point.
Blogging
What’s it about
I have always written blogposts. Usually using the OPF platform. Sometimes the DPC. Now I have the possibility to use nestor, too, which offers the possibility to also blog in my mother tongue.
In the past, I have always spent much time on my blogposts. Usually analysing some hundreds or thousands of files with a handful of tools. Of course that takes a long time. Currently, I have been working on a blogpost with a workmate since last winter. In our spare time. That might be part of the problem: There is no spare time. But there should be. Blogposts are important to share knowledge and more than once I have got ideas back that solve the problems I address in the blogpost. I had some pretty good ideas myself during the last year, hoping to have new ones in 2021.
Evaluation
It works. I need more. I need to put more time into it. It also helps with twitter.
Ideas
Not every blogpost has to be half a paper. I can create short ones, work in progress, just ideas, share what I am working at. Elaboration is always possible afterwards.
Podcasting
What’s it about
Talk to workmates about what they do. Talk to experts about certain topics. Record it. Publish it. nestor has a YouTube channel. Plus, we could distribute it where all the other podcasts are. Like Apple or Spotify.
Evaluation
We have not started yet. There are some technical and organisational challenges, but they can be solved. A workmate of mine has already solved many and I can learn from her. Then we can do it with nestor.
Ideas
It’s another form of gathering information and good/best practice and talking to people and sharing knowledge. It can lead to other ideas. For work. For twitter. For blogposts. Of course it has to be done on top of the normal work. But it should be worth it.
Peer videochat
What’s it about
Meet with peers maybe once a month to talk about a certain topic. Might be certification. Format identification. Format validation. Preservation Planning. PDF format.
Meet for an hour and discuss. Having one person to lead the discussion, preferably an expert on the chosen topic.
Evaluation
Again, we have not started yet. It’s an idea in progress.
Ideas
Maybe once a month for starters. See how it goes. If people want to use it. It will never be as good as real coffee breaks or workshops, but it certainly is better than nothing.
Conclusion
I just had my ten year anniversary on my job. I know what I am doing. But I also know it’s changing. Plus, I need some fresh eyes from time to time. Or refresh my own eyes. Live conferences and talking to you has always done that. I miss that. I need you. Let’s talk.
