Introducing the Cyber Salon

I’ve been bouncing around this idea for a while of emulating the salons of the enlightenment and the expat-writers in Paris.  The idea started to grow on me this past January when two colleagues and I hung out in a computer lab together for about an hour. We hadn’t seen one another for quite a while. We sat their talking, catching up and bouncing ideas, while we “worked” on computers. Once we knew what one another was doing for projects or wanted to share something we had just mentioned we would start emailing and IMing information (back channeling). Prior to this experience, my partner in scholarly crime and I have been working together at wireless hotspots for years. We would work, share work, gossip about new technologies, etc. Finally, I’ve also been hanging out with some other colleagues, both on and off campus, and doing the same types of things (what I’ve now decided to call “geeking out.&rdquo.

As I’ve searched for a term to describe what we do and why its both “play” and “productive,” I’ve repeatedly come back to the idea of the intellectual or literary Salon. However, as I read an article in Inside Higher Ed about getting college librarians to play library games to learn about their students, another comparison dropped into my lap…video gamming LAN parties. It’s the EXACT same idea! This cyborgistic combination of literal (maybe there is the literary connection?) and virtual synchronous socializing. And you know that LAN parties were/are about “serious” gaming. Well these “geek out” cyber salon sessions are about “serious” “playing” with new technologies for and in relation to teaching and learning.

So here is the official notice that I’ll be starting a Cyber Salon this Fall in Phoenix. The purpose of these meetings will be for folks techy, geeky,education folks in the Phoenix area can get together at some food, drink, and wireless location (we’ll probably start at Fibber McGee’s because I know of it!) So if you are interested in participating in the Cyber Salon, please go mark the weekday evenings of the month that you would be able to meet. The scheduling poll is located at Doodle: http://www.doodle.ch/dp2RKSz7CCjx. Don’t worry, I’ll send out an all call email to those peeps I already have in mind!

June 28 2007 | Posted in Cyber Salon