ElectroSmog SkillShare: Tools and Models for Online Collaboration

Saturday, March 20, 2010 | 10AM – 4PM

Free with RSVP

Limit of 30 participants (in New York).

This SkillShare was conceived as part of the ElectroSmog Festival, a new, three-day, international festival that will introduce and explore the concept of "Sustainable Immobility": a critique of current systems of hyper mobility of people and products in travel and transport, and their ecological unsustainability.

Eyebeam will also be holding an Urban Wilderness Action Center as part of the ElectroSmog Festival. Eyebeam will also video stream live events from the other participating festival locations on Thursday, March 18 - Saturday, March 20 in Eyebeam's main exhibition space.

Tools and Models for Online Collaboration, a free public SkillShare, will explore and expand the practice of "sustainable immobility" as proposed by the ElectroSmog Festival. This free public SkillShare, held on March 20 at 10AM, will be led by Eyebeam Senior Fellows Michael Mandiberg and Jeff Crouse; with Eyebeam Honorary Resident Mushon Zer-Aviv, Interns Patrick Davison and Paul Rothman, and free/open source advocate and theorist Jonah Bossewitch. The SkillShare will investigate the potential uses of current online collaborative tools by exploring the definitions of collaboration, setting goals in collaborative context, and investigating rules and etiquette for collaborating online; identifying the tools' deficiencies and benefits and expanding their usage. This series of focused SkillShare sessions will demonstrate and expand existing tools, with the goal of collecting a toolbox of ideas and knowledge to create a better future for online collaboration.

Please feel free to join for the whole day, or drop-in for specific sessions. The afternoon sessions will break into two groups. Refreshments will be served in the afternoon, and donations are greatly appreciated.

RSVP HERE

SCHEDULE

10AM: Doors Open

10:30AM: Michael Mandiberg, Jonah Bossewitch, and Mushon Zer-Aviv (online) will present current models and challenges of online collaboration:

• What is and is not collaboration? What are the advantages and disadvantages of different models?
• Distributed Collaboration as promsing new model of group online development and collaboration
• Online collaboration methods as a way to bridge cultural as well as geographic distance
• Discussion of their work together in Berlin on Collaborative Futures

11:30AM: Patrick Davison on Online Documentation: best practices for photo and video making and sharing:

• How to produce a good image
• Tools: editing, sharing/tagging on Flickr, Twitter, Facebook
• Video: Planning video documentation for every project

12:30PM: Refreshments served

1PM – 4PM: Hands-on workshops from Paul Rothman and Jeff Crouse. Participants will break into two group, dependent upon interest.

Please note: Ayah Bdeir will not be able to lead the afternoon Eagle workshop as originally planned due to a scheduling conflict. Her intern, Paul Rothman, will lead this portion of the workshop. Paul Rothman is an electronic designer, Master's candidate at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU, and collaborator with Ayah Bdeir on littleBits.

• Paul Rothman -- Have you ever wanted to make a "real" PCB (printed circuit board) and not known where to start? "Circuit Design with Eagle" will teach you the basics of the most used, least friendly circuit, but greatest PCB design software out there. It's not exactly open source, but it is free, and that makes it the preferred software for hackers, DIYers and engineers alike. Some experience reading schematic diagrams will be helpful but not mandatory. Please have Eagle CAD software installed on your computer. Download can be found here. Additionally, reviewing these tutorials ( 1, 2, 3 ) created by Sparkfun Electronics will give you a leg up during the workshop.

• Jeff Crouse -- For those of who would love to have their own myYouTube.com or want to use video sharing for global educational campaigns, learn how with the open source video sharing platform Panda and several Amazon cloud computing services. This workshop will assume some experience with JavaScript and/or PHP, and valid credit card to get your Amazon account up and running. NOTE: Free Panda beta accounts will be supplied for participants.

HOW EYEBEAM SKILLSHARES WORK

Eyebeam's SkillShares are peer-to-peer working/learning sessions that provide an informal context to develop new skills alongside leading developers, technologists, and artists. They are for all levels and start with an introduction and overview of the topic, after which participants will work on specific technical topics in small groups while getting feedback and additional instruction and ideas from their group. It's a great way to level-up your skills and meet like minded people.

All levels of skill are welcome. If you consider yourself a beginner make sure to check SkillShare topics and material beforehand. Bring a laptop. We supply WiFi and coffee.