{"id":2331,"date":"2011-04-14T10:31:17","date_gmt":"2011-04-14T14:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/?p=2331"},"modified":"2012-03-12T18:16:58","modified_gmt":"2012-03-12T22:16:58","slug":"the-augmented-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/2011\/04\/14\/the-augmented-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"the augmented conference"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Bonnie Stewart<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This content is reposted from Bonnie Stewart’s cribchronicals blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Theorizing the Web 2011 was a wicked conference. It was also a bit of a meta-experience in augmented reality.<\/p>\n

Maybe not textbook augmented reality, admittedly, since \u2013 as happens at geek conferences \u2013 the sheer multitude of smart phones and laptops present overpowered the wireless system and the majority of us couldn\u2019t get online much. I was disappointed that I couldn\u2019t tweet a few of the presentations: one of the joys of digital participation is in turning a monologue into a forum, a conversation of sorts.<\/p>\n

But there was plenty going on, even without much digital augmentation. Put together by PJ Rey<\/a> & Nathan Jurgenson,<\/a> grad students who set out to run the conference they wanted to go to, TtW2011 appeared to succeed beyond their wildest dreams. The day was jam-packed with sessions on new economies and cyber-racism and cyber-support and structure\/agency and the question of social media revolutions, among others. The panels hung together, mostly, and people put work & energy into their presentations. Even the final sessions, which ran through what my parent-of-preschoolers brain has come to consider \u201csuppertime,\u201d played to engaged audiences.<\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t the augmented reality part, though. Rather, the whole trip was. I marked my five-year blogging anniversary on Monday. And the trip to DC and College Park offered what for me \u2013 as the sole practicioner of social media in an Education cohort of three on an island half-way off the side of Canada \u2013 was a heady face-to-face tour through almost all corners of the connections I\u2019ve made and learning I\u2019ve done over that five years. I roomed with digiwonk<\/a>, and sat in as she presented the results of a mommyblogging survey I participated in almost three years ago. I got to spend the day with Neilochka<\/a>, who \u2013 as promised \u2013 didn\u2019t call bullshit<\/a> on me once. (At least not so I could hear him.) I listened to danah boy<\/a>d\u2019s keynote and complimented her on her boots, after citing her extensively in one of my term papers last fall. After all these years, I spent a glorious splashy rainy afternoon<\/a> with Susan<\/a> before the conference formally began. Through my panel I met fellow<\/a> explorers<\/a> into this messy, chewy business of cyborgs and mediated lives. I even met the real-life friend<\/a> & colleague of someone I spent last week debating on Twitter. Tiny world. My apparently tiny digital world, all its interconnections brought to life in one short weekend.<\/p>\n

The conference was the augmentation, for me, the extra. Back now in my pastoral cloister on the edge of the planet, this digital sphere is the one in which I seek the majority of my daily engagement with people over the age of five. Having them come to life in front of me reminded me of nothing so much as my first foray into Second Life, except without the difficulty walking and flying. TtW2011, for me, was proof not only that augmented reality really does exist, Virginia, but that there is no hierarchy of modes within it. All is interconnected, rhizomatically interwoven, ever-shifting and ever-surprising and ever-rich.
\n***
\nAs for my presentation, I am still working on the art of clarity. I managed to pack a theoretically complex, 20 page paper into 15 minutes. Sorta. Here, in the slideshare below, I manage it in 10ish. I wish it were 5.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been a literary storyteller\u2026if I can teach myself through practice to become an effective didactic one, then I\u2019ll be able to become the presenter I want to be. But there will be a lot of practice \u2013 a lot of reining in my natural tendency to go on and on, musingly \u2013 between now and then. Feedback welcome, and share at will.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Bonnie Stewart<\/a> is an educator, writer, and Ph.D student exploring social media subjectivities at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This content is reposted from Bonnie Stewart’s cribchronicals blog. Theorizing the Web 2011 was a wicked conference. It was also a bit of a meta-experience in augmented reality. Maybe not textbook augmented reality, admittedly, since \u2013 as happens at geek conferences \u2013 the sheer multitude of smart phones and laptops present overpowered the wireless system […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1755,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10006,9968],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-author","category-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1755"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2331"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8869,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2331\/revisions\/8869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}