I was sitting, as I actually like to do, in the last row of the Cybersalon last Sunday.
The panel started and I couldn't see the members because they were all sitting behind a table on the same level as we were. Having been sitting all day I decided to get up and stand behind the last row.
I took notes with my little Sidekick, to create a weblog post later. Martin Fisher brought one of the irrigation pumps with him, so I walked with my Sidekick in hand a bit to the front and took a closer look. Probably still typing while walking.
Apparently people where irritated by my behavior.
What is he doing? Surfing the net? Is the panel discussion not interesting enough, that he has to do something else too?
When I heard this afterwards, I realized, that for them I was like these people yapping on their cell phone while in a restaurant. Super annoying.
My apology, that wasn't my intention.
The funny thing is, that I just posted about the backchannel controversy on the SDN Weblog at work [Free registration. Sorry].
The irritation came from the unknown, the derivation from the norm. I could have used a pencil and a little paper notebook and would have been labeled a reporter and everyone would have been fine, I think, but thumping on the little gadget brought people out of their comfort zone.
Hello, it was a "Cybersalon" people are supposed to run around with antennas coming out of their heads.
Actually I was checking one thing on the net, and if you ever tried to surf over a telephone line, you know how painful that is. I know they provide Wifi now at the Hillside club, but my little Sidekick doesn't support it.
I wanted to point people to our friends at World Changing because they work under the premise, that the technology is here already, just not fully distributed, and they always point to example of things that work. I wanted to check what the story of the day was: Underground Book Program:
A program in Mexico City is giving away free books in the subway. (Real Media link from NPR) The stories, prose, and poetry are short enough to finish on the average subway ride; readers drop the books off as they leave the Metro. Mexican authors were paid about USD 300 for use of their works but see the real payment as increasing in-country interest in their writings ...
It would have been a nice little nugget for people to take home, that I would have told, if time would have permitted.
My apologies again, and I hope with this explanation the next time my gadget-thumping will have gotten the status of a normality. May be I am totally off with my observations. Let me know.
Interesting observations. I think people are so used to pens and notepads that they don't register them anymore. Besides thinking you are not paying attention, there could have been (I wasn't there) uncomfortableness with fact that maybe you are paying too much attention. I get this when I take notes with just a laptop at some events.
With a Sidekick (or even a laptop), mobile cameraphone, or a digital videocam all of a sudden people are conscious of being "recorded". I think I have mentioned to you that I want to do a tour of emerging creative class centers worldwide (Europe this summer for starts). While traveling I intend to moblog it. A friend suggested also digitally filming it...but really I wonder how open are people going to be with me if they feel like they are on camera?
Posted by: Evelyn Rodriguez | April 22, 2004 at 15:10