One of my main talking points when it comes to participatory media is that we need to create bridges between policy making institutions and online conversations. It is a point I have been making since early 2004 when I was sitting in a downtown office building in San Diego with various community leaders from health, public transportation, education, and city government. Introductions were made around the table and I rather nervously mumbled that I was there to represent the bloggers. The what!? they asked.
The bloggers. You see, a couple weeks earlier we – that is, ‘the bloggers’ – came up with a great idea. We wanted to close off 4th and 5th street downtown to vehicular traffic on the weekends so that residents would be encouraged to walk more. It would be good for local business (more pedestrian traffic) and it would be good for the city. The only problem with our great idea is that we didn’t understand how such a decision is made. We didn’t even know how to propose it.
Over the past four years I have found this to be true with bloggers just about everywhere: lots of great ideas, but very little knowledge about the necessary next steps to turn those ideas into actions.
Also over the past four years, civil society – both philanthropic foundations and non-governmental organizations – have discovered the power of participatory media as a way to interact more intimately and consistently with the populations they serve. Rather than bombarding the national news outlets with press releases, an NGO can now publish directly to their official blog. If the news is relevant and the writing is good enough, it will likely be picked up by the media anyway … not to mention lots and lots of weblogs. (Distinguishing between the two, I’m sure you’ve noticed, is becoming more difficult.)
For decades now the Bellagio Center has been an important site to gather world leaders in the various fields that fall in line with the focus issues of the Rockefeller Foundation. Those elite meetings have helped shape national and international policy around topics like health care and climate change. But until very recently, the conversations had here at Bellagio did not make their way out of the hefty security gate at the entrance. Like so many things, that is all changing now thanks to greater familiarity with tools like blogs and wikis.
No, I wasn’t invited to Bellagio to talk about closing streets to vehicular traffic (though, for the record, I am always in favor of doing so). I am here for the second week of a four-week conference series called “Making the eHealth Connection.” The conference website is one of the best I’ve ever seen, with a wealth of background information, useful video interviews from the first week, and, ta-da, a conference blog. It is clear that the organizers are committed to spreading the conversations and ideas which emerge from this conference with the rest of the online world, which is fantastic and deserves applause.
However, we also want to remember that the ideal of participatory media is to allow for greater participation, not just greater access to the participation of the same few actors. Over the next week I will do my best to describe the general themes which emerge from the conversations here related to how technology can better serve the needs of health care in the developing world. If you would like to chime in with your own opinions and thoughts, I encourage you to do so by leaving comments both here and on the conference blog.
I will end on one final note, which was brought up by Sherrilynne Fuller of University of Washington during the first week of the conference. Looking around the dining room tonight, I was by far the youngest person in the room. If this conference wants to think deeply and develop a roadmap for how health information systems should be designed for the next generation of computer users, they should really consult some of those young users as our approach to technology and information has changed radically in just the last five years.
All I can say is – pobrecito.
The Bellagio center is a rough place to be. My adviser in grad school spent a summer there finishing up one of his many books. Lucky for Sara and me, we were down the road in Bergamo doing our research, so we got invited inside past the hefty security gate.
While there is an air of exclusivity, and dare I say elitism, there, I must add that they have hosted some interesting applied anthropology conferences that do have impacts beyond the compound’s walls. I do agree that it tends to have established old people, though, as participants.
I think I’ll survive the week. And when I wrote ‘elite meetings’, I didn’t mean elitist, I meant top of their field. What’s amazing is that for all the impressive people gathered here, it seems like an entirely egoless and friendly group. I’m very much looking forward to the rest of the week. Is Bergamo worth the day trip?
Yes, I forgot to suggest that.
The medieval part of the town (high city – città alta) is great. If you have good weather it has great views of the Po Valley on one side and the pre-Alps on the other. If you go, be sure to find the capella Coglioni (yes, it does mean what you think it means). It is just off the main square. On the gate you will see the Coglioni family crest: three testicles. You rub the third one for good luck.
Good places to eat in the high city: Da Franco or Tre Torri. Casoncelli is the local pasta (a tortellini like pasta with butter, sage, and bacon sauce). Other good things to try are polenta taragna (polenta with cheese and buckwheat) and taleggio (local soft cheese).
One of the best pizzerias in Italy is in the low citty: Marechiaro.
I can look up addresses if you want.
When I talked about the elitism, I was referring more to the actual place. There is still an air of aristocracy once you pass that security gate (there to keep the proletarian masses out no doubt).