Forum: Summary of Flu Wiki Conf Call for Sat 20060318

… creating the topic for post-conference-call discussions

I apologize for the technical difficulties. The GCast (http://gcast.com/) podcast recording sytem kept interrupting and responding inapprorpiately to keypad presses. I’ll review the segments that GCast did record to see if they’re worth posting links to from this forum. Otherwise, I’ll post my sketchy notes here, and encourage others to post theirs too.

Thanks again to everyone to participated. We had a total of 27 people dialed-in. That’s great attendance by any standards.

More posting coming soon…

mentioned and relevant links:

• For MaMa, just check the daily new thread! ;-)
• For Mom11, HHS dollar allocations.
• For niman, A Call to Liberate the H 5 N 1 Sequences and H 5 N 1 Evolving Towards Pandemic Strain
• For DemFromCT sitemeter summary and other summary

(copying my post from the other thread here) DemFromCT,

thanks for the site update during the conf call, and the pointers there and here. Congratulations on the Science and Nature citations of Flu Wiki. You and your colleagues have done an oustanding job on Flu Wiki. It has built a very impressive online community, and continues to make that community vibrant.

I think the conference call provides a nice complement to Flu Wiki. It may not have the permanence, depth of detail, multi-dimensional viewpoint, or asynchronous convenience of the wiki, but it does bring that live human voice dimension that helps solidify the community. The ability of groups of people to understand the challenges and to identify and share solutions is dependent on how cohesive the group feels. Hopefully the conf call helps with the latter.

still working on the summary, but in the meantime, let me ask this quesiton:

How can we improve the next conf call content/format/process wise?

I’ve already identified several potential improvements, but I’d really like to hear from others. Suggestions?

Thanks, I’ll repeat and close the other thread…

Science

And apologies to all those who called in but didn’t get a chance to speak (and wanted to). With that many people on the phone, I never even had a chance to point out, e.g., that any reports of major conflicts between niman and Flu Wiki have been greatly exaggerated. ;-)

As I said on the call, don’t believe everything you read on Flu Wki . Let it be a starting point, not an endpoint.

Here are some excellent references on that point:

The Real-World Problem with Wikis

FluWiki is brilliant, but be careful as always…

and coming soon:

CurrentStatus: I knew blogging was good for something…

I am on the Board of Advisers of a major American Computer Distributor. When we get together for a telephone meeting we share a concurrent computer screen for agenda, posts, written chat to comment on phone information, and one moderator who asks questions and guides the discussion. The shared screen allows us to have a graphical presentation of data etc. It might be useful. If it takes money let’s solicit those of us who can help. Grin. Sorry, I was out but Saturday is a business day for my Computer Consulting firm. I would love to be there sometime.

re DemFromCT’s comment about those who didn’t get a chance to speak, and possibl e improvements to the conf call…

Is it better to emphasize open, unstructured discussion? i.e. fewer topics, maybe shorter introductory comments on each topic, and more time for general discussion around topics?

Or is getting detailed updates by people who have done the research or have some expertise on the topic better?

What preference do people have? Or is there an alternative to the two above?

I thought it was terrific to be to get everyone in on a call together and very much appreciate Keith’s efforts in putting it together as well as the efforts of all those who contributed.

That said, with an hour, maybe we should focus on one (1) topic per week so that we can generate discussion. It was less of a “conference” call and more of a lecture (albeit a very good one) where we were allowed to listen in.

For example, Mama - who is beloved by all, came with a great roundup of the news, but there was nothing new available to her; therefore what we heard were things we already knew about from reading the news threads she so diligently posts to for us. I would have liked to discuss the sick Georgian soldiers with her and others. Do we know if they’re from a specific region where BF has been identified? Were they involved in the culling of sick birds? What else might their symptoms be from…

Further, I would have liked to have discussed vaccine trials with Mom 11, or the genetic makeup of the virus with Dr. Niman and maybe break it down a bit further into layperson terms, etc. but it seemed we needed to get through the topics and that it would have been rude to break in. Maybe we can present Keith with our questions ahead of time next time?

That’s my input. Thank you again to all who participated.

Cache

This is why I am suggesting we pick a single topic, find a willing expert to present a brief round up and then open it up for discussion and questions.

Don’t know how that last sentence ended up on my post - must have been doing a little too much cut and paste rearranging, but it is a good summary of my thoughts. : )

good suggestions, Cache Cow.

This was our first real conference call, and so we’re still trying to define an optimal format. The challenge in all of this is keeping the call under an hour. This contrasts with the wiki where discussions have the luxury of space and time to explore each topic in great depth, and from all people.

You’ve got me thinking that we need to use the wiki for what it’s good at, and the conference call for what it’s good at. The Wiki excels at depth of detail, multiple views, permanent record, support for less time-critical issues. For those of us who have the time and energy to read all that there is available, the Wiki can’t be beat. The conference call excels at providing immediacy, speedy coverage of a topic by someone who has done all the reading, instantaneous dialog/debate, discussing sensitive/emotional topics, and building a sense of community. They definitely play different roles, and we just need to better understand those roles.

Looks like open space - anyone done that locally? How does it work there?

Keith, I thought your conference format was perfect! When we were all saying hello at the same time, I thought it was bedlam. I feared I would end up listening to people visit. Then you stepped up to the plate as a moderator and the hour flew by. Thanks!

There is nothing better than to hear from the experts. If an expert gave a summary and then we all asked questions, I still fear we would get bedlam.

I went to the call to listen and listen I did, gladly. No one wants to hear an attorney’s take on public health when the true professionals are around!

Keith, and everyone, I apologize for committing to be on the conference call and then not being there. Today is my birthday :) and I woke up to surprises throughout the entire day from my family and then friends. It was unexpected and I didn’t get a chance to get to the computer until this moment. It sounds like it went very well and I will continue to follow this thread to read about the experience. Again, my apologies.

Irony—I’m posting on a bird flu site and worrying about a BF pandemic, and I have a baby cockatiel sitting on my shoulder, chirping in my ear. We got her when she was ten days old, barely any feathers, and my twelve year old has had to get up and feed her every few hours for a week now. It takes formula and is only now beginning to eat seed. One of our two cats is sleeping on my desk in a little bed and I’m reading about cats passing BF—go figure ignorant people, eh?! Sorry for digressing, thought it might make you chuckle :o

I think the only way for it to work is to handle it like a New England town meeting. Everyone who wants to speak signs up in advance. You get 5 minutes, no questions. Then the next person. It’s first come first served, maximun 12 people.

If the next call has fewer topics (let’s say 3) and then there are 3 five minute talks, that leaves 9 people who can get their 5 minutes. If there are a lot of people who want to get a 5 minute shot, it can be spilled over until the next call, the existing list goes first, etc…

Now, as part of your talk, you can ask questions of others, but no one gets to question you, or you won’t ever get a chance to talk (unless you give permission).

keith and the posters here can:

• ask for requests on the ‘main’ speakers, like MaMa, Mom11, myself and niman were today.
• keep a running list of first-come first-serve speakers that would carry over.
• decide how many topics, whether there’s need for a ‘main’ speaker any given week, etc.

First off, I would like to thank keith for arranging all of this. Mom11, niman and DemFromCT all had fantastic information to share with us and I learned alot from the call today. It was really nice to be able to put a voice to many familiar names. I apologize for not having a complete news synopsis ready this time, next week I will! It will be better organized too, there were great suggestions on that. On that subject, I thought perhaps it would be a good idea to post the round-up on the conference call thread the night before the call is to take place. That way, instead of just hearing the list we would have more time to get down to discussing. If someone wants to discuss a particular subject or report they would have an opportunity to propose it for the agenda. This would also enable those who can’t make it for the call to view the round-up. What do you guys think?

The call today was great. Thanks to Keith for arranging it and to all who presented.

Sorry for the delay in posting the Flu Wiki Conference Call summary. I was off the grid for a day or so, and then I wanted to clean up and format the conference call as a podcast. Unfortunately the GCast.com service didn’t work as well as i had hoped. It seems that it stopped recording part way through the conference call, either because of keypad presses on the phones, or because it has an inherent recording capacity limit. I’m waiting on a response from GCast to resolve the problem. I’m also looking into alternative call recording services (e.g. Audioblog.com), even ones that charge, so that we can get a better recording in the future. At any rate, some parts of the call did get recorded, and so i’ve included those in this FluCast. I inserted some introductory remarks of my own to provide a little context, and to provide my own summary of the conference call. Let’s rack this one up as an experiment, and then plan how we’ll do the second one better.

I’ve set up a podcast channel called FluCasts on the GCast.com service for future conference call recordings, for those who know what podcasts are and wish to subscribe. Just provide the FluCasts RSS feed to your podcatcher software. If you don’t use podcatching software, you can always visit the Flucasts page to download or stream the .mp3 files as they become available.

All feedback is welcome. You can post suggestions here or email them to flucasts(at)gmail.com

-keith

Thanks, keith! Let me echo you’ve done a wonderful job!

My suggestions above are just that. The group can decide whether the calls should be more “lecture style” or “town meeting” style but there’s a format for either that can work. I don’t need to be a “speaker” every week (give others a chance), though I’m often available. ;-)

Oh, and let me add that the calls need a moderator (that’s you, keith) just like the site does. We saw what happens to the call without one. And the same for the site. ;-)

Great job all of you, I applaud you all.. Keep up the good work

Here’s a question to help better develop the format - what is the goal(s) of the conference call?

Old thread closed to speed Forum access

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