Interest in educational webinars or videos

[Tim Harrigan]

@Countymouse 37994 wrote:

.. Perhaps call yourself on your cell phone a couple times… Later, go home and bitch about what a terrible time you had and how boring everyone was. Like a big cocktail party.

HaHa, sounds like you have been to a few of those. I need to learn how to call myself on my own phone and get it to ring. Can you start a new thread? 😎

[Carl Russell]

If you were a young teamster plowing a field and could see a more experienced person plowing in an adjacent field, you might stop and go over to the fence line to watch and ask questions. That is connectivity. It is ripe with information, but you are first and foremost “connected” to the direct flow of information and experience.

I have never discounted content. I worked hard at the beginning to set a tone for content density. I realize that content, like the competent teamster in the other field, is attractive, but let’s say that the next competent teamster is 100 miles away and hidden in a field at the end of a road in a town where most folks think he or she is nuts. How do you find them? If someone isn’t searching for you, isn’t keeping contact info, isn’t drawing them into conversation, isn’t asking them how they could benefit from connections to others, isn’t creating a forum where they can share, then you don’t have access to what they have to offer.

We cannot fall into the trap of thinking we have made all of those connections. DAPNet was formed specifically to be searching for, and connecting resources and the people looking for them. I know that there are little gems scattered all over our region that are yet to be uncovered. It is in my nature to look for them. People have come to me for years, asking “Do you know of somebody….?”, or “Do you know where I can get….?”, and we created this effort so that it could grow on its own.

One of the things that separates this site from other social network sites is the serious content. In our case social networking means finding common ground on plow points, not hair color. But under it all, there is huge potential to use the same mechanism to enhance interaction here.

“Most users ever online was 199, 05-27-2011 at 11:20 PM.” This was 18 months ago. Just after I stepped away from administering this site…………. Activity here is what elevates us on Google. Activity here has something to do with content, but more importantly it has to do with “Activity Here”….. meaning actively drawing people here….. connectivity is how I describe that.

Carl

[Andy Carson]

Carl, do you see connectivity as a never ending quest?

If it is not a never-ending quest, how do we know when we are connected enough? I have been that young person yelling over the fence many times and I always got an answer. Once, I even yelled “I want a pair of Ayrshire/Milking devon cross bull calves” and got an answer. Twins, no less. You have to admit this is reflective of an impressive amount of connectivity. Is it enough? If your goal is to answer questions, I think yes.

If you judge connectivity by the percent of working teamsters who contribute to and frequent this site, than I suspect we might not be well connected. I think there are many people who simply aren’t into computers, technology, presenting ideas in public, or feel they should get paid for thier thoughts. If they simply arent’t on thier computers much, and don’t frequent any other websites, I look at it as a limitation of the communication system we have chosen and I am not particularly interested in addressing this problem. If they are on other websites, I think they are a prize that could be had. Do you feel or know if these “gems” are on other websites? If so, which? Perhaps something could be learned from these other websites and perhaps adopted by our own so as to attract more gems.

[Tim Harrigan]

I want to weigh in here but I just hit the wrong button and 30 minutes of writing disappeared. I will get back tonight.

[Carl Russell]

In my earlier analogy, the movement toward the fence line is not the connectivity….. it is the culture that supports the activities of community members, which as so often is taken for granted. Next generations don’t take the time to continue some f the practices that bound them together, and regardless of the values provided, the essence of the community dissolves.

Connectivity does not necessarily have to do with continual growth, it has more to do with clean crisp, and effective connections, like synapses in our nervous system. Some of that is not just about clean connection, but also easy, and comfortable, and personally customizable come to mind.

I see many things here that represent ways that people can make the connections. Although taken for granted, they are what makes this site accessible, and useful for folks.

Some of us are equipped with personalities that allow us to search for, and find, what we want, even when buried within confusing language, or held by anti-social people. However, those are not the people who really need our help. We can offer all kinds of information, but by creating an user friendly interface, where folks find comfortable community interaction, utilizing some of the natural power of the internet, we can make it available to a growing number of people.

My goal never was to answer questions. It was to gather together a growing community of interest, so that we could all find the answers we are looking for. Think about it, is it more important that you found information here, or is it more important that you were able to find that information here?

Carl

[Andy Carson]

@Carl Russell 38012 wrote:

Think about it, is it more important that you found information here, or is it more important that you were able to find that information here?

If I was not able to get the information, I would not have gotten it.

I got information, therefore, I was able to get it.

I think I might be able to get other information, but this is only speculation until I actually get that information.

The only proof of being able is in the getting, and the getting is proof of being able.

How can these two things be seperated???

Why am I having such a hard time understanding this??? It feels like connectivity is socializing or community building, but somehow this concept only includes the parts of socializing that each individual likes and none of the parts that each individual doesn’t like. I am sketical of concepts that are all things to all people and don’t have any negative aspects to anyone.

I am a great believer in careful observation and testing of ideas and concepts. Is connectivity as you describe it observable, testable, or measurable? What would a test to measure “connectivity” look like? If the idea/concept can’t be tested, the idea/concept can never be right or wrong. I am not interested in pursuing ideas/concepts and that cannot be observed, tested, and measured. I like talking over the fence. It is observable, testable, measureable, and can be explained to everyone in one sentence. I think we do this well, but could be wrong. I also like the example of making a freidnly and comfortable place to express ideas. I also think we do this well, but could easily make a survey or some other tool to test this idea. If this is all, haven’t we already completed this task? What is still lacking and how do we measure or test this so as to improve? How do we know that this aspect is anything anyone cares about?

[near horse]

Not to put words in his mouth but IMU Carl is saying – was the information you were looking for made more valuable by knowing (although you didn’t likely know this at the time) it could be found here (either already in text form or brought out from the wealth of knowledge and experience of the community here)? So I thinnk that is the difference between finding the information here (as opposed to somewhere else) and being able to find it here (knowing that here is THE PLACE to go for that information).

Not sure about addressing the “testing = right/wrong” thing without getting philosophical so I’ll leave it alone.

I do appreciate seeing the numbers you compiled and pondering about what they mean and how they can be used. Thanks for doing that Andy.

[Tim Harrigan]

@Countymouse 37994 wrote:

I think of connectivity and networking as generally synonomous.

Andy, I can see how there are similarities between connectivity and networking, but in my mind they are at different ends of a continuum. Networking is near the social interaction end. Content is near the other end and connectivity is the linkage that provides context and meaning. Connectivity amplifies the content and provides the energy that drives this site.

A good example is one you have already mentioned, the discussion of draft buffers. I do not remember exactly how that topic emerged, I know the thread actually arose from earlier discussions. But basically the discussion evolved from discussions of efficient use and application of draft animal power, to tools and techniques for conserving draft energy, to measuring the forces required to move various loads, to animal behavior and conditioning for work, to the theory, application and evaluation of mechanical and biological buffers for animal comfort and energy conservation, and finally to the design of your buffered singletrees. Which, to the best of my knowledge represents a new and novel approach to modifying and improving the transmission of pulling forces between the team and the load. Rock on, Andy! So the network provided a system for connecting one level of content to new and deeper layers. In this context the networking on this site inspired the discovery of connections that enhanced everyone’s understanding of the application of animal draft. So connectivity links ideas and information and allows us to peel concepts away like the layers of an onion, and create new knowledge in the process.

You may have thought that I was negative toward the development of high quality videos as an addition to this site. Not at all. In fact, I do not think that there are many on this site that put as much effort into animal draft videos as I do. Videos have value, but limited value compared to their ability to inspire the interactions and linkages to other content, both physical and mental, that can happen on this site. You may think the the information is just here and folks find it or they don’t. But I don’t think that what has been built here was self-organizing. It was organic, but purposeful, and guided by an invisible hand to a certain extent.

Can we measure connectivity? I don’t know. Can you measure the bond between you and your oxen?

So. I think Carl has thrown down the gauntlet and is challenging this network to evolve into something greater, and also warning that it could devolve in to something less.

[Carl Russell]

@Carl Russell 38012 wrote:

…….. Think about it, is it more important that you found information here, or is it more important that you were able to find that information here?

Carl

What I meant to say was, is the information you found here more valuable than the fact that you were able to find it?

Which is more important, the information, or the fact that it was here to find, and that you had easy access to it, and that you were welcomed to critique it, and to add to it, and to improve it??

Carl

[Carl Russell]

@Tim Harrigan 38021 wrote:

…..So. I think Carl has thrown down the gauntlet and is challenging this network to evolve into something greater, and also warning that it could devolve in to something less.

To some degree that may be true, but I was really just responding to Andy’s query about increasing membership, use of Dap.com, and focusing on the value of content.

I too really like Andy’s ideas about how to use the content, but also recognize the value represented in being able to connect here, and use that to your advantage.

Carl

[Andy Carson]

@Carl Russell 38022 wrote:

What I meant to say was, is the information you found here more valuable than the fact that you were able to find it?

Which is more important, the information, or the fact that it was here to find, and that you had easy access to it, and that you were welcomed to critique it, and to add to it, and to improve it??

Carl

They are all important and critical, but i will make this difficult choice. I think the most important thing to me is that I am welcome to critique add to and improve content. If this is what you mean by connectivity, I am on board. I would call this “openness,” but i don’t want to debate semantics…

I would measure this, by the way, in looking at the “jackpot threads” and see if this type of discussion was present in many. Of the ones I was involved in, I am sure this was an important part. Everything real can be measured!

[Andy Carson]

I have some ideas about how we might be able to have open engaging discussion in video threads. Open to public or members only we can discuss later, but its probably smart to do demos in a more open forum. I need to talk to someone familiar with video editing and website content, etc. (A computer person) to see what is possible. When I understand options better I will present them again. If anyone might be able to discuss options with me, please PM me and I’ll call you. Its not a commitment to actually do this thing, I just want to talk about what could be done.

[Author]

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