Day 39 - A lecture and a panel discussion

— 2 minute read

Saturday.

Today I was on a panel discussion organised by Goethe Institut Indonesia, titled "The Commercial and Political Value of User Data". Over the week Goethe Institut had been releasing the speakers' videos, and mine was released yesterday:

And I just re-listened to the recording of the live session and it turns out that parts of when I was speaking was just echoing horribly :( Also, towards the end I actually got kicked out of the session because my connection was so bad :( I had to record my last words/conclusion separately from the other speakers. I hope that the team at Goethe Institut will work their magic with the post-production that they're doing now. Will wait for a better link before I put it up here.

The discussion was quite enjoyable though. I'm always stressed out before being on panels but usually when I'm there I enjoy them. Here online we had to deal with technical hang ups, and also I regret the inability to hang out with the other panel members or participants after the session to discuss further (a huge pity, since I would have loved to talk more with the other panel members today).

I guess, when I think about it, flying across seas and mountains to meet with other people from different countries for a day and then flying back - what we have taken so much for granted in the 21st century - doesn't actually make sense when you look at it squarely as what it is.

Will we ever be able to fly like that again? Should we even do it, when the teleconferencing infrastructure is already in place for online panel discussions? I do believe that many important encounters and exchanges happen outside of formal sessions in conferences, when people have lunch together, or hang out in pubs after a long day in a conference room. What if we had informal hang out video calls (organised by the event organisers) of small groups of 4-5 where we can bring our own drinks and just chat?


I have more to say but I'm so tired. Maybe tomorrow.