State of Play II

OK, I am here, in a large, pretty room with wireless connection, television, events filmed and supposedly streamed. If I find that link, I'll pass it on.

The form is very dense, no time for casual chatter. Somebody are at the end of the room, in the panel, talking, constantly. Each panel is set up like a conversation between the members of the panel, rather than as presentations or lectures. I normally like this kind of panels, but during the third in row, this is straining my attention. There is something to be said for the thought-out presentation, the rhetorically considered talk.

I also fear I will be exhausted before the day is over, and starved of social interaction. How can it be possible to talk to others and discuss issues when there are talks through every meal? And then the lunch period is supposed to be organised as well, as people sign up for "birds of a feather" tables during lunch time. Perhaps will this work wonderfully, certainly somebody thinks so, as it is organised this strictly, but I already feel rebellious, the rebellion transmuting into a desire for alternative activities, for reading non-related books (perhaps a tiny little thing on Derrida hidden in my notebook - at least it looks kind of polite to be intensely busy with my notebook...). Last night's talk during dinner was very distracting and distracted, I wanted to chat with the people on the table I was at, T.L. Taylor, Richard Bartle, Greg Lastowka and several other interesting people, many from Terra Nova, but instead I was captured, listening to anecdotes of Second Life.

Although some of that was interesting. Check out Wagner James Au's Second life blog.

And the man in the panel just said "This is the first time I have ever sat next to a socialist." I am a long way from home. But closer to Kansas than Volda.