Instant access to information. Yeah, yeah, what a different world we live in. I’m sure you agree that, when in a public meeting, it’s far better when everyone is present and offline. iPhones and Blackberries suck the energy out of the room as people get pulled into multiple worlds, giving partial attention to several things at once. We should all avoid the temptation of using personal communication devices during community meetings. Okay, I confess it’s like the Onion headliner “98% of US Commuters Support Transit for Others” — the truth is I want everyone offline and attentive to the meeting except for me. But the universe does not revolve around me and social pressures (and facilitator announcements asking everyone to refrain from using their phones) can help keep me and others in line.
On the other hand, I see great potential (and danger) in something I would like to call “gaggle Googling” — using the internet in a group setting to help make more informed decisions. We need to keep experimenting, however, on how to use Googling and other information gathering techniques in a group setting in ways that is informative and productive and yet not too distracting and disruptive.
When we did a charrette in Denver with the Rocky Mountain Institute on the Living City Block initiative, we had two experts on urban trees in our group. They enriched the conversation tremendously since they knew what causes so many urban trees to die 2-3 years after they are planted and what are some of the latest and greatest solutions to the problem. Because we were conducting the session with an interactive touch screen linked to the internet, we were able to combine note taking and brainstorming with Googling to our advantage. At one point different people were mentioning city blocks that had street plantings they liked. Each time we were able to “fly” to that location, enter into Google street view, pan around, and continue the conversation with everyone seeing what we were talking about.
Later, someone was explaining an under-the-sidewalk-stilted technology that can be used to prevent the soil from becoming highly compacted thus making it possible for trees to develop a much healthier root system. When he described in verbally, people were having a hard time picturing it. Googling got us to an illustrative short video of the technology. Without too much distraction, everyone could now imagine what he was talking about and became enthusiastic about its potential for the Living City Block.
Lessons Learned
The art and science of gaggle Googling is in using it in moderation and in being very selective in what is shared with the group. With a computer projector VGA switch hooked up to multiple computers, you can have staff Googling for relevant information while people are talking, only projecting the search results after they have been found (watching someone surf on a big screen while others are talking is very distracting). Often the conversation will move too quickly for the search results to be of value. Unless truly worthy of an interruption, avoid the temptation to show something no longer part of the conversation. Because conversations often loop back, it’s a good idea to keep search results using multiple tabs in your browser. When you do decide to share images, videos, maps, or search results, show the bare minimum, only that which is of value to the whole group. The facilitator and staff person doing the searches should think of themselves as librarians only sharing the most relevant information, not performers.
At the Living City Block event, we were in charge of one of the roundtable discussions. While I was facilitating the conversation, Jason was on the computer helping make sure what we presented on the interactive screen was relevant to the discussion. We mainly used the screen to take notes, an electronic flip chart with the benefit of being able to drag and drop ideas into different categories. Only when we felt it would greatly enhance the conversation did we show the results of a search. Feedback from participants reinforced my sentiment, that the ability to bring in information into the conversation, particularly visuals, greatly aided the conversation.
