Invite to dialogue in Prato, Italy

A few days before the Community Informatics Research Network conference in Prato (in October) some of us from CPsquare (http://www.cpsquare.org) are meeting up for a dialogue about memory and forgetting in communities of practice. The dialogue will also be preparation for a workshop we are presenting at the conference called "Lively remembering: Technologies, memories and practices in communities of practice". Technologies and community memory, identity and empowerment is the theme of the Conference.

Click here for the full invitation to participate and if you want to join us, please send an expression of interest by March 1st. For people who also want to attend the CIRN conference (and help present the workshop) they also need to register for the conference (see the site).

"Why do you do it?" is a question my family always ask me about organising and participating in these events. There is no perceived value of it at the place where I work (it will take a while for Bolonha to kick in) and I don't make money out of it. I know I'm not alone in this dilemma of following research and practice dreams that make little sense to people living a "real" life of low-risk, career and status advance - so we've included the dilemma as an explicit part of the Dialogue agenda:

"For many of us, where a social perspective on learning is the subject and the means of inquiry and the rallying point that brings us together these events are works of love. They are produced in moments stolen from our jobs, families and friends. We often find ourselves swimming between disciplinary and professional boundaries trying to articulate more clearly what we do, and looking for ways to justify, legitimize and finance our way to learning and improving our practice. At this Dialogue we want to make these stolen moments an open and discussable subject of inquiry – part of our community memory as we join ideas and forces for making such events a sustainable part of our repertoire of practice, and our gift to the world."

It sure helps to talk with people who share the same language - where language is not related to nationality or words.

Tags: CIRN, Pratodialogue, identity, cpsquare