[VBbuilders] My Video Story proposal to collect stories, activities, patterns

[Andrius Kulikauskas]

Hi Franz and all, I share my proposal which I will send to potential 
sponsors for this study of video bridging.  I appreciate our thoughts!  
Andrius Kulikauskas, ms at ms.lt
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I am looking for collaborators and funders to explore new usages of 
video communications such as video bridges.  Franz Nahrada has 
championed such technology as key for the success of global villages and 
the education of the future.  Our study of these new patterns is useful 
for market research and for promotion of new uses.

In January, thanks to Franz Nahrada's Video Communications Workshop, my 
laboratory Minciu Sodas http://www.ms.lt took the first steps in this 
research.  Sasha Mrkailo of Serbia collected for us 80 examples from the 
Internet of how people are using video communications.  We call this "My 
Video Story":
http://www.dorfwiki.org/wiki.cgi?VideoBridge/MyVideoStory

I then grouped examples and noted four types of dynamics for video bridges:
* "Strangers"  Two or more groups may be curious about each other and 
use video bridges to get to know each other.
* "Friends"  Two or more groups may have a common interest and share 
experiences.
* "Experts"  One or more experts may share their expertise with one or 
more groups.
* "Family"  One or more groups spend time as if they were all in one 
place, perhaps having a meal, dancing, praying, celebrating.
And there may be other dynamics.

Next, I am looking for "recurring activities" in these events.  What 
kinds of actions are taken over and over again?  As Christopher 
Alexander noted, such repeating actions evoke "patterns", which is to 
say, solutions that optimize practically a theoretical structure.  I am 
looking for such "recurring activities" and related solutions. For example:
* School children have a discussion with an author or guest.
* A musician teaches music lessons to students, how to play the harp or 
other instrument.
* A priest performs a ritual through a video link.
* A group plays Dungeon and Dragons.
* An artists paints her subjects.
These are not one-time activities.   They happen over and over again as 
part of people's lives.  I wish to interview such people by text, audio 
and/or video to document what they have discovered about organizing 
video communications in their particular cases.  What principles, what 
"rules of thumb" can they suggest to others who want to do what they are 
doing? 

My thought is to document each such "pattern" in English and German.  I 
will share our text, audio and video interviews.  I will show how 
different "recurring activities" interact.  I will show how their 
solutions, their patterns are related and form a skill set or "pattern 
language" for organizing video bridges.  This skill set is useful for 
video bridge facilitators.

I can work more on this if I can find funders, especially businesses 
that might benefit.  I could focus for them on stories and patterns 
related to their strategic interests.  For example, where is Video Skype 
not enough to do what people really want to do?  For which activities is 
fast broadband especially desirable?

I have led a global team for similar projects, most notably, My Food 
Story http://www.myfoodstory.info for Greg Wolff of Unamesa Association 
to collect 2,000 food stories around the world to illustrate the world's 
food supply chain.   Our original content is in the Public Domain so 
that all may use it for other projects according to their own best 
judgement.  We also make "fair use" of short excerpts from websites.  We 
are working on My Video Story at DorfWiki.
http://www.dorfwiki.org/wiki.cgi?VideoBridge/MyVideoStory

I work at a rate of 1,500 EUR per month full time.  My team collects 
stories at a rate of 1 EUR per story.  We can translate our work from 
English into German at a rate of 250 to 500 EUR per month.  We include 
and support people who care about video bridging.  As we work, we 
attract and energize this community.  Also, I can write reports and 
consult as part of my work.

I look forward to your thoughts how with your help we might do this 
work!  I am staying with Franz Nahrada in Vienna, Austria until the end 
of February.

Thank you,

Andrius

Andrius Kulikauskas
Minciu Sodas
http://www.ms.lt
ms at ms.lt
+43 681 204 26971
in Vienna, Austria