1. Online Conferencing in the Era of
the 24/7 Global Digital Society
Simon Kear
Beyond Distance Research Alliance
www.le.ac.uk/beyonddistance
Beyond Distance Learning Technologist of European Foundation for Quality
RESEARCH ALLIANCE
the Year 2009: Team Award in e-Learning UNIQUe Award

2. Can we talk?
• What do we mean by
– online conferencing
– 24-hour society
• Leicester’s Learning Futures
Festivals
• Did delegates take advantage
of 24-hour?
• Were relationships formed
because of 24-hour?
Photo courtesy of cowfish on Flickr

3. Online conferencing
1990s June 2003 March 2006
Email, eGen Conference JISC Innovating
Bulletin Boards E-learning
Conference

4. Online Conference
Asynchronous wrapper (VLE)
Synchronous

5. Online Conference
12
11 1
Asynchronous wrapper (VLE) 2
10
9 Synchronous 3
8 4
7 5
6

6. 24-hour society
Photo courtesy of DrareG on Flickr

7. 24-hour society & technology for the
developing world
• Eliminating time barriers
• Eliminating geographical barriers
• Target disadvantaged groups
• Help balancing family and work life
• Enhances international dimension of
education (Iqbal and Ahmad, 2010)

8. Follow the Sun 2011
Learning Futures Festival 5

9. 27/02/2013 9

11. Follow the Sun 2011
• 48 hours non-stop
• 280 participants
• Hosted from 3 timezones
• 25 countries
• Up to 80 delegates each session

13. Japan (delegate)
“I managed to participate in selected
presentations from Asia/Australia and UK. The
USA time zone was too late/early. The 24-hour
format meant I could plan participation and fit
into my work schedule.”

14. Australia (delegate)
“Not in either destination and thus would not
have attended had it not been via the online
community and technology”

15. USA (speaker)
“I learned from the comments of the other
participants in my session. I have referred to this
session in my LinkedIn groups.”

16. Evidence of 24-hour-type use
Leicester
UK Canada
Brighton
UK USA

17. Caveats
“I saved travel time but I ended up working almost
16 hour days as I had to listen to talks late at night
as well as during the day and still do my day job. If I
attended a f2f conference, I’m not expected to be in
two places at the same time.
“Having said that, I still prefer attending online as I
can eat or fidget or do anything I like during a
session at home and still be at a conference.”

18. New relationships

19. http://beyonddistance.wordpress.com/

20. New relationships

21. New links
England (delegate)
“It has given me some new ideas and links to
people and work that potentially are very useful
for me. I like the chat during the session as
participants can make comments while they
listen which can be picked up at the end, in
many ways more interactive than a traditional
conference.”

22. Follow The Sun 2012
28-30 March 2012
tinyurl.com/followthesun

23. References
Bird, T., Kear, S., Mobbs, R., Davies, E. ( 2010) Why waste a good crisis? Delivering an
exclusively online, international academic conference. Unpublished paper presented
at ALT-C 2010, Nottingham, UK
Iqbal, M.J., Ahmad, M. (2010) Enhancing Quality of Education through E-Learning:
The Case Study of Allama Iqbal Open University. Turkish Online Journal of Distance
Education-TOJDE January 2010 Volume: 11 Number: 1 Article 5
Salmon, G. (2010) Follow the Sun. Unpublished paper presented at Online Educa
2010, Berlin, Germany