Coordination meeting of European Transhumanist Associations in Teleplace

Following the opening meeting in Milan last November, a second coordination meeting of European Transhumanist Associations has taken place today in a Teleplace virtual workspace. Online 3D technologies and workspaces for videoconferencing and deeply interactive collaboration already permit productive e-meetings for distributed workgroups. Online meetings, which can be especially productive for pre-existing groups, are not (yet) a full replacement of physical meetings, but can be a very useful complement to physical meetings and permit saving money and time.

Agenda: VR meetings and seminars in Teleplace, Transvision 2010 conference (draft program and logo almost finalized), H+ UK 2010conference (very good progress, I look forward to attending), collaboration with various European research groups and projects, and an onlinetranshumanist art exhibition under development.

Besides the agenda, I was also interested in studying the first reactions of newcomers to Teleplace: all participants besides David Orban and myself had never been in a Teleplace before. All newcomers learned how to use the basic functions of Teleplace (moving, talking, streaming webcam video, adding and editing documents) in a few minutes, and one (Marc) set up a complex presentation without help. I think everyone had a very positive impression and could see the potential of Teleplace for professional online meetings and presentations.

Besides working group meetings, we are also planning a beta version of an ambitious e-learning initiative (much more at due time). We will start with monthly seminars in Teleplace, and the one-and-only Anders Sandberg has accepted to give the first lecture on advanced neurotechnology wizardry and mind-boggling future prospects.

I look forward to hosting other virtual meetings, and I wish to thank Teleplace for their support.