Joyce, count me in! Maybe a space could still be created and Exploratorium participants could be invited to submit electronic documents to support what they discussed? Maybe they could be encouraged to submit some rough cut audio to create a more multimedia experience to recreate the excellent sharing session? Even if the audio was just a phone call into a digital voicemail box, couldn't someone then help with the editing? I bet there are pictures out there from everyone as well. One of the challenges for AASL/ALA will be to find a way to create this...and then let go. In the new media, new online world we are talking about, some of this has to be created and released without additional charges. If they are already members, there is probably a good reason (and probably financial in basis at least in part) that they weren't at the conference. If people who view this aren't members, maybe this will help them see what AASL membership can do for them. Conference sessions are certainly a commodity, but they are a very small part of the conference experience. It seems many other organizations and conferences have realized that giving away conference session audio online is a worthy loss leader for encouraging people to attend the conference. Sorry I don't have any Flickr pics up, but I don't do pictures much. I love looking at them though. We have two years to get other things set up. I would love to see a content management system set up with "rooms" for each session. Those rooms would have the handouts (you know, in a findable place!) as well as a chat room, streaming of the session (live!?!) and a place for further reflection.

Great ideas, Chris, especially in capturing Exploratorium! The rooms idea would allow participation from so many others who could not travel to conference. It looks like a committee may form and I may call for your guidance. Great seeing you!

People are constantly talking about the "ephemeral" Internet and yet my first question after walking through the amazing, yet ultra crowded Exploratorium was, "What happens with all of these posters after the convention?" This was my first convention and there were so many amazing ideas many of which I didn't have time to investigate fully. I would love to revisit them online and hear about related things that others are doing as well. Since collaboration is a major concept for us, I would love to see the brilliant ideas as a springboard for collaboration. The joy of Web 2.0 is a constant evolution of knowledge and I am sure that we can use some of these tools to enable us all to experience and learn from all of the ideas presented, even if we were not physically able to see or interact each one. A photo-based system that allowed comments and linked to presenter's sites would take little time to set up. I can think of a host of great tools but in six months there may be better ones. There is no substitute for attendance but now that I've stepped out of the whirlwind, I'd like to keep up the momentum. If there is anything I can do to help, count me in!

Last time when AASL was in Pittsburgh, the Exploritorium docs were available online after the conference itself.

SUPER ideas...please make sure these get back to the conference committee, OK? Carl Harvey and Allison Kaplan will want to hear these ideas. There were a few workshops that did take advantage of the wireless connection but more could...we need to make sure that all AASL conferences are 2.0 from now on...Charlotte '09!