To link different networks and different languages
The fact that as organizers of the GHP, we were actually connecting in person with most of the guests and contacts, made the conference and the meeting point of real value to most people participating. But the way one approaches a hacker is different from the way one approaches a philosopher. As Susan Benn, director of the Performing Arts Labs (UK) formulates in her methodology for creative laboratories "it is in the cooking of the people that magic and quality evolve" . As a producer I had the experience that general requests for information or participation do not provide the quality result one aims for, and this has not changed till today. It was necessary to talk to someone on the phone, write personal e-mails or faxes and most importantly connect to a person via other people who connect to you and also to that person.
The fact that as organizers of the GHP, we were actually connecting in person with most of the guests and contacts, made the conference and the meeting point of real value to most people participating. But the way one approaches a hacker is different from the way one approaches a philosopher. As Susan Benn, director of the Performing Arts Labs (UK) formulates in her methodology for creative laboratories "it is in the cooking of the people that magic and quality evolve". As a producer I had the experience that general requests for information or participation do not provide the quality result one aims for, and this has not changed till today. It was necessary to talk to someone on the phone, write personal e-mails or faxes and most importantly connect to a person via other people who connect to you and also to that person.
When reviewing this case study as a key-informant, Patrice Riemens contributed the following memory, which highlights the conveying of trust through people connecting with people. While travelling in the spring of 1989, Patrice Riemens met a woman activist, Nighat Said Khan, in Pakistan. When he explained to her what we were about to do, she emphasized he should contact John Sayer in Hong Kong. John Sayer, who is part of the INDOC network, had just been to Rome where he met Michael Polman. When Sayer heard what we were about to do from Patrice, he emphasized that we should contact Michael Polman, who runs the Antenna Foundation and lives in Nijmegen, 100 kilometres from Amsterdam. Polman had been on our mailing list from the beginning, but we had not identified him as a possible collaborator. Michael Polman had seen our mails, but he had treated them as mere information and not as possible collaboration. Through connecting people with people, who had met each other in natural presence, a certain trustworthiness was conveyed and collaboration could start. Patrice Riemens and Rop Gonggrijp have worked with Michael Polman for many years and this may not have happened had it not been for meeting Nighat Said Khan in Pakistan.
A certain trustworthiness has to be conveyed. Most people are not willing to act for someone they do not know, and/or, have no reference for. One has to be certain that one is dealing with a real invitation, a real connection. When one wants to invite different kinds of people one has to be capable of conveying confidence and recognition so that people have the feeling that it makes sense for them to participate. This is why we used different networks and different languages in this case and in each of these languages we explained the idea of meeting and discussing the new computer era with such a diverse group.
