Convening the Dialogical Commons:
Thomas Steininger in conversation with Aftab Omer

Aftab Omer, president of Meridian University in California, has focused his work for decades on the emergence of human capacities and transformative learning communities. It’s not surprising that he’s noticed a new dialogical opening in the internet sphere.

With the social distancing due to COVID 19, a new quality of online conversation has been born. And it won’t leave us. Millions of people have now joined the conversation in online conference spaces like Zoom and others.
These are not chat rooms–they are real, live, face-to-face meetings that are local and global, for personal reasons or business purposes. This new live and alive character of global conversations changes the way we can come together.

Someone started to call these meetings “digital campfires.” Just as our ancestors 100,000 years ago came together around campfires and started to develop language, tell stories, and develop culture, our new digital campfires come alive around the globe, giving us an unprecedented way to connect across cultures and distances. We can share personal stories, share information, and start to reform our global culture. Nobody owns these conversations. Nobody owns their creative insights. Aftab Omer calls them the new digital commons.

This week in Radio evolve, Thomas Steininger speaks with Aftab Omer about the nerw emergence of the dialogical commons in global cyberspace.

This broadcast of Radio evolve will be in two parts:

PART ONE: Thomas Steininger and Aftab Omer speak about this emergence in global dialogue.

Here is how you access the webcast of their conversation:

CLICK HERE.

or dial in to one of the phone numbers provided on this list and use Webinar ID: 947 989 117 #

PART TWO: You are invited to a collective dialogue after the webcast.

We invite you to join us on Zoom, an internet-based videoconferencing platform, to engage in conversation together after the broadcast.

Immediately following the interview with Aftab Omer on Youtube, Thomas will explain the process of coming together online. Then anyone who wants to participate can click a link to go to Zoom (see info below) where everyone will be placed into small groups to speak together about how we are affected by this crisis, to look together for answers, and also simply to not be alone with these questions. Whenever we come together, whenever we enter into real dialogue, a new world of possibilities opens up.

We look forward to speaking together.

If you have used Zoom before, you can simply click “Join” on your Zoom App and enter the Meeting ID: 539 786 171

If you don’t have a computer, you can also use your phone to dial in: please click here to get a number in your area, then enter the Meeting ID, followed by a #539 786 171. After entering the ID number, hit # a second time and you will enter the Zoom Room.
If you need help using Zoom, this video can help you.