100thseminar Metagov 20231101
Speaker 1: Hi. Hello. Welcome to another Medigov seminar. Today is 11/01/2023. I am Sent. I'm community lead at Medigov. And I'm joined by Val and Eugene and other members of the community today to reflect on the last hundred year hundred years rather, 100 seminars of Medigov. And so I think what we'll be doing is reminiscing, reflecting, organizing, viewing, sorting, and strategizing, and...
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Transcript
Hi. Hello. Welcome to another Medigov seminar. Today is 11/01/2023. I am Sent. I'm community lead at Medigov. And I'm joined by Val and Eugene and other members of the community today to reflect on the last hundred year hundred years rather, 100 seminars of Medigov. And so I think what we'll be doing is reminiscing, reflecting, organizing, viewing, sorting, and strategizing, and thinking about the seminar both in the past and in the future. I'm gonna pass it over to Val who will guide us through this process. And Thank you. Yeah. I'm looking forward to talking about our seminars. Cool. Yeah.
Awesome. Welcome everyone to the party. So we have this spreadsheet, very DIY party. So celebrate however you'd like, but loosely with kombucha, please. Please celebrate with kombucha. But we'll just take some time now to look back. And even before looking back, maybe just, like, let's take a couple minutes, close your eyes, don't look, and ask yourself what seminars stick out in your mind from the past a 100 Medigap seminars that we've had. And jot them down. Either go right into the spreadsheet and feel free to write them down and then kind of find them later or, you know, write them down and and reflect. Let's take five minutes to just kind of either peruse the Internet archives list that we've prepared, which is here, or close your eyes. So player's choice, reflect, and come back in five minutes. Some of your top favorite Medigap seminars. Go. I'll play some background music for us. Some lo fi beats.
Hey, Val. Do you mind sharing audio via the share screen option as opposed to just playing it on your end? Because we just hear a random flailing saxophone or something here and there as opposed to, like, actually hearing the full beat. I think Zoom background cancel audio cancellation is, like, chopping it out.
Woah. Darsh. Okay. Yeah.
You can go to share screen and then advanced and then just do audio if you want.
Or do original sounds from musician on. That will also make it go through on the top left.
Wait. Share sound?
And then and then on the top left, you have original sounds from musician that is usually off. You put it on, and then it will not filter it.
Yeah. So our top left
I think you you wanna not actually share the screen.
But you see original sounds for musician off on the top left? That should be
on. Because
when you put it on, the music will go through. Otherwise, it will filter it out.
I don't see what you're talking about. Let's see. Well, what's weird is I clicked just share sound.
Okay.
That better?
Yeah.
How much more time do we feel like we want for this portion? Thank you, Eugene. Could we
I mean, we have some some we have people who are contributing multiple times here. So it'd it'd be nice to hear for some people, like, what kinds of things they're they've been thinking about.
Cool. Are we ready? Does that work for people to move into discussion part of the party? Cool. Alright. Sweet. I will stop sharing my computer now.
And do please feel free to keep adding ideas if if you have any other ones that you remember all of a sudden as we're chatting. I'm like, this one seminar really stuck out to me. Yeah. Please feel free to drop that in that spreadsheet, just to also help us kind of see what is top of mind for folks.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And totally love the suggestion of organizing into themes. That was that's something that Sun and Eugene and I have talked about a bunch, but haven't had the time slash bandwidth to actually do that. So, yes, let's do it collectively. Alright. Anyone wanna share what
If you could just you know, one one mechanism to do that, if you all agree that we should. I think doing it after the fact is hard. But maybe during each seminar, there will be a list of keywords that people can check if they think that that keyword applies, and then those will become some kind of hashtags. And then everything can be organized this way.
Love that.
That's a great idea.
Should we collectively source that list of hashtags?
Yeah. Maybe there's maybe there's some like, one thing that I've noticed having done some stuff like that in the past is if you allow the keywords to be too bespoke, then they stop being useful. So, like, you do wanna kinda limit it to, you know, whatever, 30 of them or something like that. And so it could be valuable to curate a list and then ask the community what's missing, but then try to use the same keywords over and over again, even recognizing that some of them might be like, we don't need to tag something with just one tag, so it can be, like, whatever. It's like, we'll try to pick ones that won't go on every single one. But, you know, AI might show up in a bunch of different ones, but one might be AI and privacy, and one might be AI and whatever alignment. And so I think having a good combination of having options that can be, like, modularly combined will be most useful.
Yeah. We probably shouldn't have one for governance.
Right. Yeah. We'll need to, like, find things that are not in every single one. But maybe, like, voting could be one.
Okay. I'm taking notes, b. So AI privacy alignment voting. Let's go.
Where are notes? I'm happy to add too.
Oh, yeah.
It can be, like, technical versus things that are more conceptual. That can be a good a good distinction, for example. So this will be like a branch. Like, either it's more technical or it's more conceptual. Correct?
I think we should explore that path, but I think that that's gonna be a difficult one for people to like, if we're tagging while we're all in a seminar together, I think that could be a tougher one for people to decide on, and we may just end up seeing a bunch of ones with both of those tags because people don't wanna, like, say that it wasn't technical or whatever.
But, also, the author the the presenter can choose a few. We can have some that are presenter choices. The presenter want it to be more like this or that, and then it'll be different set for the audience.
Yeah. I love that. Feel free. So I made a second tab on the spreadsheet for hashtags. So if you're inspired to add a few, feel free. And I really love this idea. But curious, I would love to, like, talk about seminars specifically, keeping this kind of tagging system in our minds and themes and, yeah, themes in our minds. Anyone wanna share one that's really sticking out or maybe one that a couple of you brought into the spreadsheet? That's kinda cool. Considering there's a 100, what are the odds that there's one that many people or a couple people brought in?
You try the other video?
I see the chores one is on here twice.
Yes. Cint, do you wanna talk about that one?
Sure. Yeah. I mean, Steve and I enjoyed that one. Yeah. I mean, I really liked how elegant that system was and how it is it seemed to really be very, very well designed for the context. And I I'm I mean, I'm living in this arts residency at the moment, and, like, people have these, like, ideas of, like, you know, labeling everyone's color individually so that, like, everything in, like, the like, every object is, like, an individual responsibility compared to, like, like, very, like, opposite approaches. And so, like and I think what is interesting in this context that hadn't really registered for me, and it's different in in Daniel's context, is the kind of transitory nature of something like an arts residency in the sense that, every couple weeks or every month, you have new people who are, like, living in the space and attending these weekly meetings and making decisions collectively as these things are changing. So I would love to go back at some point and, like, explore that question of, like, the chores application through this question of, like, transitory participation. I mean, it's also just like a general I think it's like a general like, it's it's somehow like a reflection of the I don't know. It actually, like, this, like, transitory physical kind of environment actually feels very akin to a kind of online environment in the sense that it's some people are just with you for about a month, they're ephemeral, they kind of they're kind of, like, eventually Eugene, I think you're unmuted. The sorry. I lost my train of track my train of thought. But, basically, yeah, sorry. I lost my train of track my train of thought. But, basically, yeah. I mean, I just I think, like, this question of transitoryness and, like, that, like I don't know. It just feels very similar to being online where you do things and you don't really know if it has any kind of effect sometimes. And, like, this this question of how decisions get made when there's a transitory quality. So yeah. I mean, it's also, like, Steve said, just a debate sort of example of the kind of offline to like, online to offline kind of relationship between governance. So I thought that was really nice. Is there someone else who is there is there another one that we had that was, like, a couple of people were really into it? I think there is this one, two Federation?
Which one?
Robust Federation, Josh, but also
oh, it's anonymous.
Let's see who edited it.
Would either of you who who read about the presentation wanna talk about it?
What is this one? Robust federations.
We're back. I can speak to that one.
Yeah. Please.
So just, like, what was memorable about it?
Yeah. Or any kinds of reflections that you have, like, thinking back on it with some with some distance and, like, after all of the seminars we've done?
So Josh is the one who listed it, and I was the one who invited her. And, yeah, I I'm not listening to people I recommended because it obviously didn't know what I wanted. But since someone else's there, I'd I've always admired her thinking. I she's, you know, she's connected to the Center for Institute. She's connected to us from scholarship. She's connected to model. She's, like, for political science. And so but I, you know, I think she can only get so much traction, honestly, because she studies federal governments, and there's only, like, 30 of them or so in, like, the world's history. So, like, that's not a dataset to really, like, study a complicated subject. There's 30, like, dimensions of variability of federation. It's like, there are more columns than rows from a data perspective. And so, like, the opportunity we have to just take what she does and, like, do it better, I you know, I do have this picture of science, these kill your heroes kinda thing. You know, very stand on the shoulders of giants. And and so, you know, part of respecting and admiring her is thinking, like, how can we do thinking, like, how can we do take this really amazing thing and do a lot better? Take it further. Bring it in design, build better techs on the news, make better models, and and make this stuff testable. And so and the possibilities she opens up for design and the kind of door she opens for us, I am a big admirer, and I was really proud and excited that we got her.
Just briefly share this little clip I made, I think, a long, long time ago when Jenna gave the presentation, which I thought was, I don't know, really kind of, like, scratched my desire to sort of model everything as functions. Jonas, I think I I don't actually remember the context exactly of what was going on here. I think I actually took two things from there. I just realized. But, anyways, I thought it was a very nice kind of, like oh, I didn't realize there were, you know, more formal ways of modeling constitutional behavior. I thought that was kind of like a I was that was I very much appreciated that as it were. Let me see if I can just share this. I don't wanna rush to share my entire desktop. I know that's you guys see this? But this one over here. Partial compliance equilibrium. I'm not even sure what's going on there, but I thought it was just kind of interesting that this gets discussed in a in the context of, I guess, federal governments. Yes.
So cool. Yeah. I missed that one. I'm gonna I'm excited to look back at it.
Yeah. That's something that this go ahead.
No. No. I was just gonna invite one more kind of reflection moment before we talk future stuff because we only have a few more minutes. But, b, please.
I was just gonna say, like, something that this exercise made me recognize was that, like, there are so many seminars that I've missed and that I really wanna see. And I also like, I regularly link to a couple of ones. Like, I I helped host the Jonathan Stray talk, so I remember that one. But I also remember it because I link to it regularly and share it with other people outside of this community. And I think that a lot of the like, the fact that these artifacts are being created is so powerful. And I think that, like, one I love the idea of grouping stuff by theme a little bit more, making them more discoverable, but it also made me think that there's stuff in our archives here that's still super relevant and was, like, so present in its time. And, like, it's still like, just because it already happened and people didn't weren't there that particular day, like, doesn't mean that people shouldn't be aware of it. And so if we're thinking about whether we're gonna have a social media presence or if we're thinking about, like, how do people find out and know about MediGov, like, there's such a wealth of knowledge and just, like, fantastic conversations and expertise just even in these video recordings. And I think that this exercise has made me really reaffirm for me that we could do a much better job of bringing attention to the stuff that's already happened. Like, I know we have, like, a stacked list of, like, seminars to come, but also, like, shining more light on what's already happened is really powerful.
Mission accomplished. Yes. That's exactly exactly what we were feeling and why we wanted to do this seminar. So thank you so much for saying that, Pete.
I mean, I'm actually, like, oppressed by how much I'm like, oh, I gotta watch all this stuff.
I know. Right.
Like, I'm like, oh, I have too much to do. I have to, like, figure out a new, like, way of, like, you know, stream it into my head.
Totally. Yeah. If you're just joining, I just sent I copied and pasted you to your junior post. It's getting people up to date on where we're at, what we're doing. We're having a party reminiscing on seminars, and we're about to move into a discussion now for maybe the next, yeah, ten minutes we have left on what this reflection time has kind of planted in you about what you want more of, what you what you liked and what you want more of for seminars moving forward. Yeah. If any anyone feel free to unmute and share what you're thinking in terms of how we can continue to make these seminars so such a pillar of this community. Go for it, Josh.
I just wanna kind of put a shout out to the seminar that's sent to Manon just well, the proposal that's currently in seminar planning. But this eight week sort of tranche of seminars focused on a specific topic with a kind of particular objective. I think that that's actually, like, a really wonderful way of approaching it. Maybe not like we don't want all seminars to look like this. But I think if, like, a group of people, you know, got together and said, like, you know, we wanna organize, like, four seminars back to back that are gonna be focused on the this specific subject and with this particular goal in mind. I think that's, like, that'd be really powerful. Right?
So a seminar mini series. Yeah.
Exactly. And, like, obviously, we encourage people, like, to show up for all four or all whatever number because the idea is, like, you know, there's something it's the other sense of seminar. Like, when I think seminar in the sense of, like, a typical university, you sit down for, like, you know, 10 sessions, and you try to finish you know, you try to solve a problem or you produce an artifact or at least, like, there's a series of lectures that, you know, really you know you have the sense of accomplishment at the end. Right?
It's a lovely idea, Josh. I would even suggest, not that we require that for this series, the speakers will join the other seminars, and then we'll have a fifth one where all of them together will discuss. So it's really turning it into a little conference.
Yeah. I think that'd be super cool. It's like an extended panel. I think yeah. The point is, like, there's lots of different creative ways of shipping different versions of these, like, little minis mini seminar kind of, like, things. I'm really glad that put together the first one, and let's see if we can get more of these things and, you know, encourage people to kinda, like, organize and find collaborators to sort of, like, say, hey. I wanna do these.
Yeah. I mean, I think one thing that I was talking to Minhant about with this is I think this speaks to b's point about how we talk about these things publicly in some sense. Like, it's not quite right, but it's, like I can imagine, like, if I was interested in Medica and I knew that there's gonna be this, like, two month thing that I could actually engage with and really spend my time with and and know that we're gonna focus on this, like, specific topic, it becomes so much easier for me to kind of, like, cognitively be like, okay. For two months, I'm gonna do this. Rather than I'm just gonna come in and kind of, like, catch a seminar here, catch a seminar there. So I'm really excited by, like, these ways of thinking about the seminar as a platform that think about longer term engagements because they also then become ways that we can kind of, you know, hold an idea or a kind of collective interest as a community for a longer period of time and also signal that to the public that, like, for the next month, we're thinking about this. And then I don't know. There's a seasonality to it that I think is is really nice. I mean, of course, I'm biased. But yeah. Since you're here
I'm gonna I'm gonna go against the grain here. I I actually feel I not that I'm opposed to the idea of there being, like, group sessions and things like that, but I just also wanna name that, like, planning is overhead, and that's a lot of work. And I do think that something that's really beautiful about the seminars is the sort of, like, proposal energy, like, harnessing the community, bring bringing new people in who never heard of Medigap before, but they give a seminar and now suddenly they're part of this community. Like, I do I think that if we get a little bit too structured, we might lose some of the things that make it magical. But I also like, it it is true that there could be great value in having some themes, but I just I think, like, there is something also really special about the flexibility of it and the kind of, like, wow. You know? Like, this week, I'm learning about this, and this week, I'm not. Or, like, if I'm not into DAOs and there's, like, two months of DAO content, like, now I'm just not going to Medigap seminar. Right? And so, like, I think that having the variety is powerful. But I also think that, like, doing Zoom ish a Zoom conference ish thing is something we could totally do, and it doesn't even have to take place in the seminar. So I don't I don't mean to dismiss the idea, but I think that, like, I hesitate to give up something about that flexibility. And, yeah, like Steve put in the chat, there's, like even just lowering the threshold even further with the short talks has had some real surprise hits. And so I think that, like, I I personally think that what is so cool about the seminar is that it is a little window into the great diversity that is the MediGov community. And and I think that we should think of it as an inroad for people who maybe don't know a whole lot about this organization and this community. And so thinking about, like, what how might clustering certain concepts and things like that benefit or harm that kind of on ramp?
Can it be something in between?
Yeah. I'm curious. Like, maybe a some of them, like, I feel like some one sense I'm getting from this is that, like, maybe some of them are a little bit, like, present too presentation y, and we actually do wanna dive deeper. So while, like, some kind of are like, here's all this thinking I'm doing presentation, other times, it might be like, there could be a follow-up that maybe puts that person in conversation with someone else, and, like, you're able to go a little bit deeper. And maybe, yeah, maybe it's like that could be something that we think about and try to implement moving forward. Like, if we really liked one this one seminar or this one topic, like, how who might we put them in conversation with for a follow-up that's, like, maybe with another, like, kind of in, like, almost a panel style or just, like, how can we go deeper?
Yes. You were saying that, Val. It made me think like, maybe we ask people to prerecord some stuff. Like, maybe they give a thirty minute or twenty minute or whatever. We can figure out what it is. But, like, maybe the, like, presentation part is, like, something that is prerecorded and shared a week in advance or whatever, and then, like, the seminar is the discussion point. I don't know. Like, there might be ways to first point about trying to have a in between. I wonder if there could be something there.
Mhmm. Love it. Other thoughts? Three minutes left.
Maybe to, like, beep point about the kind of magic of the kind of self organizing aspect of the seminar. I mean, one thing that I've been happy to see in the last six months or so is more people proposing seminars, like, more different people proposing seminars. I think that's been really nice. And I also think, you know, like like, for me, like, the idea of, like, having, like, basically, like, eight months out of the year or ten months out of the year where it's it's, like, just like the seminar and the kind of form that it is now. Like, even if that's the case, like, I I I'm really interested in thinking about how to just encourage more people to actually propose seminars. I mean, I would love to hear, like, if people have ever, like, wanted or thought about submitting a seminar and then hesitated and didn't for some reason. I mean, like, I don't know. Like, I'm I'm wondering if anyone has ever, like, been on the cusp of, like, proposing one or, like, what the friction is there. Yeah. I don't know. It's it's been growing, but, yeah, I would love to hear more about that. Yeah. Mel, I see you have your hand up.
Yeah. I can I can identify with, kind of both sides of this? Like, I really enjoy that it's, pretty much, like, the most democratic part of MediGo. And I've, you know, done a short talk and, been, like, both happy and frustrated with myself in that process. And I think that but I also find kind of that, like, that desire, right, for more structured content seems appealing. And even, like, selfishly, I'm like, man, if I could if I could have, say, three guaranteed sort of sessions where people are gonna show up and get that feedback, and then I I could probably do something a bit magical with that, you know, maybe at the end, other people probably feel that too. So I think it's all really good stuff. I I just wanna say I'm in kind of in support of it, and I'd be happy to kinda keep talking about this in these types of forums because I think they're just awesome.
Yay. The meta seminar seminar was a success. So it's one, at least where I'm at. It's been an hour. I wanted to close off in a new way, which is to sing happy birthday to well, happy a 100 seminars in birthday form to MedigapSeminars. So it goes happy 100 seminars to us. Okay. Let everyone on mute and get ready to sing. Happy
It's remarkably difficult with audio lag.
It was better than I could have ever hoped that I'm asking.
Oh my goodness. I love it.
Thank you thank you, Seth, for doing, like, most of the, like, nitty gritty. I gotta say, like, hosting all of those. Just absolutely awesome.
Yes. Nice to be
able to say. And thank you, Vowel, for shepherding us through our hundredth seminar.
Yes. Thank you, Vowel, and thank you, Eugene. Thank you, everyone. It's yeah. It's a really fun session. Oh, okay. I'm gonna stop the recording.