Something from each session. What you *won’t* see, apparently, are any of the videos yet, in spite of the amped-up planning for “Global-Link” remote participation stations. Apparently, the congress is blowing Cape Town’s internet bandwidth out of the bay. Can that be? Can 5000 out-of-touch global pilgrims bring an entire city to a screeching internet halt? Just seems like some 16-year-old web-jockey would have been able to sort this out by now. The congress wi-fi set aside for delegates is slower than the 9600 baud modem I used to use to contact our team in Venezuela. (Remember that Eric? :-) ) I’m serious. I’m no convention planner, but shouldn’t there have been *some* conference, somewhere, with this many people using the internet? :-) Anyway, the promise is that “They hope to deliver everything tomorrow.” I talked to the head of I.T. for Lausanne today. He said they were bumping up the bandwidth in a *major* fashion. Let’s hope so. There are some 600 locations around the world waiting for video images of all of the above — and more. So far, Doug Birdsall is merely asking each of them to use their gatherings for prayer. Good save. Under the circumstances. If they fail to pull it off, some pundit somewhere might levy a charge that evangelicals are “out of touch, out of time, and out of talent.” And that would be a shame, frankly. Because, by the looks of the first day and a half, it would appear to this writer that Lausanne is back. And this time, it’s back with….
*** A humble heart
*** Faces of many colors
*** Voices of many languages
*** And the ability to dance. :-)
Please don’t blame Lausanne. Internet in Africa is an ongoing struggle. I hope that Western web developers will remember our slow speeds and consider African needs when creating missions websites.
Our expectations in the tech world are too high. Not long ago all we would get from a GCOWE such as in Korea was an email report basically after the fact. Internet access in Tororo, Uganda was not as effecient as my home here in Portland, OR USA and I didn’t expect it to be. However, the use of cell phones in Uganda and how they are used far exceeded what I was used to here in the USA…so, I’m thankful for what we have where ever we have it.
Let’s give the coordinators some grace. To put it into perspective, as Lausanne was kicking off, I was in Vegas at BlogWorld and New Media Expo 2010, the premiere conference on blogging, web video, podcasting, etc. We had roughly 2,000 attendees, and the internet was crawling. Staff at some of the expo booths wanting to ooh & aahh people with their new software or services were apologizing for not being able to give demos. That was just 2,000 people at a TECH conference in Vegas!