Do you eat burgers? Do you meet online?

In the Netherlands we have Expedition Robinson. Some famous Dutch people go to an island and have to battle. Here is a very funny scene from Expedition Robinson. Remy gets a burger, but because everyone gets to eat all kinds of scary insects he can not get the idea out of his head that he's going to eat maggots or insects. As a result of that idea in his head he does not manage to eat the burger and fails. Watch the scene below, even though it is in Dutch it is a very visual scene.

 

I was reminded of this scene because an experience today made me think about the importance of beliefs for seeing possibilities of using new media. I had a consultation in the north of the Netherlands (only 150 km but still a 2 hours journey) and we proposed to do the meeting online. We had proposed this earlier last year, but the group thought it was very important to see each other. "it is really necessary for a good conversation." Finally we convinced the group and did a test using adobe webinar using a screen and individual ipads. I was especially proud that it went very well and everyone thought it was a good meeting. It took some persuasion to try this! My first experiences of working online was working with John Smith from Learning Alliances in 2004... At the time I didn't think it would be possible to collaborate without being face-to-face.

See below also the youtube video with interviews about cell phones from 1999 ... "I have an answering machine, and that's fine" "if people want to reach me, they can do so by letter and if it is urgent, I have a telephone at home" :). These beliefs about the need to have a mobile phone have certainly changed!

 

To introduce innovative ways of communication to improve effectiveness and collaboration in organzation need a number of people at least who see what is possible (who can eat the burger!). The belief that you do not always have to see each other face-to-face to have a meaningful conversation or to learn from each other is very important. What are your own beliefs? What is really not possible online in your opinion?