Anne Truitt Zelenka

In planning the Office 2.0 Podcast Jam, I learn as much from detractors as I do from supporters. I’ve heard a few different arguments against the project. The one that I want to address here is the claim that the podcast jam creates an alternative, lesser conference.

Alternative: yes. Lesser: not necessarily. I think of it as orthogonal. What’s orthogonality? Perpendicularity in every dimension. If you’ve spent any time with me or my blogs, you might know that I’m always seeking orthogonality. I’m trained as a statistician and as a computer programmer. In statistics, finding orthogonal variables is the ultimate success. It means you’ve determined the independent components that predict something of interest. In computer programming, a system design with orthogonal components means each component works independently without functional overlap or side effects. This makes the system easier to develop, to maintain, and to test.

If the podcast jam project achieves orthogonality, that means it has contributed something different and new to the world. I hope it’s not just different and new but valuable to the participants also. For me, it has already been of unexpected value. I didn’t know that taking on a project like this would bring me closer to so many smart, interesting people.

The thing about something orthogonal is that you might not initially recognize its value. It’s easier to see value in things we’re familiar with. And it feels comfortable to rank things along a single dimension. This is better, that is worse. But orthogonality deals in multiple dimensions, as many dimensions as we can discover or create.

One of my favorite quotes on orthogonality comes from mindfulness guru Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Coming to Our Senses:

To my mind, an orthogonal institution would be one that had rotated in consciousness to some degree and could thus exist… in the same space, but with a larger dimensionality, and at the same time as more conventional elements of the institution, or exist on its own within the larger conventional reality. In that sense, bringing a sustained openhearted awareness to your work or your family can make your work or your family functionally orthogonal to the conventional mind set and coordinate system within which things usually tend to operate.

In the world of technology, we know how conferences usually tend to operate. What I envision for the podcast jam is something that’s orthogonal to the in-person conference in San Francisco, and something that’s expanded in dimensionality relative to it. How can I do that? By adding new dimensions and by extending the reach of the dimensions already there.

Consider these dimensions:

• Breadth of topics. The podcast jam topic tracks will expand upon what you might hear at the conference to include international perspectives, user experience and accessibility, education and nonprofit usage of web-enabled office software, and a reality check on Office 2.0.
• Participant demographics. Because the podcast jam is all online, we can attract a broader range of participants. Geographic, time, and financial constraints won’t act as barriers. People with a tangential interest in web-enabled software can still provide a useful perspective on the discussions since they don’t have to commit an entire day or two to attending.
• Time dimension. The podcast jam will occur from October 9th through 13th, so in one respect it’s expanded in time relative to the two-day conference. In another respect, however, it works the other end of the time dimension by squeezing down speaker and attendance requirements to nearly nothing through the use of short podcasts and a come-when-you-can, come-as-you-are format.
• Geographic dimension. The conference occurs only in San Francisco. The podcast jam happens anywhere someone makes or listens to one of the podcasts.

If you’re interested in the topic of Office 2.0 or in the experiment that is Podcast Jam, check out the website or subscribe to the news feed.