By Teresa A. Martin
It feels like I was Out & About over every square inch of the Cape this week.
Lots of regional road time and lots of regional interactions. And throughout it all, there was a dual reminder of two things: first, nothing replaces personal interaction and second, virtual interactions are woven throughout everything we do.
If one event encapsulated both these notions, it was Thursday’s “State of the Town” event at Town Hall in Hyannis. It was a love fest, of sorts, a big group hug for building a better community “one child, one family” at a time.
Town Manager John Klimm led the festivities, which also featured the Barnstable High School Chamber Chorus, the Zion Union Church Choir, fire and police department honor guards, and several soloists. It was the kind of event that you might make up if you were writing a scene from the novel My Town – except it was very real, as I and a multitude of others who filed up the stairs fleeing the torrential downpour can attest.
For a region that is too-often negative, I want to celebrate the power of real time celebration. I want to cheer the mix of big screen video, teleprompters, and local citizens, civil servants, and proud families standing in the room in the flesh. I want to celebrate the ability to say that good things are happening to a roomful of people, and the ability to videocast it over the town’s website and cable station as well.
I want to celebrate that one of our towns can proudly talk about holding a AAA bond rating and to disagree that this is especially challenging to achieve in a seasonal economy. As seamlessly as the event incorporated digital streaming video, our region is incorporating year round business of increasing diversity. We are no longer just a quaint seasonal economy – and reasons were staring us right in the face in the form of a million digital references that no one blinked an eye at.
I know, I know, I say this a lot but I don’t think it can be said too often. We are part of a global economy. A Barnstable resident who was in Hong Kong or Toronto or Worcester could have partaken in the festivities virtually on Thursday night. Or watched them on their own time schedule today. This option was referenced several times in the evening. And that same resident – of anyone so inclined – can interact commercially with any business entity in Barnstable at any time, in much the same way.
Seasonal, geographic, and time zone barriers are melting away. All businesses have some seasonality, whether tied to a budget cycle or a rise and fall of customer interest. A strong economy has enough mix and diversity that the variations in that rise and fall balance out over the sum of the year.
But the power of real person, real time, and real geography endures. I’d love to hear how someone who participated virtually experienced Barnstable’s celebration. I know that being there in person, I was struck by the power of hearing the silent footsteps and the quiet hut-hut-hut of the color guard a few feet away. I was swayed by the wave of a hundred people standing up to recognize honorees. The group rose to its feet a good dozen times over the evening, and kinetics of that sort simply can’t be duplicated virtually. Second Life is pretty good, but not that good.
The event worked because of a million physical clues sent out between the participants. It worked because a hundred different people could have subtext communication with each other, hissing about a rumor or setting one section to nodding amongst themselves in agreement on a whispered comment. The subtlies of physical human interaction never cease to amaze me.
Yet the virtual was a constant presence. Announcements about website enhancements, new streaming options, and surveillance cameras with digital feeds were woven into the State-Of accomplishments right along side a discussion of access to the waterfront and traffic management. There’s no split between any of these. They are simply some of the many facets of municipal management, causing no stir or wonderment. We have incorporated applications to the point of normalization.
And that’s where we begin to realize the true potential of this last decade of digitalization. Everything we do – from civic engagement to raw commerce – happens at multiple locations along a sliding scale from the face to face (the F2F, if you prefer) to the totally virtual.
A handshake as you enter the room. A video of a co-worker’s testimonial. A dozen students in the front of the room harmonizing ... or the same coming from a browser window the next day. A wink across the room or an LOL sent via IM. They aren’t different – they are merely points on the same continuum of interaction.
As we accept and internalize this, our ability to pick and choose the best medium, method, and mean for the moment strengthens. The handshake matters a great deal. But so does the email to follow up on the handshake the next day. This wasn’t an explicitly identified state of the town, but it is the state we all find ourselves in today. And it is one that offers more flexibility, strength, and potential to keep growing our region stronger one child, one family, and one neighborhood – real or virtual – at a time.
Become a Member
