Upcoming Gemini Presentation, Brussels

[Jonathan McHugh]

Hi Alan,

Thanks for that concern.

One of my challenges as a presenter are that many of Gemini's justifications are already clearly provided in a succinct way (The protocol even states its not a replacement nor HTTP)- I want to be creative without repeating others (though Id make an excellent text to speech bot...)

For me visualising these concepts (and providing the coding for reuse) would be helpful, in order to build on the concept(s) would be a win if the talk bombs.

I enjoy using analogies and consider the 'Gemini spacecraft' one to be an excellent (though I consider it to represent the 'software', rather than the 'freedom' aspect more perfectly). 

I am keen to suggest a freedom analogy on terms of the Retford pilgrims who made it across the Atlantic (on the Mayflower) - 

Here goes a rough concept:

Why did they go with less?: Previously, vistors of the American shores were usually a consequence of serendipity, privateers and plunderers. Many sailors were Zuckerberg'd onto ships, having been plied with drink the night before. The bureaucratic reach of two distance dioceses started applying pressure on them to conform - they chose risk, toil and suffering - all for what, freedom?

*Ducks a tomato*

[Now, I could also trail off into things like the Diet of Worms, the Luddites, et al but Im not so sure they are worth birthing]

Personally, I dont considered furrowed brows or indignation a problem, provided I put in enough effort to allow people to reflect.

Thanks

====================
Jonathan McHugh
indieterminacy at libre.brussels

August 31, 2021 4:03 PM, "Alan" <gemini at bunburya.eu> wrote:

> I definitely think this should inform the way Gemini is introduced. More generally, you'll want to
> pre-empt all the usual questions like "wouldn't it be better if Gemini had X feature" or "how is
> this protocol supposed to replace the web".
> 
> Personally I would be careful to avoid words like "replacement" or "alternative" when describing
> Gemini; in fact, I would try to minimise direct comparisons to the web to the extent possible. From
> what I've seen on places like Reddit or HN, confusion about Gemini's purpose seems to be the main
> source of negative feedback so trying to address that in your talk might be an effective way to get
> more people interested.
> 
> On 31/08/2021 16:26, Andrew Singleton wrote:
> 
>> Unsure if this is something that will fit your tone or presentation length, but an explanation on
>> Gemini as supplementary protocol rather than 'well why not refit the search query so you can use
>> that to make a message board/chatroom/etc' or 'how about we add *thing*?'
>> 
>> Arguments could be made for an expansion of Gemini, but the point of Gemini is this is literally
>> all it does or really should do. Video streaming, shopping/banking, hat, message boards, etc are
>> problems other protocols can solve and more power for people who come up with lean solutions for
>> each (though I suspect shopping/banking won't ever change as you need institutional backing to roll
>> those out.)
>> 
>> For a time I grumbled st the lack of Gemini content on YouTube or odessy and couldn't understand
>> why. Thing is Everything that strictly needed saying already had been along with the fact Gemini
>> itself is exceedingly niche. Sure I would love more people talking about it, but at the same time?
>> What else is there to say?
>> 
>> Maybe going into what people can do server side?