Everything is so hyperlocal

Now being stranded, it was planned, in a hospital and soon to be released, it seems to me that everything is so hyperlocal, places, people and matters of concern. But there is value to yield from this situation still. Let's take the starting point of this drowsy .......

we are interrupting this program for some super hyperlocal concern, when the nurse comes to refit the drip catheter, meaning pealing off the old gluey plaster that keeps the needle in place under the skin, that means force shaving via glue pilosity you now hate to have at this angle of the arm. I told you, this is all hyperlocal.

Back to our program. I was brought to rummage about things local when getting the tip about the Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators conference in November. I did briefly consider even summing up the cost that would involve going to this venue, anticipating the last time - more than 10 years ago -  I did the very same thing, boarding a JAL flight from Tokyo, a convenient night flight, that would taxi back within a short minute while an announcement informed the travelers that an engine needed a part replacement that would take an hour and more to perform. There are flights that feel almost local, that is domestic, not only because of the relatively short flight time, but because in the case of Tokyo to Sydney or Melbourne, it felt as seen on the map that you only had to release the brakes, and the plane would reach destination by pure effect of gravitation, by falling down the map. It was and still is a straight line.

It was circa 1995, the beginning quickly followed by the end of multimedia. I was in, writing in a local magazine about CD-ROMs from the world over (excluding Africa and where you can't eat). Interpretation at the time was anecdotal. One day, I was roaming Netscape and bumped into the announcement of an international conference about ... multimedia! Getting green light and cash from the magazine was a piece of cake. I boarded that plane, landed, had a meeting with someone locally to turn maybe famous. Then came next early morning and the registration (with coffee). And I still plain and clear and loud remember the reaction of the lady at the table noticing where I was coming from. She almost shouted : "You came from there for that!?"

I was proud (replace this by "stupid"). I had a ready to deliver answer, the importance of multimedia, how this would change the world and blah blah. Wasn't it Mr Nicholas Negroponte who was the international juicy morsel of the conference, that international tip of an otherwise very local (asparagus) conference?

Being local is not insult.

Nicholas Negroponte, the very man I read about this morning who just announced that in 5 years time, the physical book is dead? Incidentally, Bill Gates at the same venue announced that "Five years from now on the web for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world", hastily summed up by a media I am hating myself to still read that In Five Years The Best Education Will Come From The Web. 

This big news is now being echoed comme ça without notice, comment, yeahs or boos by many "friends" over some social network (not Facebook).

I went to the same conference the following year was it,  on my own money this time because the multimedia burner was getting cooler, that is, dying, but it was not correctly correct to reckon it, especially with the self.

The conference was mostly hyperlocal, hypersufficient, hyper neverlasting. I would not suggest the same about that conference in Australia, but when it comes to ROI, I know it would be foolish to invest in getting there, in terms of slim expectation of valuable networking - unless I would consider moving to Australia very soon - or even in terms of the program content which looks enticing enough but the published papers to come some time later can already be spent doing something else.

The ecosystem, the dynamics of the business of interpretation between Japan and Australia have no common ground nor even pipelines. They exist on different planets. Waiting for the report, because planet Australia is way much more interesting when it comes to interpretation than Japan, is the best bet.

In the meantime, I came to understand the innards, the inside mechanic of these conference and how it translate in terms of ROI. They are hyperlocal although they try so hard to feel international and hype by inviting the unavoidable personality du jour that will deliver a so well wrapped up quickly forgettable cool and fun presentation. I can taste the coffee too much like Proust with tea.

All this doesn't mean that this or that conference is meaningless. The point is to determine whether the meaning of it interlace with your own meaningfulness. Both are very much hyperlocal concerns, fooled by daily roaming of news web sites that fool you into tangibly feeling a dimension of globality, by stopping by the Nikkei, much longer on Le Monde, and somewhat over the NYT. It's a matter of agenda and possible community of purpose at some level of the agenda of that gathering. If none, present of future, and if not sponsored which means that you are part of the dynamics, it's better to cast away Australian dreams. But there is value in reading the program just like with every other international, regional, local or hyperlocal dynamics.

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Lionel Dersot
Language Interpretation for Business and Technology in Tokyo
Japan Liaison Agency and Business Support Services
Mobile : +81 90 6858 1106
Fax: +1 815 572-8300
lionel.dersot@japan-interpreters.com
Skype : lionelskp
http://www.lioneldersot.com
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