MWPGM Bailey, my mid career workplace was at Xerox (1977-2005). In my years there I became an Ethernet software engineer and Systems Administrator. We invented the Mouse, and WYSIWYG systems. I often flew from Rochester NY to LAX (tried out software upgrades in El Segundo CA)! We also developed network printers, based on our Copiers.
It was great to be engaged in development of Star Workstations, but Xerox giving tours to Steve Jobs and letting him invest in development? My opinion is that Steve Jobs "ate my lunch"! If we had been wiser, I'd be a retired millionaire? In the 2004 & 2005 era, Xerox laid off 7,000 of the 16,000 Xerox employees in the Rochester NY area. Hmmm... (me included)!
I did read the story about how Mr. Jobs saw what Xerox had created and ran with it for the Macintosh. Of course Gates took IBM's lunch as well. I guess that shows how sometimes nimbleness of a new small upstart can hammer a larger more entrenched company.
As a really long time Apple guy (Apple II was my first in the mid-80's) I do figure that Apple is on a decline. Apple has refined since the death of Jobs, but I haven't seen anything revolutionary since his passing. And that won't keep forever.
Hmm. You got onto the internet in the mid-90s and your grandaughter thought the world ended when the internet went dark. And there are young men born since the mid-90s who can't understand why we can't have Lodge meetings online and the reason is that a bunch of old men think the world will end if we do.
I don't pretend to know the solution to this quandry but I do know that we'll never figure it out if we continue to avoid this issue.
My Lodge experimented for a really long time (from the Pandemic to now) with having Lodge meetings (within the Grand Lodge's restrictions) via Zoom. Our real world experience is:
-The streamed portions of the meetings never streamed well. Not for the guys online, and not for the guys in the room. Some of this was technological problems, because we didn't know what on earth we were doing. But most of this is that the Lodge room is not an adequate environment in which to do it. The room is too big, the Masons are too spread out, and the acoustics are awful.
-We never had very many people join us via Zoom, but we did have two or three who joined us very regularly.
Now all of the problems mentioned above are problems for the men in the Lodge room too. Our Lodge room is quite simply massive, so lots of guys can't hear both the WM and the SW from where they sit. One or the other, not both. And amplification doesn't help all that much, because then the acoustics really go to hell.
The solution we eventually arrived at, that I think is working quite well is to: Open the Lodge in the Lodge Room, and take care of any other 'ritualistic' type of business, such as balloting. Then we move into a small dining room and sit around a table to take care of all the business type of business. This allows everyone to participate and be heard with ease. We then move back into the Lodge room to Close the Lodge.
A benefit of this is that it allows for high quality streaming over Zoom.
We've also (thanks to a couple young members who do these things) come up with an excellent tech stack for the whole thing. Microphones and cameras around the room for those on Zoom, so that everyone is seen and heard clearly, and the biggest TV imaginable dominating one end of the room so that everyone there physically can easily see, and hear, those participating on Zoom.
But, it's still just the business portion of the Lodge meeting.
What we've also added is educational discussions twice a month. Last night's for example was on the meaning of 'free' in 'freemason.' An excellent discussion.
We record these (probably for use on YouTube in the future) and we invite anyone who would like to join via Zoom. We started doing these maybe 8 months ago, and it's been rather hit or miss. I think that on the low end, we had like four people show up once, and on the high end I think we had eighteen for one of them. But we haven't gotten much traction on Zoom with them. I don't think we ever get more than one or two people joining via Zoom, which is pretty surprising to me, as the discussions are solid, and the tech stack makes for a really good experience.
(I'm using Zoom here as a stand in word for any video conferencing platform.)
Maybe online attendance will eventually improve, we hope so.
We did encounter a pretty serious problem one time. Both the WM and the SW were on vacation, so the Lodge was being run by the JW. The other two officers joined by Zoom. I was sitting in the Chaplain's chair so couldn't do anything about it, but those two started arguing over Zoom and wouldn't shut the heck up. The JW, as they weren't physically present was unable to get control of the thing, and it was a nightmare. Had I been in the East, I would have just directed that the Zoom be shut off to eject those Brothers, but he was hesitant to eject the installed WM. In any event, we discussed it afterwards and did decide that if anything were to happen like that again, we would eject the Brother, no matter his office.
That is something to consider though, the 'virtual gavel.'
I can relate to the technology and facility issues you've described. They're real and at one point or another many of us have experienced the same. The pandemic was a challenging time and we all had to make the best of it, which is a nice way of saying "making it up as we go along". At the core of the problem was that we were trying to jam two settings together and I think there have been enough cases that prove that the best outcome is for the online participants to watch while the in person attendees do their thing, or vice versa.
This begs the question of why are we restricting our thinking to a hybrid approach. Why don't we have a lodge that is exclusively an online lodge? We say we're worried about transmitting Masonic secrets online but that can't be right. The secrets are already out there. Just Google "Masonic Ritual" and you'll find them. And of course there are many established Masons who insist that there's something lost when we don't meet in person, and they're right. But there's probably also many would-be Masons who don't understand wh we don't have an online option. They can earn a Bachelors or Masters degree online, but they can't go through the Masonic degrees. Someday we'll look back on this and laugh the same way we laugh now when we recall the days when there were only three channels on TV.
As to Brothers fighting during a meeting, bang the gavel and close, even if the gavel is virtual.
A regular reader of Emeth is a member of I believe three Lodges that meet exclusively online, and has been for a number of years. If my memory serves, one of these Lodges is under a Canadian Jurisdiction, and the other one or two is under an Australian Jurisdiction(s).
He loves it, because he lives in Mexico, and this gives him an opportunity to participate with Masonry in his mother tongue. (He's also active in a Mexican Lodge near his home I believe.)
Perhaps he will weigh in.
The technology problems are real, we certainly faced them at my Lodge. But with time, and practice, and a knowledgeable brother or two (and a willingness to invest some money) they can be solved. I've seen that with my own eyes.
As for me personally, I don't think that I'd enjoy an online Lodge. But that's me, others may be different.
Ultimately (although someone at our Grand Lodge will probably get pissed at me for writing this) there is a pretty severe danger for Grand Lodges if they don't figure out how to allow this.
The fact is that Masonry existed long before the idea of a Grand Lodge was ever hatched. And Masonry could exist again without Grand Lodges.
The danger is that at some point, if a Grand Lodge restricts things too much, some guys will just do it anyway, ignoring Grand Lodge entirely. That's what technology does, it disrupts. And once successfully disrupted in that way, the whole darn thing will collapse.
Has anything ever been more tightly controlled and regulated than NYC Taxis? How did that work out when Uber and Lyft showed up?
I remember, not all that long ago, wandering the streets of San Francisco, wondering if I would eventually die from exposure before actually finding a taxi. Today, Lyft gets me a ride in seconds.
Are you sure you don't want to have another term in the Grand East? Don't worry about pissing off someone at Grand Lodge ... if you're not falling down you're not skiing hard enough.
I believe that Mrs. Bailey would murder me if I attempted another term, and I think she would likely be justified in doing so! But, I truly appreciate the kind sentiments behind your words.
Worry not, I don't concern myself with angering people. I figure that a writer must tell the truth to be worth his salt.
It is wild to consider all of the rapid changes and advancements in technology in so short a time. I remember before cell phones became a household thing, and when phones weren’t cordless.
I can only imagine how much more drastic it must feel for those who remember radio before TV was a household experience.
Thought provoking post MWB Bailey! Keep up the Great Work!
While I generally avoid technology until the last possible moment, I was an early adopter of cellular phones. Because I felt they were needed for my business. I remember it well. You got it from ATT, you paid an ungodly amount of money for a few minutes of use, and you carried it around in its own little briefcase. If you were far from a tower, that little briefcase even had an antenna you could lift for greater range!
I appreciate its conveniences nearly as much as I fear its effects on society. Much like any tool, used properly it can be invaluable, used improperly the results can be disastrous. Unfortunately, all too often we allow convenience to override common sense.
MWPGM Bailey, my mid career workplace was at Xerox (1977-2005). In my years there I became an Ethernet software engineer and Systems Administrator. We invented the Mouse, and WYSIWYG systems. I often flew from Rochester NY to LAX (tried out software upgrades in El Segundo CA)! We also developed network printers, based on our Copiers.
It was great to be engaged in development of Star Workstations, but Xerox giving tours to Steve Jobs and letting him invest in development? My opinion is that Steve Jobs "ate my lunch"! If we had been wiser, I'd be a retired millionaire? In the 2004 & 2005 era, Xerox laid off 7,000 of the 16,000 Xerox employees in the Rochester NY area. Hmmm... (me included)!
I did read the story about how Mr. Jobs saw what Xerox had created and ran with it for the Macintosh. Of course Gates took IBM's lunch as well. I guess that shows how sometimes nimbleness of a new small upstart can hammer a larger more entrenched company.
As a really long time Apple guy (Apple II was my first in the mid-80's) I do figure that Apple is on a decline. Apple has refined since the death of Jobs, but I haven't seen anything revolutionary since his passing. And that won't keep forever.
Hmm. You got onto the internet in the mid-90s and your grandaughter thought the world ended when the internet went dark. And there are young men born since the mid-90s who can't understand why we can't have Lodge meetings online and the reason is that a bunch of old men think the world will end if we do.
I don't pretend to know the solution to this quandry but I do know that we'll never figure it out if we continue to avoid this issue.
This is interesting stuff to me.
My Lodge experimented for a really long time (from the Pandemic to now) with having Lodge meetings (within the Grand Lodge's restrictions) via Zoom. Our real world experience is:
-The streamed portions of the meetings never streamed well. Not for the guys online, and not for the guys in the room. Some of this was technological problems, because we didn't know what on earth we were doing. But most of this is that the Lodge room is not an adequate environment in which to do it. The room is too big, the Masons are too spread out, and the acoustics are awful.
-We never had very many people join us via Zoom, but we did have two or three who joined us very regularly.
Now all of the problems mentioned above are problems for the men in the Lodge room too. Our Lodge room is quite simply massive, so lots of guys can't hear both the WM and the SW from where they sit. One or the other, not both. And amplification doesn't help all that much, because then the acoustics really go to hell.
The solution we eventually arrived at, that I think is working quite well is to: Open the Lodge in the Lodge Room, and take care of any other 'ritualistic' type of business, such as balloting. Then we move into a small dining room and sit around a table to take care of all the business type of business. This allows everyone to participate and be heard with ease. We then move back into the Lodge room to Close the Lodge.
A benefit of this is that it allows for high quality streaming over Zoom.
We've also (thanks to a couple young members who do these things) come up with an excellent tech stack for the whole thing. Microphones and cameras around the room for those on Zoom, so that everyone is seen and heard clearly, and the biggest TV imaginable dominating one end of the room so that everyone there physically can easily see, and hear, those participating on Zoom.
But, it's still just the business portion of the Lodge meeting.
What we've also added is educational discussions twice a month. Last night's for example was on the meaning of 'free' in 'freemason.' An excellent discussion.
We record these (probably for use on YouTube in the future) and we invite anyone who would like to join via Zoom. We started doing these maybe 8 months ago, and it's been rather hit or miss. I think that on the low end, we had like four people show up once, and on the high end I think we had eighteen for one of them. But we haven't gotten much traction on Zoom with them. I don't think we ever get more than one or two people joining via Zoom, which is pretty surprising to me, as the discussions are solid, and the tech stack makes for a really good experience.
(I'm using Zoom here as a stand in word for any video conferencing platform.)
Maybe online attendance will eventually improve, we hope so.
We did encounter a pretty serious problem one time. Both the WM and the SW were on vacation, so the Lodge was being run by the JW. The other two officers joined by Zoom. I was sitting in the Chaplain's chair so couldn't do anything about it, but those two started arguing over Zoom and wouldn't shut the heck up. The JW, as they weren't physically present was unable to get control of the thing, and it was a nightmare. Had I been in the East, I would have just directed that the Zoom be shut off to eject those Brothers, but he was hesitant to eject the installed WM. In any event, we discussed it afterwards and did decide that if anything were to happen like that again, we would eject the Brother, no matter his office.
That is something to consider though, the 'virtual gavel.'
I can relate to the technology and facility issues you've described. They're real and at one point or another many of us have experienced the same. The pandemic was a challenging time and we all had to make the best of it, which is a nice way of saying "making it up as we go along". At the core of the problem was that we were trying to jam two settings together and I think there have been enough cases that prove that the best outcome is for the online participants to watch while the in person attendees do their thing, or vice versa.
This begs the question of why are we restricting our thinking to a hybrid approach. Why don't we have a lodge that is exclusively an online lodge? We say we're worried about transmitting Masonic secrets online but that can't be right. The secrets are already out there. Just Google "Masonic Ritual" and you'll find them. And of course there are many established Masons who insist that there's something lost when we don't meet in person, and they're right. But there's probably also many would-be Masons who don't understand wh we don't have an online option. They can earn a Bachelors or Masters degree online, but they can't go through the Masonic degrees. Someday we'll look back on this and laugh the same way we laugh now when we recall the days when there were only three channels on TV.
As to Brothers fighting during a meeting, bang the gavel and close, even if the gavel is virtual.
A regular reader of Emeth is a member of I believe three Lodges that meet exclusively online, and has been for a number of years. If my memory serves, one of these Lodges is under a Canadian Jurisdiction, and the other one or two is under an Australian Jurisdiction(s).
He loves it, because he lives in Mexico, and this gives him an opportunity to participate with Masonry in his mother tongue. (He's also active in a Mexican Lodge near his home I believe.)
Perhaps he will weigh in.
The technology problems are real, we certainly faced them at my Lodge. But with time, and practice, and a knowledgeable brother or two (and a willingness to invest some money) they can be solved. I've seen that with my own eyes.
As for me personally, I don't think that I'd enjoy an online Lodge. But that's me, others may be different.
Ultimately (although someone at our Grand Lodge will probably get pissed at me for writing this) there is a pretty severe danger for Grand Lodges if they don't figure out how to allow this.
The fact is that Masonry existed long before the idea of a Grand Lodge was ever hatched. And Masonry could exist again without Grand Lodges.
The danger is that at some point, if a Grand Lodge restricts things too much, some guys will just do it anyway, ignoring Grand Lodge entirely. That's what technology does, it disrupts. And once successfully disrupted in that way, the whole darn thing will collapse.
Has anything ever been more tightly controlled and regulated than NYC Taxis? How did that work out when Uber and Lyft showed up?
I remember, not all that long ago, wandering the streets of San Francisco, wondering if I would eventually die from exposure before actually finding a taxi. Today, Lyft gets me a ride in seconds.
Are you sure you don't want to have another term in the Grand East? Don't worry about pissing off someone at Grand Lodge ... if you're not falling down you're not skiing hard enough.
I believe that Mrs. Bailey would murder me if I attempted another term, and I think she would likely be justified in doing so! But, I truly appreciate the kind sentiments behind your words.
Worry not, I don't concern myself with angering people. I figure that a writer must tell the truth to be worth his salt.
It is wild to consider all of the rapid changes and advancements in technology in so short a time. I remember before cell phones became a household thing, and when phones weren’t cordless.
I can only imagine how much more drastic it must feel for those who remember radio before TV was a household experience.
Thought provoking post MWB Bailey! Keep up the Great Work!
While I generally avoid technology until the last possible moment, I was an early adopter of cellular phones. Because I felt they were needed for my business. I remember it well. You got it from ATT, you paid an ungodly amount of money for a few minutes of use, and you carried it around in its own little briefcase. If you were far from a tower, that little briefcase even had an antenna you could lift for greater range!
I appreciate its conveniences nearly as much as I fear its effects on society. Much like any tool, used properly it can be invaluable, used improperly the results can be disastrous. Unfortunately, all too often we allow convenience to override common sense.