Bookups, Bookups Everywhere

March has had its ups and downs. We’ve had interesting bookups and some not so interesting ones, we’ve had independent bookups (basically meaning we had no time to attend…), we’ve had bookups that we had to cancel, and the regular bookups where people just didn’t show up despite registering. Personally, I’ve lost count of the bookup number, all I know is that we have a series of 20 (twenty😱) bookups coming up in the next couple of weeks.

How did it go last night?

Yesterday’s topic was “What is information?”, starting from Paul Davies’ video lecture. There was one recurring bookuper and one new participant. Here are some of the points we touched on:

• How and where do we begin to define information, in a specific and pragmatic manner?
• What is the relation between information and matter? Are they inter-dependent or can information generate matter? Is information embedded into matter or can it travel?
• How is information tied up to our consciousness and how does perception influence the objective reality of information? Wait…is there such thing as objective reality?🤔
• Should information be regarded as an asset or commodity? And if so, then how can we know its value, how do we measure it?

I won’t disclose too much because a redo of this bookup is definitely worth doing, maybe in Cluj, and then other cities around the world.

So all is good, then?

No, not really. The lack of feedback on bookups is utterly disconcerting, especially since I personally cannot relate to this behaviour. I have always felt the need to give and receive feedback whenever possible. It is ultimately an act of kindness between people. We have tried & tested various methods of asking for feedback, we altered the questions, the forms, the language, all to no avail.

Other updates on the general path of Bookups:

• The good news of the week is that one of the bookupers who attended a Poetry Night is organizing an independent bookup in Prague. Hooray!
• Our plight for Brand Ambassadors is Bucharest & Cluj piqued some people’s interest and we get to carry out to interviews tomorrow;
• I am racking my brain on a form of deliverable content for Bookups, not solely pre- or post-event, but also for independent consumption;
• I am also thinking of a more holistic approach to our bookups, and the whole experience in general, but things still need to crystallise in my head.