Occupy Wall Street organizers Justin Wedes and Sandra will hold a live interactive Tele-Forum on Wednesday, October 19. The call-in will begin at 4:00 PM EST (1:00 PM PST, USA) and last for an hour and thirty minutes. “During this Tele-Forum we will have an in-depth and interactive discussion with two of the OWS movement’s organizers about its origins, current status and future plans,” the announcement explains.
On Saturday, Occupy Wall Street affiliated protests took place in around 1,500 cities around the world, including New York, San Francisco, Berlin, London, Mumbai, Tokyo, and Seoul. No surprise that following this level of activity, some of the movement’s organizers would want to connect with the broader public. Although this Tele-Forum may sound like a formal conference call event, this is one of those moments when the boundaries between teleconferencing and talk radio seem to blur.
“For at least half of the call, listeners can ask questions and make comments talking directly with the speakers,” the e-mail we received says. “Listeners with computers can also write questions the speakers can see during the call. We will even set up a Round Table with several callers at a time to discuss certain aspects of OWS.”
The We group has sponsored the tele-forum. The outfit describes itself as providing vehicles for “connection, interaction and opportunity for unprecedented cooperation between people, organizations and movements.” We’s most recent Tele-Forums focused on water and the morality of nuclear weapons.
The forum will be run by the Maestro conferencing company, which works with non-profits and donates five percent of its proceeds to them. The announcement urges participants to call in by 3:50PM at the latest “to make sure you’re on when it starts.” People who want to participate need to pre-register for the event.
