Hi everyone!
We’re getting very close to the big day – I hope you’re all excited about what we’re creating together! I like to think of events like this as being a kind of distributed, de-centralised joy network: there’s a central organising point that says it’s on, but that’s only a tiny part of it. The initiative that makes it actually happen comes from each of our individual locations, sponsors, and volunteers; and awareness of that fact, that all around the world over the course of this day thousands of people are working in parallel to share a few hours of happiness with their local community – and then share that sharing with local communities all over the world (would you call that meta sharing?) – is for me one of the best things about the day. So thank you for making this happen for all those thousands of other participants! Their experience wouldn’t be the same without you.
Anyway, enough philosophizing from me!
The Point: Remember to register!
This is a reminder for those who haven’t quite registered yet and are thinking of participating in the international events (the Minecraft Hunger Games and the Global Gossip Game) that you need to register ASAP. Minecraft tournament registrations close soon, and Global Gossip registrations close in mid-October so I can start to generate the gossip chains. (A job that is waaaaaay less cool than it sounds.)
There’s still 6 weeks before the big day, which means people still potentially have time to put an event together to join in. What’s more, both of these inter-library events are improved the more participants they have, so in addition to registering yourself, please consider spreading the word and encouraging library colleagues in your networks to register too if they haven’t already.
(NOTE: These cutoffs only apply to these big inter-library events. You can continue to register for IGD right up to the day before and still potentially be added to the map.)
This goes double for libraries in countries (and regions) where we don’t have a lot of registrations already. Don’t forget that our press kit not only has a bunch of handy promotional materials for your event itself, it also has some suggested text for you to circulate through your library networks! If you’d like to help grow the day for everyone involved, and especially if you’re in Asia, Africa or South America, please do!