A crucial point. Anthropologists need virtual alternatives for many reasons: access, equity, climate, and so on. The wonderful organizing team for #distribute2020 averted any Zoombombing through concerted and collective effort. Trouble at #RaisingOurVoices2020 notwithstanding. https://twitter.com/sarahshulist/status/1325882822805086208

It would be such a tragedy if AAA now declared an end to virtual experimentation. There is so much to learn from what @culanth and @SocietyVisAnth and others have done, and these efforts and lessons cannot be neglected.

For starters, on lessons, and on strategies, here is a passage on security measures against Zoombombing that were used at #distribute2020, from the terrific "playbook" that the organizers wrote.
https://distribute.utoronto.ca/playbook/ 

"Our security efforts paid off: we managed to keep the Virtual Hallway open for 72 hours without a single act of trolling or Zoom-bombing." #distribute2020

AAA, please don't conflate an organizational failure to develop proper security measures with an impossibility of the medium itself. Closing the hallways now in the name of security feels just like that "safer," and yet still unsafe and unpalatable forum: the gated "Communities."

Here's what AAA announced about the hallways today. h/t @s_mcguirk

I also want to acknowledge @rinewithoutacat for their advocacy on these crucial matters, and Program Chair @mayanthileilani and the many other anthropologists who have been fighting to build, with #RaisingOurVoices2020 and beyond, more equitable scholarly infrastructure.

Lastly, here's a piece I wrote in March, early pandemic days, on the many stakes of alternatives to physical meetings. It's good to see the serious steps that @AmericanAnthro has since taken in this direction. Fingers crossed this work will continue. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/redesigning-the-annual-conference-contagion-carbon-access-equity

Update: An important thread on the climate of #RaisingOurVoices2020 from Program Chair @mayanthileilani: https://twitter.com/mayanthileilani/status/1326233955394220032