Virtual Meeting for us?

[rjwolfe3]

One of the other local groups has been talking about doing a virtual meeting over the internet using Ventrilo. It is a program that you can talk to each other as a group using your computer. Would there be any interest in this for our group? I know our local meetings have fallen to the side and I partly blame myself for not promoting and pushing them more. But it is hard to do when my car won't make it past the city limits and I can't make the meetings. Just thought I would put this out to see if there is any interest. Ventrilo is free for everyone but the host which I would be willing to pay for since I use it for gaming anyway. Let me know your thoughts on this.

 

[mbroberg]

Can you give an explanation of what a virtual meeting is? What I am envisioning is nothing more than a private chat room. If that is the case, then it is not something I would participate in.

 

[rjwolfe3]

Basically it would be a like a large conference call. Where one person would be speaking and everyone else would be listening. I was just interested in seeing if there was any interest in this. I'm thinking probably not since it is rather new technology.

I would love to schedule more meetings in either Columbus or up north at grub's new place but I can't make the meetings due to my vehicle situation.

 

[randyrls]

Ventrilo is free for everyone but the host which I would be willing to pay for since I use it for gaming anyway. Let me know your thoughts on this.

Mike; Ventrilo is a voice chat program. You talk and listen to everyone else in the "room". There can be multiple rooms running.

The requirement are simple. You need a microphone and speakers(a headset earphone and mic is recommended). Install the client program, set a few parameters and you are set to go.

Rob; Would you be willing to test the set up I have going? I will send you a PM with the setup configuration.

 

[turner.curtis]

Not sure if this ever took off, but I find it interesting. I have run Vent for the last 6+ years, not sure that it will do what you want though. What would be interesting to me for a virtual meeting, is if someone had an Adobe Connect (breeze) server that we could use. The thought there is to have someone with a laptop and a webcam actually giving a demonstration in the comfort of their own shop.

 

[bensoelberg]

I think webcam demos would be awesome. A tutorial that describes the process is nice, a tutorial that shows some steps is better, a video would be the best. Imagine the library that could be created! As soon as I figure out how to do anything even somewhat cool/original, I'll try to make a video.

 

[jjudge]

webcam demos, virtual conference calls

I just moved here, so pardon my stepping into this ... but my thoughts are:

* in re: Ventrillo, etc chat
If we ohio pen turners had an agenda, discussion, etc purpose, then a communal chat would be very worthwhile. E.g., planning an event, etc.

* in re: webcam capture
I would _love_ to interact & see some of the more clever techniques that folks do.

However, I think the ability to get a camera into the workshop, be able to zoom in & comment while demonstrating is ... at least ... very difficult or outside most of our abilities.

But -- a captured series of training videos would be very beneficial.
This takes the effort out of trying to do it live ... but still leaves a bit of a hurdle for most of us to get cameras into the workshop.

Lets see who is able to do this?

As I'm setting up shop now, I volunteer to put in a network webcam ... pointed at the lathe.
I can open up the firewall for testing or live attempts at streaming.

I think I can get something to capture the stream from it into a file. That will allow local editing & polishing of the video for a bit better result.

Anyone else wanting to try and/or test & feedback when I get mine going?

-- joe

 

[bensoelberg]

Nikitas does a UStream from his shop everyonce in a while. I dropped in on one of his sessions and it was super cool.

 

[jjudge]

My "vote"

This is a very quiet forum.
Thats good: I'm not a real "joiner" and I don't plan & organize. So, we're all in the same boat ;-)

But, I have been thinking how nice it'd be to have *some* connection to other turners around here.

So, my 2-cents is:

I like the idea of a VTC (multi-point voice & video). The use of a voice-only meeting, I think, works best with a small group of people who already know each other.

I think that live video is wonderful, but a bit beyond some (most?) of us. i.e., the computer, webcam, chat program, video stream program, etc. complexity.

So ... if we all were chatty here in this forum, and taking a vote, then I'd vote for:
* canned content -- demos, training, display, whatever
* live voice
* focused, planned-ahead agenda -- training, Q&A, something planned ahead of time
* maybe we don't have fixed, regular meetings ... but less often, with a few of us sharing the rotating responsibility of planning the next meeting.