Virtual meetings
Just a quick nudge towards Adrian Nixon’s recent post Facilitating Virtual Meetings on his On Facilitation blog. Some good and detailed tips on using Skype in particular, but I imagine many of them are relevant to other VoIP applications.
Lest we forget that other applications exist, and allow Skype to become the new Hoover, I’ve also successfully used Ekiga, an open source equivalent. Then your virtual meetings can also be that little bit more virtuous!
Also thanks to Adrian, because he’s spurred me on to mention a few other posts I found useful on the topic of working collectively but remotely, but failed to mention at the time.
Penny Walker has posted a couple of things in recent months. I particularly found the comment on anonymity in her post on virtual dialogue to be a useful insight – anonymity has the potential to prevent us from seeing contributors as people. More recently she’s also posted a nice list of tips for video-conferencing.
I was also amused and enlightened by 8 Interpretations of Silence when using Instant Messaging over at the Couch Manager.
March 1, 2011 @ 12:34 am
HI Guys thanks for the nudge, you are on the ball at spotting my infrequent posts!
You have spurred me on to post more regularly.
A quick question of your network if I may: I run a group called Consultsnts Anon it’s a non-profit making group for those of us who work independently and we keep one another at the cutting edge of our profession by sharing stuff and bouncing ideas between us.
Not everyone can make the physical meetings and I’d like to experiment with people joining in by video conference, I was going to use Skype, but I take your Hoover point and wondered if another technology would be more appropriate?
Adrian.
March 1, 2011 @ 9:08 pm
Hmmm, I think video conferencing sounds like the best option, assuming it can be made accessible to everyone (ie everyone has the necessary technology or can be supported to get it). Technology’s a funny thing – we often lack sympathy for people that choose not to upgrade, or can’t afford the latest gadgets etc etc, but I digress. Maybe Penny has a few thoughts on this as she’s been playing with video, as you’ll have seen if you’ve followed the link in the post.
For me it’s not about the technology itself, but about whether we contribute to a world in which proprietary software like skype becomes the only viable alternative, rather than going out of our way to choose the more ethical and sustainable options that are out there. Of course that’s an issue for us at Rhizome because of the sector we work in. I’m not going to make other people’s choices for them.
March 1, 2011 @ 12:35 am
oops spelling mistake it should have been Consultants Anon