The IRC chat has been working fine, however, some of us have discussed the possibility of using Skypecast. Nate and I have been testing Skypecast for a while now and it seems to be working again. (It was a wierd Immortality chat with strangers from around the world late Saturday night...wish I had a recording :ohmy:) I had to download the newest version of skype (3.6) in order for it to work. It sounded great. I would like to try it soon
I think the skypecast offers a great new opportunity to get more out of the Sunday night chat.
1. We can cover a lot more ground with a lot more questions. Speaking is much faster than typing.
2. We can really get a feel for the emotional context of the guest.
3. We can do voice and text at the same time.
4. The whole session can be recorded and made into a podcast.
5. Random people from around the world can listen in (the ones who are logged into skypecast). Great promotion for the Immortality Institute.
6. Skype has the best audio quality of all the VOIP programs I have used.
Drawbacks
1. Probably need a high speed internet connection to listen and/or ask questions (no problem for most of us, but could be for some).
2. Need speakers and a microphone (to both listen and ask questions). Most people at least have microphones.
3. Need to download and install Skype. Typically not too much of a problem. It didn't originally work with Vista, but now it does.
4. Skypecast is in beta mode right now. Hopefully it doesn't go through any radical changes/tech problems.
Any comments or suggestions about this move. I figure we can test it out at least. Could be a very benficial move.