22 replies to this topic

[Live Forever]

This is an idea that was brought up in this thread, but I thought it needed its own seperate thread, especially in light of today's annoucement of a new service by Skype:

It looks like Skype just introduced 100-person conferencing (link) for free as a "Skypecast", which means that a moderator determines who can speak. It looks like that they will be listing all the different Skypecasts on their website (which will allow people to find Skypecasts of interest to them).

This seems like a perfect format for us, or other transhumanists, cryonicists, etc, that are seperated by distance, but have a good following. It might be interesting to try this out, also the fact that you can list it on Skype's "Skypecast" page (not many listed yet since this is the first day the service is available, but you can search, list by start time, etc.) might help promote the conferences to others that are interested.

It basically seems like a very large conference call that is moderated by someone so that everyone isn't talking over themselves the whole time. (excellent feature, imo)

So, what do you guys think? Would this be beneficial for us? (or the WTA, or anyone else for that matter) It could also be used for board meetings for the leadership here, or monthly (or bi-monthly, or quarterly, etc.) "meetings" for ImmInst as a whole. If we had a meeting once a quarter it might generate more interest than just a once a month meeting, perhaps?

Edited by liveforever22, 04 May 2006 - 02:56 PM.

[Mind]

Is it voice or text chat that involves 100 people?

[Live Forever]

Oh, sorry I guess I didn't make that clear. It is voice chat. Skype is a free Voice Over IP (aka VOIP) service. (basically free phone calls over the internet) Actually it is, I think, the most popular VOIP service around.

Text chats are already widely available, but getting large numbers of people voice chatting has been (until now) not very widely available, at least not for free.

I am not sure if text chatting is also supported, but if it is like regular Skype then it will be (there is a lower window that allows you to text chat while voice chatting).

I just thought it might be a good service to check out.

[Live Forever]

By the way, this is still in "Early Preview" mode, and they will be adding more features in the near future, but it already seems pretty nice.

More info on the "Early Preview" now, and the coming features:
http://share.skype.c...skypecasts.html

[Live Forever]

I was on a few of them last night to test them out, and they seem to work great. The key is the moderator, and if he gives only a few people at a time (or only one person at a time, you can "request to talk" by clicking a button) the ability to talk so that everyone isn't talking over themselves at the same time (anyone ever been on a conference call? basically the same thing). This would be good for audio broadcasts, from conferences or whatnot if someone brought a laptop/mic with them, because you can set it to only let people listen and not talk.

In any event, I was in a couple of Tech ones, and a video game one last night, and although I don't have a mic to use it was pretty interesting.

I am thinking of buying a mic, and after I get a little more comfortable using the software, hosting a transhumanist/life extension one. Would anyone be interested in doing that?/When might be a good time to get optimal amounts of coverage I wonder?

[sdogood]

I think it would be great to have weekly Skypecast meetings where a person of interest to the life-extension community would be invited to talk and where others could ask questions. I know there have been IRC chats like this here, but I think an audioconference would be even better and now with the latest version of Skype you can do that for free. You can learn about skypecasting here:
https://skypecasts.s...s/overview.html

What do you think?

Your Humble Servant,
Silence Dogood

[Centurion]

Sounds like fun. I wonder if you guys would be able to understand my accent?

[Mind]

It is worth a try, as long as the Skype technology can handle it. A lot of times, new tech is not the greatest right out of the gate. We should at least give skypecast a test drive.

[Centurion]

I think the biggest problem is everyone knowing when to speak. Its easy in real life, visual body language clues, but online, perhaps not.

[garethnelsonuk]

As far as i'm aware, skype has no moderation so it would be problematic to control who talks at what time. I can imagine everyone trying to talk at once and it all becoming a big mess.

If someone has the bandwidth for it, I would suggest installing an asterisk server and getting everyone to connect with SIP phones. But of course, not everyone has SIP

[Centurion]

Theres always Xfire or teamspeak Ill be getting SIP soon free calls to UK and Ireland, w00t!

[garethnelsonuk]

I've been fiddling with SIP for a while, I maintain a helpline using it and have a personal number with a cool little automated menu. There are lots of very cool tricks you can do with it.

Note however that I am not talking about people dialling into normal phone numbers but connecting their SIP phone directly to an asterisk server. This would require a lot of bandwidth though if any more than around 5 people want to take part. I personally could not afford to pay the bill for this.

[sdogood]

Actually, the person who sets it up can serve as moderator, muting all mics and then opening the mic for those who "raise their hands." The moderator can also boot people from the group. Sypecasts can handle up to 100 users. Skype is free, many people already have it and the process for joining a skypecast is trivial and does not require an invite. For these reasons, I think it is the best solution. Check the FAQ for details and try joining a live skypecast to see for yourself how it works. Its pretty neat and I'm surprised it isn't getting more play.

Your Humble Servant,
Silence Dogood

[Live Forever]

I am all for it! As I stated already, I think this would be more fun than the old text chats that we used to do.

[garethnelsonuk]

In this case then sdogood - i'm all for it.

[maestro949]

I'm in. Building VOIP conferencing platforms for carriers is my day job so I'd be interested to see how it works at a minimum!

Just need to line up a guest speaker right?

[sdogood]

I'm in.  Building VOIP conferencing platforms for carriers is my day job so I'd be interested to see how it works at a minimum!

Just need to line up a guest speaker right?

Yes. Who did that before? Bruce Klein? I guess he's pretty busy now. Anybody else with connections willing to recruit speakers and/or moderate?

Your Humble Servant,
Silence Dogood

[Live Forever]

Technically, there doesn't need to be an official speaker every time. There could just be a set time to chat once a month (week, whatever).

Also, if anyone was interested, there could be ones for transhumanism in general, or life extension, or cryonics, etc. (note: if there is not enough demand to have a voice "chat" every week/month you could have one once a quarter or once a year) It could also be done to have more "official" meetings for directors or leaders of certain groups.

[sdogood]

Okay, well, I'm going to set up a Skypecast for us to test out the technology. Could folks please post here what would be the best times for them?

You're Humble Servant,
Silence

[Live Forever]

I would pick a Saturday or Sunday, so that it could happen in the afternoon in the US, and in the evening in Europe, and more people could participate.

[JohnDoe1234]

Yeah, I think that time would work best for the most people.

*Just installed Skype for the first time*

[mind_offset]

Nice feature and worths trying... [thumb]

Is there already an Imminst Skypecast group to look out on this page ?

Skypecasts Community

I'll probably give it a try in the near future (GMT +2), got Skype latest version (2.5.0.141) installed and ready for this...

[JMorgan]

This is something that would be worth our time and could be used as a tool to reach people. Also, any moderated skypecasts with a guest speaker should be recorded and posted online for those unable to attend in real time. If this becomes a regular thing, then it could also be part of a podcast, which some have mentioned in the past.