I encourage UK wikimedians to test out group meeting tools, if only to be in a strong position to share experiences and recommendations with other groups as to the practicalities of substituting meet ups with virtual events. This is a subject that gets discussed at *every* Wikimania but there is hardly any progress apart from streaming videos with very limited virtual chat.
The WM-LGBT+ community has been using Zoom to coordinate the user group and for the LGBT+ conference with participants using very varied broadband access, hardware kit, and from many countries. Any videoconference tool would struggle on a very old laptop, and my old laptop could not handle it in real time, but modern tablets and mobile phones can run the version of it quite successfully. We have had up to 8 people in a meeting and you share a text channel as well as having options for seeing who is speaking or keeping a gallery view on your screen. Keep in mind that smartphones are specially designed to handle video conferencing, and normally do an excellent job of it.
Separately I prefer Google hangouts for a very bad internet connection (under 10 mb/s) which is more forgiving than Zoom or Skype as it seems to be better at brown-out conditions. Google hangouts is probably a bit easier for the average volunteer to log in to or get running on their kit, for example installing Zoom on Ubuntu meant setting things up on the command line for me.
Fae
On Tue, 10 Mar 2020 at 15:05, Yaroslav Blanter ymbalt@gmail.com wrote:
For a setting with a lot of presentations and questions Zoom should work fine
https://zoom.us/?zcid=2314&creative=359453254254&keyword=%2Bzoom%20o...
but of course it would not provide any interaction between participants.
Best Yaroslav
On Tue, Mar 10, 2020 at 3:59 PM WereSpielChequers < werespielchequers@gmail.com> wrote:
At last Sunday's London Meetup we discussed the situation and while not wanting to seem over cautious (we were of course the dozen who'd decided to attend). We realised that there was a good chance that the April and even May meetings might need to go virtual.
Is there a recommended software solution for video/audio conferencing a dozen to twenty people?
I took part in some not the wikipedia Weekly podcasts almost a decade ago, but i'm assuming the technology has progressed since then. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Not_The_Wikipedia_Weekly
Regards
WSC
On Tue, 10 Mar 2020 at 13:27, wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
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Today's Topics:
- Re: 2020 Wikimania Scholarships now open (Dariusz Jemielniak)
- Re: 2020 Wikimania Scholarships now open (Gnangarra)
Message: 1 Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2020 08:48:48 -0400 From: Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@alk.edu.pl To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] 2020 Wikimania Scholarships now open Message-ID: < CADeSpGUUq96JZAYLkAjfiPV-isFMQVCUL8nHm+ScBjxagfdCBg@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Hi,
I believe it likely is too early to make a decision. We have a
professional
team at the WMF monitoring the situation, but the date is still 5 months
in
the future.
It is reasonable to expect that we may need to make adjustments to the situation as it develops and in 2-3 months it will be much clearer where
we
stand.
For now, I think it is already fair to say that the WMF leadership is not shying away from difficult decisions (the summit cancellation, closing
down
the office, canceling international travel for staff) and clearly prioritizes our safety.
I trust the judgment of our staff when they communicate clearly that they are considering all options and will.make a decision in due time.
Best,
Dj "pundit"
On Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 00:45 Rehman Abubakr rehman.wikimedia@live.com wrote:
I too have cancelled all personal/work/wiki travel plans. The risks are far too great.
A single infection at the conference, depending on who/where, has the potential to cause significant damage to the Movement.
I understand the sheer effort that has already been put, but I strongly hope the Foundation will postpone the conference or cancel this year's conference for the safety of the volunteers, and to prevent the risk of spreading it to more parts of the world.
Yours truly,
Rehmanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Rehman
From: Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org on behalf
of
James Heilman jmh649@gmail.com Sent: 09 March 2020 22:51> _______________________________________________
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To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] 2020 Wikimania Scholarships now open
From a personal perspective, I have cancelled all future travel plans
and
have requested that everyone I work with do the same. I am of course in healthcare. Please note that this is not official advise.
James
On Mon, Mar 9, 2020 at 5:48 AM Toni Ristovski <toni91ehrlich@gmail.com
wrote:
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