I don't think we need people running cameras per se. What about IChat or Web-Cams in sessions? What I am thinking is the session organizer can try and organize this for his/her session. If we have laptops in every presentation room, we could have IChat or Web-Cams with the laptop and projector. I don't think it is overly complicated (but I could be wrong).

things like netmeeting or ichat are pretty good for point-to-point communications, but pretty awful for 'broadcast-style' communications. if you've been around for a few years, you may remember the CUSeeMe concept of a 'reflector'. it'd take one or more of those, off-site, each with significant [meaning "a whole lot more than a home user is going to have"] available (both upstream and downstream) bandwidth, to handle a webcast arranged in this way. so this puts us right back at the "cost" issue again. bandwidth isn't free, and neither are network uplinks from conference venues. --elijah

Hi Tracy, I will contact you offline re: this. I want to get on board to discuss the implementation of virtuality at the next AoIR conference. Kylie -----Original Message----- From: air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of T Kennedy Sent: Friday, 8 October 2004 12:41 AM To: air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] call for virtual volunteers So, we have established that a lot of unpaid work is involved in not only putting a F2F conference together, but also one that includes some elements of virtuality in it. Yes, some of us are feeling guilty, but that still doesn't alleviate the workload that we all have. Where do we go from here? I don't think we need people running cameras per se. What about IChat or Web-Cams in sessions? What I am thinking is the session organizer can try and organize this for his/her session. If we have laptops in every presentation room, we could have IChat or Web-Cams with the laptop and projector. I don't think it is overly complicated (but I could be wrong). Have we considered sponsorship from somewhere? We have had Apple products on display before - would they be willing to contribute either some cash or hardware to the event? We don't know if we don't ask. Anyone with connections? Perhaps we can gather some people who are interested in discussing whether this will work (and if we can afford it) off the list. Even if we start off on a small scale for next year to test this all - like the keynotes or a handful of sessions. What about a call for virtual volunteers who can put some time into this? I will field the "call for virtual volunteers" - to discuss the implementation of virtuality at the next AoIR conference and then we can go from there.....if there are no takers, then that takes care of that. email me tkennedy@netwomen.ca ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tracy L.M. Kennedy PhD Candidate and NetLab Research Associate Department. of Sociology University of Toronto, Ontario www.netwomen.ca/Blog tkennedy@netwomen.ca ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _______________________________________________ Air-l-aoir.org mailing list Air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org