One roadshow down, four to go!

Comments

Please note the views expressed in these comments are not endorsed by AARNet.

1. Funny no streaming? Not really so Simon. We're doing the best we can to capture the events using different media as we go but as we're 'borrowing' space and network connectivity at these institutions we're at the behest of their network admins and firewall rules in terms of what we can do live. The PDFs are being released to those that attend as a record and will be opened up to the wider community once we've concluded the tour and can also include the feedback that we've received - the sessions really are about two-way communication after-all. The first roadshow had some content captured using the in house vidconf system and today's (on the 2nd leg) had some content captured on HDcam and the presentations with audio were recorded with Echo360 (formerly Lectopia). These will also be made available once we've ironed out the access details with the host institutions that were kind enough to donate their time and equipment for all to see the benefit of using such systems. Thanks for your feedback on the production value comment, yes certainly tracking mics aren't perfect but they're certainly better than a still shot of a corner of a room when the lecturer is on the other side of it. Interestingly enough the feedback was from today's session that 'content is king' and only audio plus slideware is captured due to the nature of connectivity options available to students who want to receive this as part of their courses. The ultrasonic trackers are an interesting development but certainly only a piece of this technology jigsaw.

   Posted Thursday, 27 September 2007 10:37 PM by Jason Bordujenko

2. Feedback from the two events so far points to significant value in meeting each other in person and to exchange ideas especially in the breakout session. Only a small percentage of those attending went to QUESTNET where we traditionally present updates. Given this new engagement, this approach is a great way to start identifying opportunities and building relationships.
   

   We are recording sessions and the plan is to make these available online. Presentations will go online as well as summaries from the day. Photos will also be there. We also decided not to do a session live this time as it may prevent people from having time out to discuss and get hands on training. The latter is more difficult via video.
   

   Those who have attended Day 2 have registered with our 1-2-3 booking form, many are also on the vvc-l list. One idea is to invite everyone who has attended the roadshows or has an interest from the vvc list to join a video conference that will be booked via the 1-2-3 system.  This will be a good way to see how the system performs.

   With such large numbers possible chairing the meeting to make it productive will be the challenge. maybe we try one and see how it goes, or maybe we pick a topic of interest to discuss. I'd appreciate any thoughts on hot topics, alternatively we could start off by reviewing the roadshow findings via video and start a discussion from there, followed by topics agreed at that meeting for future vc meetings?

   Posted Saturday, 29 September 2007 1:10 PM by James Sankar