Conference call/Shopbot tutorials

[dubliner]

I found a service that offers to host a conference call for free & I was wondering if I could get enough interest to get a 30 min. +/- call for whatever topic the participants wanted to talk about, something like a Dial A Mentor program. I think we'd all gain something from these types of "chats" as you could run PW, SB, VCP or ??? and follow along - would any "Mentors" like to participate? It works like this - you call a number, dial an extension and that is your "conference room". The only charge is your standard LD rate charged by your carrier. The company offers a bigger suite of charged services but this one is offered free.
http://www.freeconference.com/Reservationless.aspx. I have no affiliation with this company & would use any service a Mentor would prefer. Alternately If I could type faster Pacos "Chat room" would be great too!

[Brady Watson]

Neville,
This is a neat concept & I would like to see the 'chat room' thing developed a bit further than it has been. It's ALL conceptual until someone owns it - by that I mean, someone who will be the ring leader per se and setup regular and consistent times to host these sort of virtual gatherings. About 2yrs back Bill Y. and I talked about the possibility of a ShopBot 'radio show', where people could call in and ask questions etc. It boils down to time, cost and user (administrative) participation. I'm always open to answering questions and helping...I think that if the chat room concept was developed further and designated times/dates were made, it would be a good thing for all. This way people can tune in at a certain time every week, let's say, and talk about various topics.

I don't think that this should be a 'support center' where people call in, or chat thinking that they are going to be talking to ShopBot staff like they would if they called SB support on the phone...so the boundaries and limitations of this should be clearly made from the start, informing participants that this is a discussion...and not a support call center.

I am willing to participate when you get things up and running.

-B

[pfulghum]

I was just thinking that leveraging conferencing to have people talk about "How to...." would be great. I would be willing to pay.

For example, Joe Crumley has some great experience with signs that I would be willing to pay $$ to learn from him.

-- pat

[dubliner]

I agree! I met Joe in Austin & I would pay to be an apprentice in some of these guys shops, but in this case I think keeping it free maintains "no obligation" to the participants & mentors.

[hines]

I think a conf. call would be a great way to meetup and network. Couldn't we record the conference call and make that availabe via podcast. Also, Building off of Brady's idea, instead of a radio show couldn't Shopbot do a podcast speaking with botters or vendors and answering listeners calls that were left on a voicemail system. I listen to various podcasts all the time. It allows some of the smallest companies and organizations to communicate at a much lower cost. These are just some quick thoughts off the top of my head since Brady really got me thinking.

[Brady Watson]

OK...let me jump in here before we volunteer anything for the ShopBot staff. This should be a user funded, created and maintained endeavor in whatever form that takes. I am sure that ShopBot the company can do many things, but time and resources can sometimes get thin and this sort of podcast or other type of virtual meeting should be setup by users, for users. It should be supported via volunteers from the community rather than put ANY responsibility on ShopBot staff to provide funding, support or other resources. It would be spectacular if they voluntarily did provide some support, but let's not make that the foundation for doing something as a community.

It is quite easy for this concept to get out of hand with 'elephants and acrobats' and all kinds of exotic ideas. My preference would be to keep things as free and simple as possible, until it warrants something that requires a $ investment or fee from any user. What that looks like right now is this:

1) Use the free chat room as a start to see how things go (like the one Paco set up)

2) Agree on a certain day, date and time for these virtual meetings.

3) Decribe the purpose and scope of these 'meetings' and set rules so that it doesn't become something it isn't supposed to be...there has to be rules or guidelines of some sort we all must agree upon.

4) Actually do it...when we say we will do it, try it out and see if it is something we wish to continue investing our time in. If all goes well, then move on to something more grandiose if it is needed.

This will not work if people think this is a great idea, but expect everyone else to do the work to make it happen on a consistent basis.

Just my .02...

-B

[dubliner]

Elephans & acrobats! ~ Nice one Centurion :-)
I agree with Brady, less complicated is more likely to take place. I think it need a facilitator i.e. somebody to book the time, advertise it, get a speaker ( this can be as simple as two guys - one just has to know slightly more than the other) set the time & whoever calls in - calls in. You participate by listening, contributing or both. I'm willing to start the first one. If there are ideas forthcoming from this post I will pick a topic & we can go from there. We can always have more than one call going on. If you want a specific topic covered then you can facilitate that call. Seems like it shouldnt be too much trouble.

[mgcain]

You can take the virtual meeting thing even further with a site like www.webex.com. This lets you share your PC screen with other folks who are logged in online, and also uses similar concept to the freeconferencecall scenario. I will be using this setup for doing online demos for iCabinetShop. By hooking a webcam up to your PC, you can broadcast live video as well, so if you were wanting to show a particular operation on the bot, you could do it that way...You can also record the session and download it as an avi file...

My .02 cents...

[hines]

Sorry to go off on a tangent with Elephants and Acrobats. Didn't mean to push the envelope, just brainstorming and I got a little excited. I'm all for a conference call and will help out if needed.

[bcammack]

Well, NetMeeting and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) offer ad hoc opportunities to hook up in groups for discussion/demonstration without extra costs beyond an internet connection.

Trillian is a great IM host and it supports IRC sessions.