From: "richard seltzer" Subject: Chat reminder -- another experiment with voice chat for distance ed and business Date: Tuesday, May 29, 2001 1:07 PM BUSINESS ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB -- Where "word of keystroke" begins Please join us for chat this Thursday, May 31, noon to 1 PM Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4). We're going to continue our series of experiments with voice applications over the Internet. Two of the major voice-chat services favored by distance ed -- Firetalk and Lipstream -- recently went out of business. So it's important to determine what services are still available and how appropriate they are for distance education. We're going to use Paltalk for the third time. Last week we had 32 participants (for a list see www.samizdat.com/paltalk). This time we will be using Paltalk as a platform for discussion rather than just testing it. I'd like to focus the discussion on voice options for distance ed -- trying to learn from our audience what they have used, what they need, what other applications we should try in future weeks. Possibilities include Webtrain and Groove.net For information on how to connect check www.samizdat.com/paltalk NB -- if you haven't used it before, please connect early to install the free software and fine-tune your audio settings. Lessons learned: 1) When both voice and text are available, voice dominates -- that's where all the action is. 2) Paltalk makes it easy for you to save the text chat dialogue (starting when you connect), but little of substance is likely to be found in that raw transcript. 3) For the most part, people without microphones just lurked, rather than posting comments and questions in the text chat area. 4) But good inexpensive software (like Total Recorder from High Criteria) can record the audio, which you then can post on the Web for anyone to hear later. You can hear the 5/24 session at www.samizdat.com/audio/chat0524.mp3 5) For groups as large as 2-3 dozen people, protocol works fine for managing the discussion. We did not need to use the handy force-style admin tools (whereby the administrator can shut off and turn on microphones). Everyone who wanted to speak clicked on the Request Speak button, which generates a raised hand icon, and waited politely until called upon. This time we set up a "permanent chat room" rather than one that only existed for as long as I was connected. You can choose to set up such a room so that it is password protected (still a no cost), and that would be natural if you were using this capability to deliver an online course, to avoid interruptions by random uninvited Paltalk users. But for our public chat session that was not necessary. (By the way, random visitors can be benefit for public discussions -- I had some very good conversations with individuals in China and on the island of Mauritius while waiting for the scheduled chat time to begin.) By the way, you can look up the names and email addresses of participants based on the nicknames used in a session, by clicking on Add Pal in the first Paltalk screen, and then doing a case-sensitive search. I've added a list of last weeks participants to my Paltalk document at www.samizdat.com/paltalk The audio quality last week was quite good. People who initially had problems (due mainly to firewalls) went to the PalTalk voice help chat area and got the information they needed. The speed of Internet connectivity did not seem to be a significant factor in voice quality. People with 28.8 modems sounded about the same as others with cable connections. But a headset-style microphone helps, by keeping the distance from the microphone to your mouth constant. Also, some people found that lowering the settings on their Norton Antivirus software improved voice quality. You only need speakers to participate in this experiment. If you want to talk, you'll need a microphone as well, otherwise you can type your postings and listen to what others are saying. If you would like to participate, please go to the page that I have created with detailed instructions http://www.samizdat.com/paltalk You are going to have to download a piece of software, adjust your sound, and get acclimated before coming to the chat session, so please go to that page as soon as possible. (NB -- this application does not work with Macintosh). The more of you join in the better. We'd like more experience pushing the limits in terms of the number of simultaneous users Paltalk can handle from a technical point of view, and also from the human perspective of managing the conversation. These chat sessions take place Thursdays 12 noon-1 PM (US Eastern Daylight Time = GMT -4). Complete, edited transcripts of past sessions are available at http://www.samizdat.com/chat.html You can also see our upcoming schedule of topics there. Please send email with your follow-on questions and comments, suggestions for other voice chat apps for us to experiment with and for other future topics, and requests to receive email reminders about upcoming sessions. Best wishes. Richard Richard Seltzer, seltzer@samizdat.com, www.samizdat.com Internet marketing consultant www.samizdat.com/consult.html Ebook at Mighty Words -- Take Charge of Your Web Site Coming soon from Wiley -- Web Business Bootcamp Online discussion http://webworkzone.com/bootcamp Audio of three Internet business speeches www.samizdat.com/internet 617-469-2269