Telecom best practices

[markcmiller86]

We should write an article on telecomm best practices for hosts as well as participants and any technology-specific (e.g. BlueJeans, WebEx, Zoom, GoToMeeting, etc) practices. There are a lot of things hosts and participants should take into account when working via telecomms.

[bernhold]

@markcmiller86, in terms of process, what do you mean by assigning this to @curfman and I? Are we supposed to shepherd the idea, as in today's discussions? Or something else?

As far as the topic goes, I've been marinating a number of related ideas for a while. I'm thinking more original article than blog article, but I don't think that has to be set in stone at this point.

I'm going to put this topic suggestion on the board and give it a thumbs up!

[markcmiller86]

@markcmiller86, in terms of process, what do you mean by assigning this to @curfman and I?

I didn't. The issue template did ;)

[markcmiller86]

Are we supposed to shepherd the idea, as in today's discussions? Or something else?

Also, AFAIK, we have yet to develop the workflow for blog articles so IMHO, we are still using the current (old) protocol...which based on your's and Lois' description in past meetings was that you both have served as the primary POC for blog content ;).

All that said, I'd like to see if we as a group can write this blog article because we all have pretty good experience with telecom usage at this point and I would like to gather all the practices into a single place.

[markcmiller86]

Ok, here is a brainstorm of some (by no means exhuastive) thoughts...

For hosts/prep

• make sure more than one person has host privs, maybe everyone from one site should (if you are late or can't access, the meeting often cannot start)
• For large (>10 participants) maybe have default connection to be with mic muted
• When asking questions to make a decision, don't assume silence is agreement. Make clear to participants they must indicate their choice
  • Maybe some tools have ways of doing this easily

For participants

• Join with audio muted. Keep audio muted except when talking
• Use the telecom's muting feature and not one available via other means, that way others can know/see you are muted when they try to engage you specifically
• Use a headset
• If audio quality is suffering, consider disabling video if you are using it.

[bernhold]

• make sure more than one person has host privs, maybe everyone from one site should (if you are late or can't access, the meeting often cannot start)

Some conferencing tools support "hostless" meetings, meaning they will work without someone logging in as host. If you can possibly use this capability, do!

But note that even with hostless meetings, only individuals logged in as host can control things like muting distracting participants, controlling recording, etc.

[bernhold]

For everyone, but especially hosts:

• LEARN THE TOOLS!!! If your institution or project regularly uses a particular teleconferencing tool, make the (small) investment to actually learn how to use it. We're well past the point where it is charming or amusing to wait while someone fumbles around to figure out how to share their screen, or whatever else they need to do. Don't be afraid to ask a colleague to spend a little time practicing with you.

[bernhold]

For organizers of telecon-based events:

• Be clear whether you expect to use screen sharing capabilities so that participants can prioritize being in front of a screen for the event.

For participants:

• Most teleconferencing tools offer options for both computer-based and telephone-based audio connections.
  • If computer audio is not working well for you, try switching to the phone. It may be less convenient, but the audio quality is often more reliable.
  • If you do connect using both computer and phone, try to do it in a way that the teleconferencing system will treat it as a single connection, or take other steps to identify the phone connection as yourself. Otherwise, you're likely to appear as "Guest 42" when you speak, which will not be helpful to those who don't know your voice.
    • Many teleconferencing services have a call-back capability to make audio connections, which does not generate a separate entry for the phone connection in the participant list.
    • Other services provide a unique ID you can enter when logging in from a phone which will associate the phone session with your online session.
    • And as a fallback, some services allow editing of the participant name in the user interface (may be restricted to the host).

[rinkug]

I gave a thumbs up to this topic. I am in favor of "original article" and not "blog article". But how do I indicate that with my thumbs up?

[markcmiller86]

Exiting or silencing noisey apps (e.g. outlook as emails come in, chat, etc.)
If you are a presenter

• Exiting apps that might change attention of the shared screen app (outlook, screen savers, password lock and lock hotspots)

[markcmiller86]

happened to find this useful resource which might help inspire things here.

[rinkug]

Do we have a potential author for this?

[rinkug]

Waiting for an EB volunteer and an author TBD

[markcmiller86]

Some conferences can wind up being configured to require the host's presence. So, it won't start without the host and if the host hangs up, the meeting ends for everyone.

[markcmiller86]

Be aware of all your team member's time zones. Don't invite a co-worker to a 4am meeting or a 10pm meeting for that matter (unless you've pre-arranged that it is ok).

[rinkug]

We need an article on this for sure

[bernhold]

This is labeled as a blog article, but I question whether this topic would work well as a blog. I think it would be more appropriate as an original article or perhaps cc if we can find some good reference material.

Can we consider whether this is best cast as a blog?

[markcmiller86]

I think it would be more appropriate as an original article or perhaps cc

or maybe a HowTo. I removed the blog label and added howto

[bernhold]

I think that this topic has been overtaken by events. I think we should just drop it.