posted 09-03-2005 11:40 PM               

Each attendee sees a live presentation on their computer and hears the conversation over their telephone. The conversation is totally two-way. That is, any user may speak and everyone else will hear what they say.

For this reason, we limit workshop attendance to 8 people. (Actually, the physical limitation is 11, but we use three of the slots on our end for the presentation.

When is it?
We do workshops weeknight evenings starting between 6:00pm and 7pm (Pacific).
The workshop is scheduled to last for 2 hours.

How much does it cost?
There is no charge for attending these workshops.

Be aware that there is a nominal cost incurred by the attendees for the telephone call. It is a long distance call to a southern California number. The attendee's normal long distance rate will apply. (Note: It is simply a long distance telephone call - no special charges, nothing more.)

How does one get a seat?
http://www.practicalhandicapping.com/desktop/hsuniv/index.htm

Beginners' Workshop
The Beginner's workshops are aimed primarily at new HSH users and is deigned to address general getting started issues. Time permitting, specific user issues will also be addressed.

Other attendees may participate and interact, but the prime thrust of the meeting is always towards satisfying the new user's agenda.

Advanced Workshops
The Advanced workshops will be just that; a forum of advanced techniques. This is a more open discussion, often with individual users giving presentations as well as Dave Schwartz.

While the agenda will be themed towards a particular topic, as an open forum the workshop will make its own way. In other words, the workshop is designed to facilitate a creative interaction between the users rather than simply putting out information.

General Audience Workshops
The General Audience Workshops are geared towards developing the HorseStreet community by offering information to non-HSH users. As such, the information is of a more general nature.

posted 11-15-2006 09:08 AM               

This means that we can now do seminars with as many as 100 attendees!

Essentially, the system works about the same as the workshops except for a couple of things:

1. Now there are kinds of attendees.

They are:
Organizer(s) - That is the leader.
Panelist(s) - These are people who are invited to speak.
Attendees - These are audience members.

As seminars get larger, we need more control over sound. Only organizers and panelists can be heard.

We will continue to do workshops when they are appropriate (i.e. small groups).

2. Questions are asked via a chat message.
It is much like raising your hand except you don't have to wait to be called upon. This system actually supports staff managing questions.

3. Increased Audience Feedback
We now have the ability to ask questions of the audience and measure the responses!

There is also a provision for the audience to set a "state" that reflects whether or not they are understanding what is being said. This is a great cue for the speaker.