Its interesting to see and feel just how much a part of this online group I feel. I thought that I was really a ‘lurker’, just dipping my foot in occasionally and generally bitching about how everything is left to the individual to work out for themselves. I know, there are handy You Tube bits but on my computer its like having a really bad headache and you are wearing someone else’s eyeglasses. Surely the technology is such that a sharper image can be shown? If not, then do it some other way. And I must say that waiting 5 minutes for a You Tube item to download (even on a broadband connection) is beyond the pall. Anyways, back to my topic.
The facilitator published a list of all the blogs and lo and behold my Blog is omitted. Now I know that my Blog is a combination of personal stuff and stuff about the course but I thought we were encouraged to be individual and creative.
So why was I left off?
Whatever the reason (and I am sure there is a perfectly logical reason) it does show two things.
One is that my belonging to the group is much more than I had though and, two, how not to facilitate a group. If you are going to do something like this you have to do it right. Only make general postings when you have the information right. Get a list of all participants and maybe email first and ask ‘I am going to have a master list of Blogs. What would you like put on?”
Rave over.
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5 comments:
Yeah, it's going to be good when the infrastructure gets an upgrade (I'm not holding my breath). My wife & I have noticed that over the last year the internet speed has slowed down heaps as more and more people uptake broadband (we assume).
Hi Graeme,
You see what happens when you rely on only one! All this time I have had no idea about your blog. How is it that I have picked up all others, but missed yours? Looking back, I see that you did indeed post to the group about your blog on the 15th of August. So I owe you an apology. It certainly was not intentional.
Really nice header image btw!
Regarding Youtube quality:
Youtube is probably the poorest quality video server there is. Currently YouTube sits in the top 4 most visited website and so you can imagine the amount of data that is being drawn down from their servers. To manage this, Youtube need to compress more than other video servers. Its a 6 or half a dozen - use Youtube and take advantage of the massive number of other useful videos, or use another video server for better quality.
But to add to this problem, as Dave points out, NZ connection is more than a little shabby. So even if we did use the video servers that deliver the better quality video, it wouldn't help us because our receiving bandwidth is so small that you'd have to wait 20 minutes rather than 5. So the Youtube compression is a blessing in the end - so long as you can tolerate the quality...
So, what to do?
Well, I've started using the upload service - HeySpread. It lets you load a video to many of the leading video servers, plus your own! That way you can offer choices to people who want to download your video. High quality but slow load, or low quality but fast load..
Other strategies:
When you click to view a movie, press pause and let it load. Do something else. Read emails, make coffee. When you come back to it - it will be ready to play without interruptions.
At some point, I guess the facilitators could go the extra yard and burn the videos to CD and send out. But in some instances, copyright is an issue - not to mention the loss of video association with other more recent versions etc..
Sorry for missing your Blog Graeme. Good to have you in the loop now though.
Graeme, I wanted to stop by and say I have really enjoyed reading your blog. (I've been trying to dip in to the blogs from the people in the course prior to our little Elluminate gathering today.) I love the image at the top. I love the full sense I get of you in your writing - you share a lot. Raves and all!
Thanks for the nice comment Nancy. I hope you don't say that
to all the boys!
Kind regards,
Graeme
If you can't express your feelings to your community it's not really a community is it? If nothing else (and the other comments back this up) your are a member who's thoughts and feelings are important. Plus technology (slow as it is) allows a much more cleansing rant.
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