[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Special Meeting Computer and Technology Group

[Olga Guttag]

As an early adopter of new building technologies (automated light zones, whole house A/V system, geothermal heat) I strongly urge you to, for the moment, spend as little as possible on setting up hybrid meetings - even if fairly imperfect. Wait for 12-18 months until the industry figures out the right way to do hybrid meetings. Not only will better products be available, but they will cost a lot less. Let other early adopters debug the products before they get Lexington’s $$s.

Of course if a company wants to give Lexington their hybrid meeting technology for free in return for user feedback and ability to observe/track some meetings, take their offerings. I managed to get many of the new housing technologies either donated or offered at very large discount in return for testing and advertising. If Lexington has a grant-writer, it may be worth sending a proposal to several of the vendors who are trying to improve their hybrid meeting products.

Just my two cents worth,
Olga

> On Jul 9, 2021, at 7:01 AM, Harry Forsdick <harry at forsdick.com <mailto:harry at forsdick.com>> wrote:
> 
> George,
> 
> This is an excellent article with many fine points.  I particularly liked that the first recommendation was to provide excellent audio.  As a long proponent of Internet Conferencing, I have always said that 90% of the meeting's content is in the audio rather than the video.  I think the scales have tipped a bit with the wide adoption of Zoom-like facilities because of the increased use of screen sharing of the speaker's presentation graphics.  Now I would say the audio content is how 70% of the meeting's content is conveyed.
> 
> There are several other non-obvious recommendations that are about the needs of people in a meeting rather than getting enamored by new technology.  These authors get to the second-order effects of how to use technology to solve meeting participants' (both local and remote) needs.
> 
> Finally, a comment not necessarily about this article:  I think developments are moving very fast in solutions for hybrid meetings.  It will be a mistake to put too much trust in any one of the emerging solutions.  At the same time, we need something that addresses some of the problems right now.  Rather than trying to make final choices at this point (i.e., for the next 6 months to a year) I still advocate for adapting a partial solution built out of pieces that we know work now, albeit less capable than we'd like.  
> 
> I don't believe we understand all of, or even the most important issues of, this new style of meeting -- just as we didn't understand the number of times we would have to say "Please mute your mics when you are not speaking" for fully remote meetings.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> -- Harry
> 
> 
> Harry Forsdick <http://www.forsdick.com/resume/>
> Lexington Photo Scanning <http://lexingtonphotoscan.com/>
> Town Meeting Member Precinct 7 <http://lexingtontmma.org/>
> harry at forsdick.com <mailto:harry at forsdick.com>	 	46 Burlington St., Lexington, MA 02420 <https://goo.gl/xZXT2F>
> (781) 799-6002 (mobile) <callto:17817996002>
> www.forsdick.com <http://www.forsdick.com/>
> click <http://forsdick.weebly.com/home/my-websites> to see my other websites
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jul 8, 2021 at 7:43 PM George Gamota <ggamota at stma-llc.com <mailto:ggamota at stma-llc.com>> wrote:
> Worth reading from Harvard Business School
> 
> https://hbr.org/2021/06/what-it-takes-to-run-a-great-hybrid-meeting <https://hbr.org/2021/06/what-it-takes-to-run-a-great-hybrid-meeting>
> George
> 
> From: Harry Forsdick <harry at forsdick.com <mailto:harry at forsdick.com>> 
> Sent: Thursday, July 8, 2021 6:10 PM
> To: George Gamota <ggamota at stma-llc.com <mailto:ggamota at stma-llc.com>>; jjrudy1 <jjrudy1 at comcast.net <mailto:jjrudy1 at comcast.net>>
> Subject: Re: [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Special Meeting Computer and Technology Group
> 
>  
> 
> George and John,
> 
>  
> 
> I just sent a message to Joe Pato asking if we might observe or participate in any tests that are going to happen with the loaner equipment the town has obtained.  I'll let you know what he says as soon as I hear back.
> 
>  
> 
> Regards,
> 
>  
> 
> -- Harry
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Harry Forsdick <http://www.forsdick.com/resume/>
> Lexington Photo Scanning <http://lexingtonphotoscan.com/>
> Town Meeting Member Precinct 7 <http://lexingtontmma.org/>
> harry at forsdick.com <mailto:harry at forsdick.com>	
>  
> 
> 46 Burlington St., Lexington, MA 02420 <https://goo.gl/xZXT2F>
> (781) 799-6002 (mobile) <callto:17817996002>
> www.forsdick.com <http://www.forsdick.com/>
> click <http://forsdick.weebly.com/home/my-websites> to see my other websites
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> On Thu, Jul 8, 2021 at 5:51 PM George Gamota <ggamota at stma-llc.com <mailto:ggamota at stma-llc.com>> wrote:
> 
> We might want to do some testing with one, two or more trial software during a potpourri session.
> 
> Most vendors let you download free and give you a 30-day trial.
> 
> George
> 
>  
> 
> From: Harry Forsdick <harry at forsdick.com <mailto:harry at forsdick.com>> 
> Sent: Thursday, July 8, 2021 5:13 PM
> To: George Gamota <ggamota at stma-llc.com <mailto:ggamota at stma-llc.com>>
> Cc: jjrudy1 <jjrudy1 at comcast.net <mailto:jjrudy1 at comcast.net>>; Michael Alexander <mna.ma at yahoo.com <mailto:mna.ma at yahoo.com>>; Lex Computer Group <lctg at lists.toku.us <mailto:lctg at lists.toku.us>>
> Subject: Re: [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Special Meeting Computer and Technology Group
> 
>  
> 
> Looks pretty cool.  
> 
>  
> 
> I'm trying not to be jealous for not having discovered this...
> 
>  
> 
> Questions I have:
> 
> I wonder how well this works for a meeting of 30 people where the most important thing is one speaker and their technical presentation for most of the time.  
> Is it really as smooth in choosing the right person to feature in the collection of attendees?
> I wonder whether this sort of thing will be ubiquitous around Town or ever make it to the Community Center.
> Until the Town does some more research, I think we should continue thinking about solutions built out of currently accessible parts in the conference room:
> 
> Two or more relatively inexpensive laptops, with a USB camera with audio on a tripod.  One camera for the speaker and one (or more) for the audience.
> The existing output devices of video projector and sound system.
> Basic Zoom software.
> -- Harry
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Harry Forsdick <http://www.forsdick.com/resume/>
> Lexington Photo Scanning <http://lexingtonphotoscan.com/>
> Town Meeting Member Precinct 7 <http://lexingtontmma.org/>
> harry at forsdick.com <mailto:harry at forsdick.com>	
>  
> 
> 46 Burlington St., Lexington, MA 02420 <https://goo.gl/xZXT2F>
> (781) 799-6002 (mobile) <callto:17817996002>
> www.forsdick.com <http://www.forsdick.com/>
> click <http://forsdick.weebly.com/home/my-websites> to see my other websites
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> On Thu, Jul 8, 2021 at 12:44 PM George Gamota <ggamota at stma-llc.com <mailto:ggamota at stma-llc.com>> wrote:
> 
> This week's Lexington Minuteman has a good article about what the Town is doing to evaluate Hybrid meetings. Worth reading.
> 
> “We Are Not Alone”
> 
> George
> 
>  
> 
> ===============================================
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