TPF virtual sharing sessions - interested?

[texxter]

I've had this idea running on my head for a while and I wanted to run a pilot to see how well it works. It would be great to have a phone + web-based virtual room where photographers can get together at scheduled times to learn together. Of course, this is not going to offer the hands-on benefits of a workshop, but it may be a great way to learn something and strengthen the TPF community.

And best of all, unlike workshops, it should be FREE!

Let me run the pilot by you and get your feedback. If any of you is interested in participating, please send me email to my regular email address, paco at pacoromerophoto dot com or post a response here.

I have a slide presentation that I have used at my seminars where I describe, with examples, the Principles of Lighting for Portraiture. This first pilot would be two 60-90 minute sessions, on the phone and the computer, where I go over these principles - everyone would be on the phone and at the computer, sharing a screen (we'll use software called Webex to share documents across all participants) - I'll make it interactive with questions requested along the way. If we don't go over everything (60 slides) we can add a third session. I would probably limit participation to 10-12 people so that we can have interactivity without moving too slow.

One idea as a follow-up after this "theory" seminar would be for participants to get some homework, go do their images and then come back with the images and a lighting diagram, and share with other participants what they did, and get feedback at a follow-up sharing session. So instead of having an "instructor" and students, everyone would be both an instructor and a learner.

Third way of using this virtual learning would be to have a guest speaker - this photographer would be sharing his or her portfolio using Webex/phone and take questions from the audience on techniques used for specific photos, or anything else. These sessions could be one hour long, and pretty free going.

I'd fund the Webex licensing fees, $468/year, and will be glad to take donations from those participating in the virtual sharing sessions, but with no obligations. Why do I do this? Well, I believe in the power of sharing to create better things - and I think I can afford this investment for now. Others do podcasts, or run boards like this one - I want to make my own contribution and this is what I came up with, and I am excited.

I have the infrastructure set up and ready to have the pilot "Principles of Lighting" sharing session scheduled. If you'd be interested in participating, please respond here, or via email. I am thinking of doing the first two sessions on a weekend, Sat and Sun, back to back. If you have preference on time, please let me know, but I am thinking 11am to 12pm on Sat and 5pm to 6pm on Sunday, or something close. I would be ready to do it this weekend if there is interest.

Also, if you're interested in being a "featured speaker" for future sessions, please let me know! When this gets off the ground I will have a schedule of sessions and a way to sign up here at TPF Events forum.

Looking forward to it!

[J Eddington]

I love the idea but is a phone required? I would love to participate.

[texxter]

If you don't have a phone you can use VoIP as well. I need to double check that we can have a virtual session supporting both phone and VoIP voice.

[WarrenG]

Pretty neat concept

[carrbowl]

Janice...you are killing me!!! If you don't have a phone..but have a camera....you might be a redneck!!!

[SJHester]

Paco - I would be interested, but this weekend would not work for me. However, if you get takers for this weekend, dont wait for me.

I could also host the bridge if necessary.

[andyz]

Sounds very good to me. This weekend wouldn't work though.

[DoublyDan]

tagging for interest appeal..Have you thought about gotomeeting or a similar application that is free?

[danchez]

very intrigued here, only day that doesn't really work for me are sundays.

[rschramm]

Very Cool idea Paco.. I am interested as well....

[lukehng]

i'm interested!!! sign me up

[The Philos]

I'm interested - have you looked into using something like DimDim or Elluminate?

[texxter]

Guys, glad to see that there is interest in this idea. Given that weekends seem a bad time for most photographers, I'd like to suggest work day evenings - from 8pm to 9:30pm? This may not be good for everyone either, but the point is the get the first couple of sessions scheduled, people registered and see how well it works.

I did a superficial search of free services - in general free services limit the number of participants, rely on advertising, require you to install something, or do not offer features I think are needed, like real phone connectivity, in addition to VoIP. As I said, I don't mind paying for hosting, as long as we get good use out of it. If there is a great free solution without some of these limitations, please let me know!

I will be posting the first couple of sessions on the Events section of the board, feel free to post your attendance interest there.

[The Philos]

I'll check my notes for what I have reviewed/used in my online teaching certificate through TXVSN.

We didn't like DimDim much, we purchased Elluminate for our virtual school. Scribblar is an online whiteboard system where you can load slides and such; has a chat window and I believe allows audio (I'd have to check that last bit) and is free.

[J Eddington]

Originally Posted by carrbowl

Janice...you are killing me!!! If you don't have a phone..but have a camera....you might be a redneck!!!

Cell phone of course but hate to burn up minutes on things like this. But land line??? haven't had one in 8 years. I have attended a lot of online learning and no one has ever said that a phone was needed.