Return to South Benton County Community, Research and Report Wikiwebsite.

How should the World Cyber Cafe be used?

Nancy: Great ideas, but would they work for a business which is facing bankruptcy because of high fuel costs (pick any airline or trucking company). Social networking is a big rage right now. It needs to translate into the business arena. Personally, the aimless, boring, self-promotion and self-centeredness of social networks does not interest me. However, we can learn from these social network promotions and perhaps apply it to more meaningful objects. My interest is how to form as many producer/worker cooperatives as possible so that this type of "Bottom-up capitalism" replaces the current "Top-down capitalism" which rules America and most countries. The latter system has really devestated our Earth and most of its inhabitants. It is time to change before it gets a whole lot worse.

2 How is the moderator picked?

3. What does the moderator do?

4. How do we handle spammers, unruly, and nasty folks?

5. How is the scrivener picked?

Jim says: Each session of the virtual cafe should have a different scrivener to spread the load on a rotating basis.

6. What does the scrivener do?

Jim says: The scrivener keeps notes in the chat box of the points made by each speaker (who is also ID'd in the note). The transcript of the session is then posted on the Wiki under that session's name on that session's separate page. This approach allows each speaker to edit the notes made by the scrivener, after the fact.

What software and gear is best suited to a no/low cost World Cyber Cafe? (short notes with URLs).

1. For a WikiWeb:

Jim says: Wetpaint: www.wetpaint.com

2. Text editor:

Jim says: Let's use Open Office Writer, part of the OO suite: www.openoffice.org More on Open Office

3. Chat rooms:

4. Audio/phone conferencing:

GOTOMEETING

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5. Video conferencing:

About iLinc

iLinc provides Web and audio conferencing solutions that are secure, reliable, and incredibly easy to use. Professionals across industries rely on iLinc for Web meetings, virtual classroom technology, webinars, remote technical support, and more. iLinc helps people collaborate online more effectively while avoiding the expense, environmental damage, and productivity losses associated with travel. See More on World Cyber Cafe, RESEARCH and EVALUATION MATRIX.


Finally, we have a winner!


/=============================\

GEAR FOR VIDEO CONFERENCING

See MS "Round Table" video camcorder in action: Microsoft Office RoundTable, a device scheduled to debut by mid-year 2007, combines the features of a speakerphone with those found in videoconferencing into a device that Microsoft expects will retail for less than US $3,000. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/oct06/10-20officeroundtable.mspx For a DEMO using Round Table, see: http://office.microsoft.com/home/video.aspx?assetid=ES102403201033&width=884&height=540&startindex=0&CTT=11&Origin=HA102403231033 If $3000 is too rich for your pocket book, Try a Logitch Quick Cam with a wide angle lens: $32.99, plus 1.00 shipping.
Overstock.com
http://www.overstock.com/cart?addqty2584897=1&addid2584897=3066521&war2584897=1668932&BUY.x=100&BUY.y=31

/=============================\


Requirements:

• For Windows® XP: Pentium® P4 (or compatible) processor, 1.4 GHz (2.4 GHz recommended)
• 128MB RAM (256 MB recommended)
• For Windows Vista™: Pentium® P4 (or compatible) processor, 2.4 GHz (2.8 GHz recommended)
• 512MB RAM (1GB recommended)
• 200 MB hard disk space
• CD-ROM drive
• 16-bit color display adapter
• OS Compatible Sound Card and Speakers
• 1.1 or 2.0 USB port
• MAC compatible via UVC

Certification:

• Carl Zeiss® lens
• Autofocus system
• Ultra-high resolution 2-megapixel sensor with RightLight™2 Technology
• Color depth: 24-bit true color
• Video capture: Up to 1600 x 1200 pixels (HD quality) (HD Video 960 x 720 pixels)
• Frame rate: Up to 30 frames per second
• Still image capture: 8 million pixels (with software enhancement)
• Built-in microphone with RightSound™ Technology

What's in the box:

• Carl Zeiss® lens
• Autofocus system
• Ultra-high resolution 2-megapixel sensor with RightLight™2 Technology
• Color depth: 24-bit true color
• Video capture: Up to 1600 x 1200 pixels (HD quality) (HD Video 960 x 720 pixels)
• Frame rate: Up to 30 frames per second
• Still image capture: 8 million pixels (with software enhancement)
• Built-in microphone with RightSound™ Technology

http://accessories.skype.com/DRHM/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=DisplayProductDetailsPage&SiteID=skype&Locale=en_US&Env=BASE&categoryName=Webcams&parentCategoryName=Webcams&productID=81939800

/===========================/

"The Pro 9000 offers easy plug-and-play operability on either a Windows PC or a Mac--just slide in the USB 2.0 plug, select the camera from your chosen video chatting program (it works seamlessly with Skype, Yahoo!, Windows Live, SightSpeed, and iChat), and you're good to go. While the Pro 9000 works brilliantly right out of the box, you'll only be able to take advantage of software add-ons such using the included QuickCam software (which is for Windows users only). "

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RZQZM0/ref=s9subs_c2_at1-rfc_p?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1QH2ZN0GGMMSSPE3JDRP&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=278240301&pf_rd_i=507846

/=============================================\

OOVOO

Oovoo is free. Six people at once are on screen. See: http://www.oovoo.com/

/==============================\

CAUCUS

Causus states:

Not just for Education
Of course, Caucus can be used anywhere that people need to coordinate their conversations. It's especially powerful for distributed groups of people that need to share information, track the history of an issue, or reach consensus. (Ever try to have a conversation among 3 or more people via email? And then find something you said a month ago? Or bring another person up to speed, later? It can't be done.) http://www.caucuscare.com/inf_whatis.shtml

Cause has a Needs Assessement which tells us more about Caucus and how it can perform in relation to Virtual Cafes:

Make your own checklist
What do you need for your online classes? Try this experiment: print this page, and next to each checkbox, write 1, 2, or 3 for "don't need", "helpful", and "required". Circle the checked 3's, and highlight the unchecked 3's. What does this tell you? Is anything missing from this list? http://www.caucuscare.com/inf_needs.shtml#

While the software is open source and free, it would require hosting and support service: Caucus offers hosting service:
Monthly fees are based on the number of "seats" (individual users), as shown below. There is no set-up fee, but the minimum is the lower of 3 months or $500. You may purchase hosting services directly over the web.

Users		Cost/Month
50		$50
250		$125
500		$240
750		$340
1000		$400
>1000		(contact us)

http://www.caucuscare.com/sup_host.shtml Caucus also offers several different levels of support:

Item		Price	Buy?	Cost
Educational Support contract		$400
Commercial Support contract		$800
Backup Service (1-time setup)		$150
Backup Service (6 months)		$80
Hosting Service (see chart)
Consulting Services ($75/hr)
Total

/============================================/

WEB CROSSING

http://www.webcrossing.com/Home/webcrossing_neighbors.htm

Web crossing is a commercial service which hosts onlline communities and can also host a client's server. It offers these features:

• Friends networking provides mutual links and easy-to-find new activity in friends' spaces.
• Degrees of friendship support (friends of friends, third degree friends)
• Custom profiles gather the information you want (required and optional) during signup and automatically propagates the content to user profiles, tag-based member searches and advanced members searches. Users decide which profile fields are visible to whom (friends, everybody or nobody).
• Quick member browse with links to spaces, photo albums and friendship status
• Groups (public, private, and hidden) with online discussion areas and email subscriptions
• Projects (public, private, and hidden) are like Groups but are intended for teams working on specific tasks. In addition to groups features there are unlimited sub-folder hierarchies and special group features, including task managers, event calendars, Wiki Web, surveys and discussions.
• Friend and group galleries (personal pictures and custom user-selectable avatars)
• Hot news and announcements appear whenever members access their spaces, keeping them up to date
• Friends and group activity shows up in a person's space, letting them know about new content in subscribed areas
• Search spaces, members, and groups
• Super Invite is a one-stop feature that makes it easy for members to invite people to join the site, become friends, and participate in groups
• Sitewide communities such as Online Support, for system-related discussions
• Instant Messaging and Chat with online presence detection and avatars
• Personal Spaces with member-settable access permissions
• Personal Files let members share data and files with friends, other site members, or store private data
• Personal Journals (blogs)
• Personal Photo Albums allow members to upload photos and optionally comment on each others' images
• Personal Discussion Areas A member's own personal forum space!
• WebMail and also full email (SMTP, POP3) services
• Footprints (list of recent visitors) for Groups and Spaces
• Testimonials from friends
• Reviews publishing
• Reports can be generated from site data to track growth

Web Crossing offers these services using these elements of its platform:

• Discussion Areas offer forum space with full administrative control
• WebMail and full email (SMTP, POP3) services are provided
• Newsgroups provide full support for NNTP-based access
• Mailing Lists permit administering a folder as a mailing list
• Instant Messaging and Chat with online presence detection and avatars
• Weblogs include teasers, spellcheck, photo blogging, drafts, and a unique timed-release feature
• Wiki is a collaboratively-created web of interlinked pages with edit privileges for all participants
• Polls offer sidebar or whole-page polls with graphic chart of results
• Reports can be generated from site data to track growth

Fees are based on page views. At World Cafe level, the basic package is $65 per month. Here's their price schedule:

Three hosting packages are available, depending on the size of your site and the traffic it gets:

• Get Onboard: for small and growing sites
  $65 per month, including 30,000 pageview equivalents each month (details)
• Professional: for medium-sized sites
  $395 per month, including 300,000 pageview equivalents each month (details)
• Enterprise: for large, mission-critical sites
  $2495 per month, including 2.5 million pageview equivalents each month (details)

Discounts are available with 12-month prepayment
Includes automatic server upgrades and a software license
Pro and Enterprise packages include Priority Support
Licenses are also available

EVALUATION: See Jim's evaluation in the EVALUATION MATRIX.

Hello Jim,

Webcrossing is in the collaboration business with social networking and community building products, but we do not offer the capabilities you are looking to install. I use a product from iLinc which has those capabilities. www.ilinc.com

Regards,

Jim Bert
Vice President Business Development
925-283-8501


----- Original Message -----

From: Jim Miller To: sales@webcrossing.com Sent: Friday, July 18, 2008 5:54 AM Subject: Questions

Sales: Does Web Crossing support live video conferencing? Does it support Skype phone conferencing iin conjunction with a browser based white board? What does Web Crossing offer in terms of archiving an entire conference with a table of contents, indexed content, search engine and download of selected files? Best regards, Jim Miller

/=====================================\

Webconferences.com (posted on TWC).

Jim says: Webconferences.com is a commercial firm which apparently has the software sets needed for Virtual Cafes. Here's their pitch:
Webconferences.com provides live webcasts and related services and collaborative web-based learning environments. Our team knows how to create and deliver web-based programs. We have significant capability and experience in the social, organizational, technical and pedagogical aspects of a successful web-based program.

http://www.webconferences.com/

Does anyone know what Webconferences.com would charge to cobble together a Virtual Cafe?

Suppose this:

The event planners use an asynchronous solution while the Virtual Cafe (VC) is the in planning and early implementation stage. Then to conduct the event, use a synchronous solution. Then after the event, an asynchronous solution. The latter becomes an archive of that event. I'm especially interested in the latter aspect. We've all been to many conferences, listened, eat and greet, maybe taken notes, pick up some papers and maybe a CD. Those items get packed away or pitched. After a while, whatever "benefit" there was in the conference is lost as memory fades.

I've had the feeling, even when I've gone over my notes months later, of "what was that all about?" All I could recall were a few pinpoints of "light" and, in my case, those were mostly visual with little context. Now with an archived record, we could revisit the conference, replay any part of it which interested us and have our memory refreshd -- if not our enthusiasm.

Conclusion: There appears to be real value in keeping a digital record of the VC and having an embedded search engine to help us find a point of light.

Has anyone had any experience with Webconferencing.com?

Sample of video recording with speaker's running video inset into display or replay of recording of of Power Point Presentation.
http://www.webconferences.com/nihoba/14_dec_2005.html

6. Meeting wizards:

Meeting Wizard:

http://www.meetingwizard.com/mwiz/v/r.cfm?mtag=694083637&m=237885&g=2309323

Please post your extensive comments on Meeting Wizard on MEETING INVITATIONS.

VAWKER

Apparently Vawker, mentioned by Charles Savage, is Google Sites. I attempted to create a Google site and did so at: http://www.theworldcafe.com/. I played with it a while. It looks like a very simple Wiki. As a wiki, Wetpaint far outstrips Vawker. As a meeting manager, Meeting Wizard is much better.

Jim

7. On a country-wide scale, social networking has been taken up by commercial and NPO's as a main focus. The technology bases are the hand held devices, the operating systems, applications and a community-wide wirless broadband system. Here are some stakeholders:

Glide

About GlideKosova.org http://www.glideos.com/kosova/
The mission of GlideKosova.org is to empower Kosovans worldwide with their own online and mobile technology platform to promote social, education and business development and exchange. GlideKosova.org distributes powerful productivity, social and business networking and e-commerce technology to Kosovans to strengthen community bonds, advance classroom and distance learning and facilitate entrepreneurship and commerce across borders in the new mobile world economy. More from TMC.net: http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/07/10/3540761.htm

http://www.webconferences.com/nihoba/14_dec_2005.html

8. Mobile devices and OS and application software.

Mobile devices which can access broadband from a wired network, wireless network and radio network.
Nokia bought out its partners in Symbian and now offers a free operating system which runs on handhelds. Many high end handhelds have a webcorder which can operated as a real time video camcorder. This approach allows a person sitting at a physical table to also be part of the World Cyber Cafe part of the same session or allows a remote registrant to be anywhere a broadband connection can be obtained.

Resarch in Motion: Developers of Blackberry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_In_Motion

Palm products (smart phones): http://www.palm.com/us/products/

Windows Mobile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile

Windows Mobile is a compact operating system combined with a suite of basic applications for mobile devices based on the Microsoft Win32 API. Devices that run Windows Mobile include Pocket PCs, Smartphones, Portable Media Centers, and on-board computers for certain automobiles. It is designed to be somewhat similar to desktop versions of Windows, feature-wise and aesthetically. Additionally, third-party software development is available for Windows Mobile. Originally appearing as the Pocket PC 2000 operating system, Windows Mobile has been updated several times, with the current version being Windows Mobile 6.1, and a new release scheduled for 2010.[1] Microsoft projected in 2008 that shipments of devices with Windows Mobile will increase from 11 million to 20 million units. Microsoft licenses Windows Mobile to four out of the five world's largest mobile phone manufacturers, with Nokia being the other.[2]

NOKIA
http://www.nseries.com/products/n800/#l=products,n810_wme,demo

Nokia N810 Internet Tablet

Keyboard - Bluetooth, Wi-Fi

Chat, interact and experience true internet browsing with the N810 Internet Tablet from Nokia. Equipped with an impressive high-resolution widescreen display and a QWERTY keyboard this tablet lets you create, update, and explore on the move. Stay connected with instant messaging, email and more. Be at hand span from your friends and loved ones via Skype, Google Talk, or Gizmo, with integrated VGA web camera and Bluetooth headset support. Entertainment is always at hand thanks to the integrated m

Part #: 02703R1 / N810

Sellers Found: 8

Available Since: Nov 7, 2007

Lowest Price: $349.00

Average Rating:

(47 user ratings)

Source: http://www.nextag.com/nOKIA-N810/search-html

List of companies offering the N810 with webcam and slide-out keyboard: http://www.nextag.com/nOKIA-N810/search-html



List of companies offering Nokia 800: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4SUNA_enUS279US279&q=nokia+N800&um=1&cid=3395770308078996794&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&resnum=1&ct=result

Callwave:

Richard Roberts and Michael Buday are from Callwave, the company that makes a variety of UC (Unified Communications) solutions.

The company has a service called Fuze which is a browser-based UC platform with a nice-looking GUI. The solution has differentiated itself in a number of ways by ensuring their service works on a variety of devices. Just one of these is the Nokia N800 and N810 internet tablets.


The company has a service called Fuze which is a browser-based UC platform with a nice-looking GUI. The solution has differentiated itself in a number of ways by ensuring their service works on a variety of devices. Just one of these is the Nokia N800 and N810 internet tablets.

So what does the service do? Aside from the usual merging of e-mail, voicemail, etc… There is also high quality videoconferencing and Skype (News - Alert)-based conferencing allowing up to about 1,000 people to be on a call at the same time. Furthermore, there is Internet fax, media sharing, Outlook synchronization, voicemail transcription, support for Yahoo! and Google mail, find me/follow me functionality, and more.

More:
http://hdvoice.tmcnet.com/topics/unified-communications/articles/25452-callwave-fuze-unified-communications-plus.htm

9. Archival of prior Virtual Cafe events:

Here's an example of how NIH archives their video casts:

http://www.webconferences.com/nihroadmap/index.html

10. Unconventional Conventions:

Suppose that you find that there are many VC's which have nuggets of infomation and learning which you want to collect for your personal use and archival. Now you copy and paste into a folder such material. But suppose you were to have your own Cyberspace Wikiweb and use it as the platform for input, output and archival? Caucus seems to say it might be that platform:

To repeat, most of the time you'll just click on read all new. Caucus will automatically take you through the new items and responses. In each discussion, you can add your own response(s) with a WYSWYG editor. (You can also link to others' responses, store responses in your private notebook, attach files, link to your to-do list, and much more.) http://www.caucuscare.com/inf_whatis.shtml

Suppose also that you find nuggets on the web and in hard copy. You can scan the hardcopy and post it to your own website. Suppose you use a wikiweb and thereby can invite friends to visit and read your archives. Or,you can find what you saved easily and export it to a Blog or other recipient, all of which is browser accessable. You would have one or more web pages able to display and/or run text documents, video clips, whiteboards, graphics and start a webcast. Caucus says all of the above is possible.

Overview
Caucus is an 'application' that is installed on a Unix server or "host". This includes any flavor of Unix, including Linux, Solaris, MacOS X, BSD, HP-UX, and AIX. (It does not run on Windows servers -- but it doesn't care what kind of a computer or operating system the end users have.) People use Caucus through the web browser on their PC, connected over the Internet (or intranet) to the host. Caucus supports all modern browsers on all computers -- whether it's IE (Internet Explorer) 6 or 7, Firefox, Netscape, or Safari, on Windows, Macintosh, or Unix. When a person is using Caucus, their browser "talks to" software called the "web server" that is installed on the host. (Caucus works with most web servers, although Apache is the most common.) The web server in turn "talks" directly to the Caucus application, which actually generates the information that you see in your browser window. This architecture scales extremely well: for example, one university supports 10,000 total users (with a typical peak of 200 simultaneous users) on a desktop PC with 2GB of RAM, with no degradation of response time. The Caucus application may be installed multiple times on a single host, and each Caucus site is treated as a completely independent "virtual" host. http://www.caucuscare.com/inf_arch.shtml

KIVA

One of the most impressive documentaries I've seen in a long while is the KIVA video clip http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/uganda601/uganda-601.html?c=3qt Note that at about 80% of the way through, a KIVA representative takes a digital photo of a KIVA loan recipient in Uganda with what appears to be a Nokia cellphone, uploads it from the spot via satilitte, to the kiva Web server, which immediately broadcasts the photo and message to all of the KIVA subscribers. Now that is impressive.

In the VC context, each person at a physical table could use a Nokia N810 in lieu of a laptop, record h/h in real time, motion video, audio and text. (or so I suppose) of what is going on at the table and share that information with all remote participants.

/================================================================================/

Lengthy research notes and discussions should be posted on a separate page under the author's name or other key word, and that word or phrase highlighted by a hyperlink to the target page.

Please use Open Office Suite so we are all on the same format page.

See also: The Assignment | Brainstorming | Rough Draft | Tea