A virtual gathering at some point during UWC VI?

Would you be up for a virtual uke gathering in 2014?

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Shady Wilbury

Shady Wilbury

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Hi, guys.

I'm just going to take the plunge here, because UkeCan1 was enthused by something I posted in the Christmas wishes thread. Would there be support for a virtual something around the time of UWC VI? It could be the weekend after, if people are game.

Don't know how it would work, but if we can get enough people on board, we can work out the details nearer the time.

Take care,

Casey
 
I note that there's been some confusion over how something like this would happen. It's not really my department, but I'm thinking something along the lines of what Wendy said in the thread where this was originally floated:

I love Casey's idea of meeting in person ... or at least "live" in real-time, virtually. Maybe we could arrange a Google hangout or webinar or something some mutually friendly time?
Click to expand...

So that's the idea that I'm hoping to take forward, if there's enough support for it. What say ye, citizens of the Ukulele Underground? :)
 
Over on Deadhook, a Grateful Dead forum I hang out at, we occasionally plan a GROK. At a predetermined date and time we would all log in to the Deadhook chatroom and simultaneously listen to the same GD concert on archive.org. Throughout the show, we would discuss the music, things happening in our lives, etc.. with each other.

We could perhaps do something similar with a playlist of youtube videos. Do we have a chatroom here on the UU?


Scooter
 
In anticipation of the inevitable...


From wikipedia:


Grok /ˈɡrɒk/ is a word coined by Robert A. Heinlein for his 1961 science-fiction novel, Stranger in a Strange Land, where it is defined as follows:

Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us (because of our Earthling assumptions) as color means to a blind man.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines to grok as "to understand intuitively or by empathy; to establish rapport with" and "to empathise or communicate sympathetically (with); also, to experience enjoyment". Other forms of the word include groks (present third person singular), grokked (past participle) and grokking (present participle).


I can think of no better term to describe the Ukulele community.:)


Scooter
 
Okay, so I just had to look up "UWC VI". For anyone else here who's new like me and not clued in, this appears to be the 6th annual Ukulele World Congress. (VI, like the Super Bowl. :)) And it's here: https://www.facebook.com/events/166741416833956. And FREE! June 6-7, 2014 (and possibly Sunday the 8th) in a big camping field near Nashville, Indiana (no, not that Nashville - ukuleles get their very own Nashville, apparently).

So that's totally awesome, and of course I will be there ... just as soon as I can figure out how to be there and at my big college reunion at the same time, anyway.

But it's a camping festival in a field - I'm guessing not all that conducive to electronic gatherings. Besides all those folks'll be busy communing in person. Plus it's almost 6 months away!

So my thought would be to do something sooner ... maybe even over the holidays next week, since many are off work then? On such short notice the first one might be small, but that's probably not a bad thing. We'll work out the bugs, and figure out how to make the next one bigger.

Thoughts?

- Wendy (the one Casey quoted, who sparked the original idea)
 
Re how it would happen, I love Scooter's idea of a chat room "grok". Do we have access to a chat room? Or does anyone know how to run a Google Hangout? I have experience running webinars, but they can be expensive, depending on what service you use, and are usually limited in how many can participate.

I'd love to use some kind of technology that would allow us to actually meet "live", like a Google Hangout or webinar can allow, where we could actually even attempt to play stuff together! But something like a chat room could be fun too.

I also have experience using free teleconference bridge lines, but those introduce a delay, so playing music together (we just sang a messy "Happy Birthday" to someone yesterday) doesn't really work.
 
I'm game, with technology there is nothing stopping us from having a virtual gathering!
 
I'm a bit at a loss; do you mean a simulcast?
 
Well, I did some quick research, and all the real-time video-conferencing / video-meeting services I could find seem to be limited to around 10 video participants at a time. Audio teleconferencing can handle more, but introduces a delay, so playing together wouldn't really work.

I don't know ... who has ideas for best ways to do something like this?

I wonder if any other musical communities out there have tried something like this? Maybe I'll look for those later.

A chat room is fine, but I'd love to find some way to include some on-the-spot musical collaborating of some kind. Even if it means small virtual "breakout rooms" of some type. Or people posting stuff on YouTube and others adding something to it after the fact. Or ... I don't know ... what other clever ways could we do something like this?
 
Google talk has "Hangouts", it is a free plug in and we can video conference.
What would be cool is to have a bunch and local jams set-up and the conference in all the groups.
 
UkeCan1 said:
But it's a camping festival in a field - I'm guessing not all that conducive to electronic gatherings. Besides all those folks'll be busy communing in person. Plus it's almost 6 months away!
Click to expand...

Actually, I had cell phone service (3G) at the field last year, unlike the previous years. However, it really isn't conducive to something that requires broadband. Besides which, the timing would be bad, when you have a "cyber meet" there is really no reason to schedule it at the same time as a real meet.

BTW, UWC isn't quite a "festival" in the traditional sense - Mike keeps it very low key and there are no vendors hawking their wares and no formal workshops and, while some pros show up and jam they really aren't treated much different than everybody else. It's really a big "3 (or more) day jam" with open mic sessions on Saturday and Sunday that start in the late afternoon and run 'til the wee hours of the morning. (Actually, last year Lil Rev had a workshop and concert on Saturday at a theater in town - I don't know if anything similar is planned this year.) The crowd is very friendly and supportive - if you've never played in front of 200 or so people before UWC is a great place to cut your teeth as there won't be a single heckler in the crowd!

Technically the meet starts on Saturday but folks keep showing up earlier and earlier every year. I camped at the field this past year and got there on Tuesday morning and there were already three or four tents up. There are also many rental cabins available in the area and, of course, hotels.

John
 
OldePhart said:
UWC isn't quite a "festival" in the traditional sense...
Click to expand...

It sounds awesome. Now I just have to figure out how to be in Indiana and Massachusetts at the same time.

SailingUke said:
Google talk has "Hangouts", it is a free plug in and we can video conference.
What would be cool is to have a bunch and local jams set-up and the conference in all the groups.
Click to expand...

Unless I missed something, Google Hangouts is also limited to 10 video participants per hangout. It'd be great fun to try a small one, but I don't think that technology will support an all-Seasons virtual gathering.
 
I teach classes via video conferencing. I do not see how a virtual meetup could be possible without a delay or chat only options. The amount of broadband would be too much and I doubt any of us have the capability to produce something like that. Now if there were limited locations, yes...but otherwise, I doubt it will happen...besides, why do virtual when you can meet in real?
 
Thanks for your thoughts, John. I appreciate that the vast majority of the userbase here are in the US, therefore a real life meeting would be possible, but for those of us who are not, and those of us who would like to meet but will likely never have the chance, this presents the best alternative I can think of.
 
Shady Wilbury said:
Thanks for your thoughts, John. I appreciate that the vast majority of the userbase here are in the US, therefore a real life meeting would be possible, but for those of us who are not, and those of us who would like to meet but will likely never have the chance, this presents the best alternative I can think of.
Click to expand...

I understand...though I am in the US, I'm not CONUS. Virtual meetups are great. I used to participate in the minijams (not that often) and they aren't ideal. It is a challenge in all virtual formats to have more than one site talkign without feedback and lag. It makes it pretty frustrating. One of the classes I co-teach entails 4 different schools plus our own. It is a challenge to get the audio good.

I'd still like to know how it will be done. I do not think that waiting until the last minute will work. My wife taught the first month of school this year from our home in GA. They waited until the last minute to work it out and it took a solid two weeks to get all the kinks worked out. One issue we would have in organizing something like this is the compatible technology. There would also need to be multiple trial runs to make sure the bandwidth is working out. THe cost will be astronomical (speaking with what little I know about this, but it is personal experience). The online things like the minijams and possibly google hangout are great ideas but they are limited in participants. I think 10 is the limit on GH with video conferencing (we looked into it, but it was to limited for what we needed). We use DRS. It is ok, but very expensive since they specialize in remote locations and all our sites are remote.
 
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