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Google Hangout Meetup

PostPosted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 5:14 pm
by coldrake
Over the past few days, a number of members and I expressed interest in a meetup that had no locality, that is: we wanted a meetup through the internet, where we could talk to each other and have live picking. After a short period of brainstorming, we decided that Google Hangouts is the best way to go about achieving this without causing any serious problems. Through Hangouts, we can have sessions for picking, helping out newbs with immediate feedback and advice, and even some video workshops for making tools. Overall, this is to be a way to meet members face to face (lock to lock!) and help build the already awesome locksport community. These of course can be recorded for posterity, as well as "the lulz" :D

Although we have no set date, I would like input from anyone interested in participating in these hangouts to voice their opinion on when a good time and day each week would be to hold them. I have taken the liberty of setting up a Google form (all hail the omnipotent Google) that will direct feedback into a spreadsheet, the results of which are available at the end of the survey. Don't worry about me knowing who voted for what, it just provides a timestamp as to when the user finished the form.

Unfortunately for out Aussie and maybe some European lock pickers, the only ones that I will organize and start will mostly be North American time zone friendly. I will likely initiate them from the Keypicking Live Chat, where I will post a link to the Hangout. This way, only members will be able to see it, as opposed to someone looking at a link in this thread and joining randomly.

Please let me know if any of you have ideas or suggestions, this is a very basic idea that was hastily thought out! I'll update this thread with dates and times for all future meetings I organize in this fashion.

Link to the Google Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1XSEWz9 ... =send_form

Re: Google Hangout Meetup

PostPosted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 5:41 pm
by Mikeh727
Three responses, three different days, three different times LOL!!

I chose a random day since there wasn't an option for more than one day. Any evening is fine, and weekdays are probably better than weekends.

Cool idea!

-Mike

Re: Google Hangout Meetup

PostPosted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 6:09 pm
by xeo
This is a cool idea, virtual locksport meetings via webcam. Thanks for stepping up to get this going coldrake.

Re: Google Hangout Meetup

PostPosted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 6:47 pm
by coldrake
xeo wrote:virtual locksport meetings via webcam


That's the idea! I'll leave the poll open for a few days and hopefully the data will become something useful, during which time I'll test Hangouts and see what sort of problems we may run into, how to overcome them, yada yada yada. Thanks to anyone who has taken the 10 second survey and I'm gonna urge anyone who might want to participate to take it as well, in order to get that useful data.

:drool: mmmm..... data....

-Colin

Re: Google Hangout Meetup

PostPosted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:46 pm
by LockManipulator
I think it's a great idea! I would love to participate :) And maybe show off my locks at the same time lol

Mikeh727 wrote:Three responses, three different days, three different times LOL!!

I chose a random day since there wasn't an option for more than one day. Any evening is fine, and weekdays are probably better than weekends.

Cool idea!

-Mike


x2. Anytime works for me as I don't really do much, just waiting for school to start. Weekdays are probably better for me as well.

Re: Google Hangout Meetup

PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 10:26 pm
by elbowmacaroni
You know what might be useful toward that end, is teamviewer (https://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx) It is free for personal use and you can set up group meetings with audio and webcams even, in addition to sharing desktops if wanting to show something to everyone on some site or some file you have locally. I use teamviewer all the time and it is quite good. Also, another plus for teamviewer is that it is fully cross-platform. There are native clients for *nix, windows and macs.

I could add a new forum here for setting up the meets as well, that way it doesn't wind up being some unwieldly thread here or at google.

Thoughts?

Re: Google Hangout Meetup

PostPosted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:51 am
by Anarchy_won
I like elbows idea, sounds like it would be a little cleaner. But both options work for me :)

Re: Google Hangout Meetup

PostPosted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:59 am
by manskirtbrew
elbowmacaroni wrote:Thoughts?

I like pie.

But if you're looking for thoughts specific to this thread, then yeah I'd be on board with the teamviewer app. If we set up a meeting there, is it something people could just pop into and see who's on? Or does it have to be some kind of pre-planned event?

Re: Google Hangout Meetup

PostPosted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:33 pm
by coldrake
I'm all for TeamViewer, but I'll probably tun a test of what features it has and how the meeting system works. From what I can garner on their site, it looks like it will perform as well as, if not better than, Hangouts. We can hold off on the new forum though, until we find something that has the features we need and we set a regular meeting day.

Speaking of meeting day, it will likely turn out to be a weekday, at least at first. As we draw more interest, the possibility exists for two meeting days, or even switching off weekday and weekend on a biweekly basis (e.g. week 1 is a weekday, week 2 is a weekend) so that everyone has a meeting that they can regularly attend.

Re: Google Hangout Meetup

PostPosted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 10:19 pm
by mastersmith
I'm interested but at a loss at the moment, my computer is in the shop. And my tablet is good for lurking but sucks for taking part in anything. I probably could not do week nights unless it's Friday. Like all things, tell me when and I'll fit it in if I'm able! This is a terrific idea. If nothing else I can pick my nose while the rest of you pick locks! :ugeek:

Re: Google Hangout Meetup

PostPosted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 10:32 pm
by Mikeh727
mastersmith wrote: If nothing else I can pick my nose while the rest of you pick locks! :ugeek:


LOL! Although remind me that I should never ask to borrow your picks... :shock: :shock: :shock:

-Mike

Re: Google Hangout Meetup

PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 10:18 am
by escapenrv
Nice idea. I will take part when I can. Often my travels leave me with little or no internet speed but I will try to be active.
Maybe you could post something on the board index so we could see w/o going to chat.
Good luck...
Steve

Re: Google Hangout Meetup

PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 5:00 pm
by coldrake
Meetup Day is TUESDAY

Alright! Finally figured out the best day to meet up on.

The first meeting is on Tuesday, September 2nd at 6:00 PM PDT, so set an alarm or two and get ready to pick locks with your fellow Keypicking members! If you need help navigating in your time machine, this is a useful tool: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

As for the platform, we'll be using TeamViewer ( http://www.teamviewer.com/en/download/windows.aspx ) for the first few meetings, with the possibility of switching to Google Hangouts if TeamViewer isn't exactly what we need. The meeting will run for about an hour and a half, or until we run out of things to pick! New members are especially encouraged to come and work on that Master Lock #3 or Kwikset, since one of the goals is to provide assistance to people who normally don't have access to a locksport group. The first couple meetings will mainly be whatever we want them to be, but from there we can discuss the possibility of online competitive picking, lock talks, and other various events that one would normally see at a physical locksport meet up.

So again, at 6:00 PDT on September 2nd, I will post the meeting code in chat (this is to keep non-members out, sorry!) and we'll go from there!

-Colin

Re: Google Hangout Meetup

PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 5:26 pm
by Anarchy_won
I am stuck at work that day :( I will try and pop in if things are slow in the shop.

Re: Google Hangout Meetup

PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 8:06 pm
by ForSquirel
I'm game.