virtual classes?

[8dust]

Sounds pretty interesting to me.

I think those of us with families of young kids might find the Saturday afternoon slot tough to make because of the competition, but Sunday evening sounds very doable…

Fred

[Aileron]

I would definitely be interested in this...particularly any video of gear, setups, actual dives with proper positioning of gear to get the most out of it. (This would be N00b stuff). I personally don't need to know how to rebuild a DA I found in someone's dumpster, 'cause I want to keep Bryan in the biz, and I'll probably die diving something I rebuilt.

I would also like to just eavesdrop on some conference calls between you guys and pick up info until I can make sure I don't embarrass myself.

I'm in.

Lisa

[Ron]

We could even have a couple of talks where we go over some of the more complex vintage dives that we have done. I have done some with a reel, deco, and a hung bottle. There's plenty of information for everyone. I think this will be awesome. To chime in with Freddo, we should probably get a good idea of when we should do it. I only threw Saturday out there because it was a weekend. If we want Sunday or any other time, then I am game.

What time or day works best for everyone?

so far we have:

Saturday @ noon EST
Sunday @ 7PM EST (ish)

[Drado]

I'd like to listen in on those classes if possible any time slot except an afternoon (EST) slot works for me as I'm at +8 GMT.

[sthtxdiver]

Hello other that i work every other weekend id love to listen in and learn more.thanx best

[DaleC]

Sundays work well for me.
If it were recorded it could be put in an archive for anyone who missed the real time event.

[Ron]

Dale brings up a good point. We could record them, and as long as we safeguard VDH's intellectual property, we could have them on the site for later viewing.

[Aileron]

I'm in for Sat or Sun, & I really like the idea of being able to have them recorded for later viewing or listening, since those 2 days are my prime dive days.

[Ron]

One strike against Skype is that it is very processor intensive on the client side. In English, that means most people have a computer that is slower than Skype would like for video. They recommend a dual core 1.4Ghz processor. I don't even have that.

[Aileron]

Ok, just throwing this out...what about a video (pre-recorded) with live conference chat? i.e. play video and discuss what's going on. Does that solve any streaming or connectivity issues, etc? Is this a completely ridiculous idea? If yes, feel free to

Lisa

[Bryan]

No silly ideas on this subject......2 days ago I just ordered my 1st webcam/microphone setup and I'll try and figure out how to use it quickly. I am following Ron's lead on how we should go about things as I have ZERO experience in this area. Sounds like SKYPE is out for running video and the other option he has right now would cost me $49.00 a month and I'm not in a position to pay that monthly by myself. I know we could come up with some great content and I think we should keep doing some more research and find something that is easy for everyone to be part of.

[Ron]

We could try Skype, because it is free, and just accept that some may not be able to participate. That's a start. We could also make a video like a you tube video, then talk on the phone for Q and A. Those are just two ideas.

[Bryan]

We could try Skype, because it is free, and just accept that some may not be able to participate. That's a start. We could also make a video like a you tube video, then talk on the phone for Q and A. Those are just two ideas.

I'm surprised you guys have not made a parody of my YouTube videos on regulators but if you want to do a trial run we could use one of those? Ron, is it easy to conference call without Web X or MeetingPlace ? Would a chat be easier after watching the video?

[bbain]

I wouldn't be so quick to toss out Skype. We used it when my daughter was in England on both video and audio, and she was using a G4 iBook with an external webcam on it. the G4 ibook is at least 3 generations old at this point. In fact she gave us a walking tour of the Oxford campus by using the campus wireless and walking around with her iBook online and the webcam turned around so it pointed out. It was sometimes a bit jerky, but more than usable.

It's free, so we should try it.

[Ron]

I think we should maybe do a video as like a "read ahead". You know, Diver talks about old techniques of decompression diving and such. VDH crew watches video at their leisure, then that weekend we skype as a group, ask questions, and talk about. Maybe it could be one of the priviliges of VDH or NAVED membership.