tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8890204.post5771409709746910885..comments2024-03-10T05:26:42.148-04:00Comments on My Biased Coin: Giving a TeleseminarMichael Mitzenmacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738274256402616703noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8890204.post-90667594210813825722012-10-29T04:15:46.437-04:002012-10-29T04:15:46.437-04:00I was at a workshop recently and a speaker present...I was at a workshop recently and a speaker presented remotely. The audio (audio-only) was good, the speaker's English was easy to understand, and the quality of the paper being presented was reasonable.<br /><br />After the first 30 sec or so, nearly everyone was head down in their laptop, or went to coffee-break early.<br /><br />Maybe video, or better still bidirectional video, would have helped. Certainly, having a distinguished and experienced speaker (rather than a student with an average paper) would have helped. <br /><br />At some level though, I suspect humans are wired for face to face interaction. For myself, I can have effective concalls with people I know well, but it is much harder with people I know only slightly.<br /><br />I'm sure a video seminar is better than no seminar and is a huge benefit for people with young children, travel/visa issues, etc. But I'd also hate to see seminars become too commoditized(?), with everyone competing to get the same few people to tele-present. Seminars are special partly because someone made the effort to host and to travel.<br /><br />(Anonymous because I don't want to focus attention on the specific student speaker; it's not really central to the comment.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8890204.post-90841789642539148742012-10-22T11:17:10.409-04:002012-10-22T11:17:10.409-04:00There is a regular quantum information seminar on ...There is a regular quantum information seminar on Google+ hangouts https://sites.google.com/site/plusquant/home <br />I agree that the tiny screen makes it work badly. <br />Maybe you can give a good talk without knowing the audience's reactions, but most speakers can't. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8890204.post-73946207578417394862012-10-22T05:10:59.214-04:002012-10-22T05:10:59.214-04:00One natural extension of this would be to skip the...One natural extension of this would be to skip the seminar entirely and have the audience watching from the comfort of their offices as well. In either case, I'd worry about losing the serendipity and conversations that come with meeting in-person, though maybe your Google hangouts idea or something similar would work.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com