[OSList] technology mix no-no?

[Paul Nunesdea]

Magdalena,

You should definitively go ahead with hybrid OS.  The only real technical limitation I have been struggling so far is the 'marketplace experience'. However I have good news for you!!

I have experienced the use of Google Docs but is is confusing so I kept looking for better solutions (still am) and just found a groupware tool called  Trello and their free version serves perfectly the purpose of creating a great marketplace experience with very little configuration.
https://trello.com/

Trello aims to support 'wide-band' project management, but you can easily create the board in a manner that it displays the time slots in the top and the discussion topics in the columns.

Another important point is to find a solution for the people in the room to be working in the same 'marketplace' screen than people that are remote. You can use an interactive group display in your local (physical) room (for sure some local AV companies can rent you one) or you have to have each local participant to work in a computer. You need the 'buzz' of the marketplace happening as if we were all in the same room, that's the goal!

Finally a few words about Skype. Have you tried Google Hangouts? I would strongly recommend you give it a try and conduct a couple of Hangouts before the actual event so people will feel comfortable with this great tool. Google Hangouts supports the audio and video communication, participants can still work in the Trello board for the marketplace and 'harvesting', It is really a promising tool and I strongly recommend you to experiment with it.

Best,
Paul 

From my iPad

On 11/09/2013, at 18:51, Magdalena Valderrama Hurwitz <magdalenavh at gmail.com> wrote:

> For the past year, I've been chairing a group of 13 people all living far from each other (Missouri, California, Toronto, East Coast, Hawaii etc) who have been meeting nearly weekly over the past 4 years over the phone and with the intermittent help of private online chats and video calling when these resources were available.  One of our tasks is to mobilize a community of interest--about 1200 people scattered all over the world--to engage in various cooperative actions. Now it's time for the annual working retreat (last weekend in Sept) which the group has expanded from 2 into 2-1/2 days (3 nights) so we can have more working time together.  It's normal for our working retreats that people who can't attend in person call in and we work to make sure "calling in" is an unavoidable option. 
> 
> The group has voted to use OST. A couple of years ago a member of the group introduced OST and later left, and I became empathetic to the point of taking a training, joining this listserve, and trying out one of the Blackboard Collaborate gatherings (clunky but interesting)  etc.  Two of our members are very eager to use OST for this retreat, and the rest are very interested, with one abstention. I recused myself from the vote but after the group voted yes, I contacted the former member and she is willing to facilitate.
> 
> We figured out we could use a projector and Google Docs to post the OST agenda wall, and we are also using Google Docs for the breakout session reports. We plan to have the callers use Skype for the main sessions as well as the breakout sessions so that we all have visual contact with each other. 
> 
> We had a majority coming in person, but the two strongest proponents have said they won't be able to come, one participant is personally uncomfortable with the facilitator, etc, and now we are down to 6 people in the room and 5 sure callers. 
> 
> We're a pretty determined bunch of people--not energetic necessarily--and OST is best done in person, so should we just give up on using OST now or is there still hope to be had? 
> 
> -- 
>  
> Magdalena Valderrama Hurwitz
> 
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