The Voynich Ninja

(17-05-2024, 01:43 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.One thing I wonder about is the timing: how long will it last ideally? Do we intend to make it a program people can comfortably watch entirely? Which hours of the day are the best to suit both Europe and America?

(17-05-2024, 01:49 PM)Lissu Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I'm prepared to stay up all night to see the entire program.. x)

But yes, a set schedule would be nice so that people can plan their day and take lunch/dinner breaks and comment/ask questions in between of presentations.

Lissu! 

That is a good question and I think it will be partially determined by when the timed/live events end up being scheduled. Threads that don't have set times and curated content that is pre-recorded will probably be active all day and people will be able to check them out freely even after VM Day.

Ideally, I currently envision at least the majority of the timed/live events occurring between roughly 10:00am and 5:00pm in the Zoom account time zone. Since it is Koen's account, that would mean Central European Summer Time (UTC+2:00). But that is 6 hours later than Eastern Time US, for example, and we do have one presenter on Australia time (I forget which specific time zone but they range UTC+8:00 to UTC+10:00). It will be a challenge to keep things reasonable but I'm sure we can figure out something for everyone. The recorded content will help a lot for those who miss out on a live event. Publishing the program by the deadline I have set will also help so everyone can figure out in advance what they want to see and do.

As for staying up all night, I know all about that. Back in 1985, I was in London and watched the entirety of the Live Aid concert, save about an hour when I went home to shower and change (TMI LOL), from the Noon start at Wembley to the Midnight finale at JFK. THAT was a LONG day! And I used to work at that local convention that has over 500 hours of programming running on about 20 tracks simultaneously. One can never do everything one wants to do at something like that, though there are plenty who do try to last all weekend without sleep (I'm not one of them). OMG!

I am hopeful VM Day will be a lot more reasonable than those events. But it will still be a pretty packed schedule of activities. We have over 2,000 registered members but it is likely a lot fewer will participate and there will be plenty for everyone to enjoy. At least that is the plan.

(17-05-2024, 01:12 PM)Lissu Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.ReneZ's music project sounds super interesting too.

Thank you, and I am looking forward to yours!

(17-05-2024, 10:33 PM)merrimacga Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Ideally, I currently envision at least the majority of the timed/live events occurring between roughly 10:00am and 5:00pm in the Zoom account time zone. Since it is Koen's account, that would mean Central European Summer Time (UTC+2:00). But that is 6 hours later than Eastern Time US, for example, and we do have one presenter on Australia time (I forget which specific time zone but they range UTC+8:00 to UTC+10:00).

The timing of the Malta conference was set to be 'convenient' from East Asia to US Eastern time. For me, it meant I had to stay up until about midnight. Beside Australia, which will always be difficult, I do not know if we have any members in US Pacific time, who would need to start early.

Voynich Ninja has the Member List disabled (I checked) but I wonder if there is a way to get a list of the locations and/or time zones, though not the usernames or any other user information, for all the most active members currently. Such a list, coupled with each speaker's time zone, might help optimize scheduling for both speakers and most likely attendees.

However, not every user will have a location identified or their time zone selected. Alternatively, I suppose I could poll the membership as to what time they could attend VM Day live events to get a range of optimal scheduling times (and gauge attendee willingness to participate outside their comfort zone). Those who respond wouldn't be the only attendees but they might be the target audience. We won't be able to accommodate everyone but perhaps we can accommodate the speaker plus a broad selection of closest time zones and hopefully without having Koen awake and hosting 24/7.

For many years now, I have been using a site called You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. whenever I have time zone questions. They have a an You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and a meeting planner page where you can input all the locations representing your meeting audience so you can optimize the meeting time. Here is the link with a table that represents a global audience for VM Day (starting 3 August and ending 5 August):

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Wikipedia also has a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. with a time zone map to help visualize:



If we schedule VM Day live events for 10:00am to 5:00pm UTC (instead of CEST), that may be an optimal range. If I do a multiple choice poll, I could reference timeanddate and Wikipedia to aid everyone in their poll selections. Or I could suggest the UTC range with options for members to say yes, no or maybe if that would work for them.

Normally I would aim for Europe's afternoon and evening, because then the vast majority of members can attend. In this case, however, it may be more complicated since it would be great if Rene could also attend (a large part of) the event.

Starting earlier than my 10:00am makes little sense, since most of our potential audience would still be asleep. And even if we start at 10am, it would be another 5 hours before it's 9am on the East coast. Five hours potentially with a very small audience. Wouldn't it be better to concentrate the presentations etc. in the hours that maximize the potential live audience? 

Who will be presenting from Australia? This might be the trickiest one, since their night is exactly in these hours.

Another option is to record an early session and a late session? Something like one starting at 10am CEST, another starting at 5 or 6pm CEST?

(18-05-2024, 03:17 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Who will be presenting from Australia? This might be the trickiest one, since their night is exactly in these hours.

Hi, Koen:

The presenter from Australia is my collaborator, Dr. Keagan Brewer.  We appreciate you taking his situation into consideration.

Thanks,

Michelle

Currently, we have 6 researcher presentation submissions:

• Koen (1 presentation and Zoom host for the day, CEST, UTC+2)
  
• Emma (1 presentation, UTC+1, based on profile local time, no location noted)
  
• Michelle (2 presentations, Omaha, Central US, UTC-5)
  
• Keagan (1 presentation with Michelle, Sydney, UTC+10)
  
• tavie (1 presentation, UTC+1, based on profile local time, no location noted)
  
• pfeaster (1 presentation, Eastern US, UTC-4).
  

5 of the presentations will be 30 minutes each. 1 presentation will need 45 minutes. Only 2 have indicated their webinar will be recorded, though 3 indicated they want the recording made available afterwards. The others are undecided at this time, including Keagan. 4 will make their presentations available in advance. The other 2 won't.

I am hopeful we will be adding more live events than just these, though (expert interviews and guest talks at least). The less overlap between all live events, the more likely every attendee will get to attend everything they want to but that requires a longer time range offered. If we overlap and if any won't make either a recording or session materials available afterwards, then some interested attendees may get left out.

Here is the timeanddate meeting planner table with the research presenter time zones mapped for VM Day:

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Offering UTC 10:00am-5:00pm (CEST 12:00pm-7:00pm) as the range gives Keagan a couple of early time slots that won't be too late for him (though Michelle may not want to be up that early, which can't be helped) and should work well for the other presenters. It will probably work well for European attendees as well as North American and South American ones. Perhaps Keagan and Michelle would consider presenting their joint one twice with Keagan presenting early and Michelle presenting later. This range should allow for that. Once we have the researchers scheduled, we can fill the rest of the range with any additional live content on a first come, first served basis.

I'm hoping this time range will also work well enough for Rene to be able to attend live events. I'm not sure how many other active members might need such consideration but I would hate to limit the time range further and have members interested in attending miss out.

I would be okay with this time range. I think we could fit everything into one programme without overlapping.

Seven hours for six planned talks leaves quite some margin.

I understand that some of that margin would be used for other activities.
If my music thing goes ahead (looking good), I could spend some 15 minutes or so to explain how it was done.

(19-05-2024, 02:30 AM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Europe and US should be on daylight saving time (but not Thailand and Australia), so one should adjust some of the times for that. However, seven hours for six planned talks leaves quite some margin.

Timeanddate takes DST into consideration and adjusts the UTC conversions accordingly. I will be private messaging each of the presenters individually tomorrow and will be copying Koen for the webinar setups. Rene and Andrew have been helping me with the submissions and I can copy them as well, in case that would be helpful. The Zoom webinars will be in Koen's time zone (CEST - Central European Summer Time) but I'll be sure to note in the PMs and the VM Day materials and communications the equivalents in other time zones, especially Central US (so far the earliest known time zone) and Thailand and Australia (the latest known time zones), for each of the CEST times scheduled. Let's prioritize Keagan's presentation first since he is in Australia (we'll work with Michelle on that). And I would like to prioritize Koen's second so he can pick the best time for his since he is also host for all of the webinars. It's been my experience webinars frequently run over their allotted times, especially when there is a Q&A at the end, so I will recommend scheduling starts on the hour so as to allow a 15 to 30 minute gap between and we can use those gaps for additional programming. Most likely there will still be some margin.

I have been known to tightly pack webinar schedules before though...fair warning. 

(I haven't quite figured out how to be in two places at the same time...yet. No...wait...there were these two simultaneous webinars once that I did attend with simultaneous audio and video. And there was once this on-site training conference with full day programming in two rooms more or less across from each other and I kept bouncing between them both, though of course not simultaneous attendance. Both were really strange experiences though...very disjointed. I don't recommend, not if you like your sanity and want to get something out of it. LOL)

(19-05-2024, 02:30 AM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I understand that some of that margin would be used for other activities.
If my music thing goes ahead (looking good), I could spend some 15 minutes or so to explain how it was done.

That would be most welcome, Rene. We've had some lively discourses on the site before about VM music and I'm sure there will be a good bit of interest.