| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | 2009 virtual conference: Suggestions for next year Thread poster: Henry Dotterer
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bodijelen (X)
English to Croatian
| Doug Lawrence | Oct 1, 2009 |
Frankly, until now I was firmly of the opinion that sites of this type only encourage crowd-sourcing and drive rates down. However, having attended the event, I should say that I was genuinely pleased with the lecture by Doug Lawrence on the basics of negotiation (the speaking pace was, nevertheless, too quick for all the points to sink in, I suppose). I think you should consider providing your members with a series of tutorials by D.L. on the Proz web site.
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My suggestion is coffee and lunch breaks .
I’m serious about this, I mean “freezing” the conference for half an hour (everything), just like the regular conferences and having time to get up from the computer and having a coffee or lunch.
I have read a dozens of messages like “sorry, went for a lunch", "sorry, I have to feed my daughter or son", "I'll be back later" and so on.
Maybe it... See more My suggestion is coffee and lunch breaks.
I’m serious about this, I mean “freezing” the conference for half an hour (everything), just like the regular conferences and having time to get up from the computer and having a coffee or lunch.
I have read a dozens of messages like “sorry, went for a lunch", "sorry, I have to feed my daughter or son", "I'll be back later" and so on.
Maybe it’s a good idea to have these breaks, "time for virtual coffee"?
Regards,
Gaby ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lianne Wilson
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:22
Japanese to English
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bodijelen wrote:
Frankly, until now I was firmly of the opinion that sites of this type only encourage crowd-sourcing and drive rates down. However, having attended the event, I should say that I was genuinely pleased with the lecture by Doug Lawrence on the basics of negotiation (the speaking pace was, nevertheless, too quick for all the points to sink in, I suppose). I think you should consider providing your members with a series of tutorials by D.L. on the Proz web site.
Just wanted to agree and say that Doug Lawrence's presentation was by far the best one I saw all day (and I think there was only one or maybe two that I didn't see at some point).
He was very helpful, very knowledgeable, very interesting to listen to and really seemed to be keen to help the little guy out rather than just hawk a product or service.
| | | | Milos Prudek 
Czech Republic
Local time: 08:22
English to Czech
+ ...
| better forums and longer conference | Oct 1, 2009 |
Networking forums should be significantly improved. Chat window was too small, text sped out of sight.
You could make the conference much longer than 12 hours. Virtual conference does not have the constraints of real-world conference, so it does not need to mimic real-world conference duration. Conference could span 3 days. People could discuss each presentation / session at length if there were pauses of 2-3 hours between presentations. Busy translators could attend more of the ev... See more Networking forums should be significantly improved. Chat window was too small, text sped out of sight.
You could make the conference much longer than 12 hours. Virtual conference does not have the constraints of real-world conference, so it does not need to mimic real-world conference duration. Conference could span 3 days. People could discuss each presentation / session at length if there were pauses of 2-3 hours between presentations. Busy translators could attend more of the events - many translators happened to be busy on that particular day.
Simultaneous translation into major languages could be useful for many people. Not all translators understand English, and not all translators who can read English can also understand spoken English. ▲ Collapse
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Brightman
Local time: 01:22
Japanese to English
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| Nature of virtual conference | Oct 1, 2009 |
First, I want to thank Henry and the ProZ.com team for yout fantastic job with the event. I thought is was very well organized and covered a lot.
Comparing the virtual conference to a conventional events, my thoughts are that it is
beneficial because of...
1. No need to travel.
2. Available to attend around the clock.
3. Able to connect with other attendees around the globe.
, but these things also mean...
1. You are at home or offi... See more First, I want to thank Henry and the ProZ.com team for yout fantastic job with the event. I thought is was very well organized and covered a lot.
Comparing the virtual conference to a conventional events, my thoughts are that it is
beneficial because of...
1. No need to travel.
2. Available to attend around the clock.
3. Able to connect with other attendees around the globe.
, but these things also mean...
1. You are at home or office computer, which means more distractions.
2. You could be missing out on the best part of the event, due to the time difference.
3. Attendee traffic may be light for your time zone.
Balancing these pros and cons could use some thoughts.
1. The event attendees may need to dedicate more focus, and find ways to eliminate distractions; just like attending a conventional event.
2. Check the event schedule closely, and plan out your day to be up at the time of your key interest event. (It's still easier and cheaper than physically traveling.)
3. If you are interested in meeting people from a certain region, schedule your attendance.
I look forward to attending the next year's conference!!!
Thanks again!
[2009-10-01 13:31 GMTに編集されました] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Milos Prudek
Czech Republic
Local time: 08:22
English to Czech
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| smaller anonymous chat about negotiation/rates | Oct 1, 2009 |
Some of you may have visited or heard about the Second Life environment.
I can imagine quite a few reasons why Second Life was not used for this conference, one prominent being that SL has problems supporting 100 or more people in one virtual "room".
Would an informal powwow focused on negotiation/rates be useful? Users are anonymous in Second Life, hence the discussion of these sensitive items could be much more open.
| | | | Oliver Walter
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:22
German to English
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| My comments and suggestions especially Sounds and Chat | Oct 1, 2009 |
Overall, an interesting experience, despite some real difficulties (that others have already mentioned). If there's another virtual conference, I shall attend if I can.
Concrete suggestions:
1. For the Networking Lounge: Have TWO windows, containing the SAME text (the chat messages) but ONE of them like the one at the conference - always the latest messages visible at the end of the list and the OTHER ONE scrollable to any position I like and it will stay there. (and wi... See more Overall, an interesting experience, despite some real difficulties (that others have already mentioned). If there's another virtual conference, I shall attend if I can.
Concrete suggestions:
1. For the Networking Lounge: Have TWO windows, containing the SAME text (the chat messages) but ONE of them like the one at the conference - always the latest messages visible at the end of the list and the OTHER ONE scrollable to any position I like and it will stay there. (and with an "update" button to update its contents)
Perhaps try this out in the next few weeks; to test-drive it, and perhaps call it an online or virtual powwow, not a full conference.
2. Sound: yes BUT ONLY background atmosphere sound, like background chat at a real conference, NOT, NOT, NOT musak please!!! Unnecessary background "music" or percussion sound in radio programmes or pubs is one of the things I most DETEST. I find it both irritating and insulting.
3. And for all scroll bars, in all conference locations: they must be long enough to be usable (unlike the vanishingly short scroll bar in networking, searching by language or speciality).
4. Comment: The downloads of the presentation sessions seem to include the sound only, not the slides - not very useful (in my case, I've downloaded only the podcast of Doug Lawrence's presentation).
5. Technical glitch: The presentation on SDL Trados Studio: "enlarge" to full-screen enlarged the Right-hand part of the presentation screen (which was just the title slide for about half the presentation), not the left-hand changing slide that was the subject of the talk - this was the same whether I used the left-hand "enlarge" four-head arrow or the right one. The demonstration that followed the presentation was on the right and so could be seen full-screen.
6. Comment: The presentation by BigWord wasn't about the advertised subject (Working with an Agency); it was about the bigword. Maybe that wasn't true for the whole presentation, as I left it after a few minutes.
Anyway, overall, I say congratulations.
Oliver
P.S. In case it's relevant: I was using FireFox version 3, on a Toshiba laptop with a 15" screen, resolution 1024 x 768, 1.5 GHz processor, 0.5 GB of RAM, Windows XP, SP2, Adobe Flashplayer 10. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jason Ma
China
Local time: 14:22
English to Chinese
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| The log in system really needs improvement | Oct 1, 2009 |
First, my congratulations to 10-year anniversary of Proz.com. For the sequence of this event, I would like to suggest:
1. Faster speed of virtual environment. The faster the better.
2. Improvement on the log in system. I registered at the conference with my primary email address of my proz.com profile, but was never able to log in. Luckily, two hours before the conference, I registered with another email address, and succeeded.
I really enjoyed the questi... See more First, my congratulations to 10-year anniversary of Proz.com. For the sequence of this event, I would like to suggest:
1. Faster speed of virtual environment. The faster the better.
2. Improvement on the log in system. I registered at the conference with my primary email address of my proz.com profile, but was never able to log in. Luckily, two hours before the conference, I registered with another email address, and succeeded.
I really enjoyed the question and answer session! ▲ Collapse
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| Direction signs | Oct 2, 2009 |
I can only hope that I was not the only one having this difficulty but since the Networking Lounge link was at the very bottom of the Map tag, it literally took me a few hours to figure out where to look for it and I kept thinking the Networking tag (which was actually a search tool) was the one but not working properly or something.
Like at real-life conferences, why not put more "signs"-links everywhere, e.g. an arrow from the Exhibition Hall to Networking Lounge, Research Hall, etc. fo... See more I can only hope that I was not the only one having this difficulty but since the Networking Lounge link was at the very bottom of the Map tag, it literally took me a few hours to figure out where to look for it and I kept thinking the Networking tag (which was actually a search tool) was the one but not working properly or something.
Like at real-life conferences, why not put more "signs"-links everywhere, e.g. an arrow from the Exhibition Hall to Networking Lounge, Research Hall, etc. for easier orientation?
PS: Heaps of thanks to conference organizers - a brilliant idea and fabulous experience!
[Edited at 2009-10-02 21:10 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Blanka Salkova
Czech Republic
Local time: 08:22
Member (2007)
English to Czech
+ ...
Milos Prudek wrote:
Some of you may have visited or heard about the Second Life environment.
I can imagine quite a few reasons why Second Life was not used for this conference, one prominent being that SL has problems supporting 100 or more people in one virtual "room".
Would an informal powwow focused on negotiation/rates be useful? Users are anonymous in Second Life, hence the discussion of these sensitive items could be much more open.
This is actually a very good idea, as I was in the netwr. lounge chat .. discussing rates obviously, and the text sped away so fast that I had to give up.. and so had many others, I am afraid.
Otherwise, this was a pleasant experience.. Wonder if nex year the event is longer.. another suggestion of mine.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 08:22
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| Some thoughts | Oct 4, 2009 |
Henry D wrote:
That said, as expected, there is plenty of room for improvement.
I tried to attend the conference but the speed was so slow that I gave up after half an hour of trying to upload my photograph. I think the conference facility looks great but I also suspect that it is designed for a specific audience, namely with (a) fast internet access and (b) nothing else to do. I can only judge the conference facility now that the conference has ended.
Currently, the presentations can be watched in two sizes only, namely postage stamp size and full-screen. The postage stamp size is great for talking heads and perhaps also for slides, but it's too small for screencasts. On the other hand, video quality at full screen view is sometimes rather poor, and when in full-screen mode, the user can't do anything else on his computer. I was able to zoom in on the presentations with great difficulty (you can do that with Flash) but if you zoom in too much, the video controls become hidden and the video itself is cropped by the design of the conference site. And owing to my slow internet access, the videos were choppy.
Another complaint I have before I make a suggestion is that some presentations are better than others. The sales pitch made by Rachel Stephen, for example, bore no relation to the title of the presentation, "Working with an Agency", and it was waste of time downloading its MP3 file. I wonder if the presentation was seen by ProZ.com staff before it was added to the site (i.e., was it live or was it recorded?).
I do think that live question time is a potentially good thing. For reason I suggest that in future a presentation consist of two parts, namely the presentation itself (pre-recorded, vetted and downloadable or viewable in the browser) and a live question session afterwards. The downloadable video should be in a common format like FLV. One advantage of downloadable video is that users can decide how big they want to watch it, and they can pause it, rewind it, fiddle with the sound etc. If the presentation is a talking head, the downloadable video can be small, but if it is a screencast, it can be of a higher quality so that users can see the detail if they resize it.
My biggest gripe with "live" video is that there is no opportunity for users on slower connections to pause it and wait for a minute or two or video to download, and this means that viewing the video is necessarily a choppy experience.
Furthermore, I don't understand why the site must use Flash for things that can be done faster in HTML, for example uploading a photo for one's profile.
I also found it annoying that when typing anything, there is a delay between when you type the letter and when it appears on screen. On the day of the conference, the delay was about 1 second. Today, the delay is about half a second, but it is still annoying and makes editing one's response very difficult. Why can't edit fields not be simple edit fields found on normal web sites? Why must each character typed first be send halfway around the world before it appears on your own screen?
I think the idea of a virtual conference is great, but ProZ.com's members are not corporate people who sit in fancy offices with the fastest, most expensive internet available -- many ProZians are freelancers who sit at home with home-speed internet that is sufficient for doing business and even downloading large files, but not for attending bandwidth hungry web applications such as this virtual conference.
| | | | OTMed (X)
Poland
Local time: 08:22
English to Polish
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| Better chat on Virt Conferences. Chat on ProZ.com | Oct 4, 2009 |
Congratulations on the event and thanks for your effort. Your initiative is much appreciated.
Shortly - my take on things to improve:
1. Conference interface should not be limited to approx 50% of browser window height. Suggestions: full screen window and/or conference interface using 100% of browser window
2. Chat areas - need to be larger, and more convenient to use/navigate.
3. Chat option as such - please consider including chat for ProZ.com users. The good o... See more Congratulations on the event and thanks for your effort. Your initiative is much appreciated.
Shortly - my take on things to improve:
1. Conference interface should not be limited to approx 50% of browser window height. Suggestions: full screen window and/or conference interface using 100% of browser window
2. Chat areas - need to be larger, and more convenient to use/navigate.
3. Chat option as such - please consider including chat for ProZ.com users. The good old simple IRC chat (ajax interface) was a pleasure to use during the conference. I would definitely like to see some type of chat as permanent feature of ProZ.com.
Thanks again ▲ Collapse
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Oliver Walter wrote:
I've downloaded only the podcast of Doug Lawrence's presentation.
The slides are available if you click the speaker and focus at 'Files' menu... all slides were already downloadable before the vent!
| | | | | Doug Lawrence | Nov 8, 2009 |
bodijelen wrote:
Frankly, until now I was firmly of the opinion that sites of this type only encourage crowd-sourcing and drive rates down. However, having attended the event, I should say that I was genuinely pleased with the lecture by Doug Lawrence on the basics of negotiation (the speaking pace was, nevertheless, too quick for all the points to sink in, I suppose). I think you should consider providing your members with a series of tutorials by D.L. on the Proz web site.
Totally agree Doug's session was the best!
[Edited at 2009-11-08 12:42 GMT]
| | | | Cinzia Michelis
Italy
Local time: 08:22
Member (2006)
English to Italian
+ ...
| A translator needing an interpreter? For the languages he/she works in??? Bizarre, to say the least | Jun 2, 2010 |
Claudio Porcellana wrote:
think even to poor translators that don't understand spoken english ...
like me
;-D
Claudio
[Edited at 2010-06-02 11:00 GMT]
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