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From: David Sylvester <>
Subject: Announcing Genealogy Voice Chats
Date: Mon, 07 Aug 2006 17:37:56 -0400


I thought this would be of interest to all who seek their roots
thus I'm sending this to all the lists I manage no matter what
place or surname.

I have just downloaded the software and I'm setting up and testing
it planning to be online a'chattin' with Dick this Thursday. I hope
to see... er.. hear some of you also.

Regards,

David


The article follows:


Announcing Genealogy Voice Chats

Genealogy chat sessions have been popular for years. These "chats"
have always been conducted keyboard-to-keyboard. That is,
participants type on their own keyboards and then look at their
computer screens to read the text entered by other chat room
participants. I would like to propose something different: voice
chats.

The voice chats will operate in a manner quite similar to telephone
conference calls. These will be free calls, however. Windows,
Macintosh, and Linux users alike may participate.

I am not certain if there is any interest in voice chats within the
genealogy community. The only method of measuring interest is to
hold a few chat sessions and see how popular they become.

I am suggesting that the first few voice chats be "open chat
sessions" where we can talk about almost anything. I suspect one
popular topic will be, "How do I use this thing?" If enough
genealogists join in, the agendas can be expanded. We could
eventually have live genealogy lectures or classes, conducted by
experts in some different genealogy-related topics. It doesn't make
sense to hold such live chats, however, until the amount of
interest can be measured.

While the chats will be free and the required software is free, you
may have to obtain just a bit of hardware. In order to speak, you
will need a microphone that plugs into your computer's sound card.
To listen, you will need either speakers or headphones that plug
into the same sound card. Most people use headsets - headphones
that have an attached microphone. Computer headsets are somewhat
similar in appearance to those worn by telephone operators.

The use of headphones or a headset in lieu of speakers eliminates
problems with echoes or unwanted "feedback." Have you ever heard
the squeal of a public address system when a microphone is too
close to the loudspeaker? Using headphones or a headset eliminates
that problem in computer chat sessions.

The voice chat sessions will be held on Skype, a free service that
allows anyone with a computer, microphone and headphones (or
headset) to make free telephone calls over the Internet. The Skype
service includes "SkypeCasts," a new way to have telephone-like
conversations with multiple people across the world who share your
interests. A SkypeCast allows for up to 100 people to be connected
together in a single conference call at no charge to the
participants. All that is required is a computer with an Internet
connection and the free Skype software, microphone, headphones or
speakers (or headset). Dial-up connections will work although audio
quality will be significantly better on broadband connections.

I am suggesting that we first try this on Thursday, August 10 at
10:00 PM Eastern U.S. Time, 7:00 PM Pacific. International


More at
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2006/08/announcing_gene.html

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