[Fsa-guatemala] Communication between Rooms

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

On Thu 2008-09-18 14:22:39 -0400, Jamie McClelland wrote:

>>  * text-based chat
>
> How about a simple message system (not simultaneous)? There would be
> a new link on the top of the scribe page that says: Messages (and
> includes, in parens, the number of unread messages that have been
> sent to your group).
>
> If you click on the link, you see an inbox of messages. You can
> click on a message to read it, click on a link to get a machine
> translation, and click on a button to reply.

Urg.  This feels like a Scribe would have to effectively manage an
e-mail inbox while performing all her other functions. 

Can we call this "Proposal +Mail" ?

It seems kind of nightmareish to me.  i suppose a complete IRC-style
client is kind of nightmareish as well, but IRC more along the lines
of what i'd envisioned.

What about this AJAX-y "Proposal +Chat" (it might only work visually
if we have very concise group names or icons):

 * We have a pane in the Scribe UI, and at the top of the pane is a
   tab with each Group's symbol or name (except our own), and the last
   tab says "All" (in the Scribe's preferred tongue).

 * Clicking on a group's symbol would adjust the contents of the pane
   to show all previous conversation with that group (in a scroll-back
   buffer), and would offer a text box that lets you type new messages
   that go to that other group.

 * Clicking on "All" lets you read the full scrollback history of all
   broadcast messages, and type in a broadcast message.

 * When a message comes in from one of the clients who is not
   foregrounded, their tab "lights up" (changes backgrond color?) and
   stays lit.

 * When you click on a tab to view it, the tab "turns off" (changes
   background color back).

 * At all times, the Group from whom most recent message was received
   (or "All", if the most recent message was a broadcast) is
   surrounded with square-brackets.  (This might help to alert you
   that a message came in in a foregrounded window).

The pane itself would be collapsible.  When collapsed, if any messages
come in that have not been read, it would "light up".

A full history would be stored on the server of all messages sent
throughout the Workshop.

Comments?

>>  * video links
>
> How about a simple camera setup that takes a picture of each room (one
> per second or one per 5 seconds) and then sends it to a web server that
> refreshes every second.
>
> If we could get two projectors, we could have one projector showing the
> board, and a second projector showing pictures from the other
> location(s).
>
> It's pretty low-tech as video goes! But it would at least convey the
> sense of the other location(s).

This doesn't really allow for nuanced communications between Rooms,
but it might be useful for "feeling like you're kinda there".  How
high a priority is this, though?  If we can get two projectors in each
Room, i can imagine other uses for the second projector that might be
more important.

What do others think?

     --dkg
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 826 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mayfirst.org/pipermail/fsa-guatemala/attachments/20080918/71035fda/attachment.pgp