Online meetings/video conferences
Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 8:11 am
Hi!
I am the it manager in Umea district up in the north of Sweden. One of our greatest challenges are long distances. Distance from the branch furthest north to the branch furthest in south is around 350 miles.
When I recently had calling in the district presidency, the distance between the president and the counselors was 160 respectively 350 miles. This makes it impossible to have in person meetings for the district council. We solved this by having skype or telephone meetings. What we really missed though was to see each other in person. I heard that 80% of communication is none verbal so you miss a lot when you're just on the phone.
The second big issue about the long distance, in conjunction with few members, is for the youth, and especially for morning seminary. It is impossible to meet for morning seminary because of the distances. A solution to this could be to have on line meetings with video conferencing.
So to the solutions. It would be possible to buy a commercial solution for video conferencing, like for instance cisco webex. But by googling around I see there is a lot of open source solutions. Just a lot of work to test them.
My idea is basically that it would be great if the church could gather around one common solution and support it. Whether it's open source or commercial matters less as long as it is the best solution.
I understand that this is not an issue at all if you live in Utah. But I also guess Sweden is not the only country facing this problem.
Is this a good idea? Have anyone already solves this problem? I searched the forums but I couldn't find anything about it. Does anyone know how other stakes with similar distances solves their communication?
I've heard about some kind of video conference solution that is used officially in church. But the problem with that one is that it can only be used in church meeting houses. We need to be connected from our homes to solve the problems.
Best regards
Nils Kohlström
I am the it manager in Umea district up in the north of Sweden. One of our greatest challenges are long distances. Distance from the branch furthest north to the branch furthest in south is around 350 miles.
When I recently had calling in the district presidency, the distance between the president and the counselors was 160 respectively 350 miles. This makes it impossible to have in person meetings for the district council. We solved this by having skype or telephone meetings. What we really missed though was to see each other in person. I heard that 80% of communication is none verbal so you miss a lot when you're just on the phone.
The second big issue about the long distance, in conjunction with few members, is for the youth, and especially for morning seminary. It is impossible to meet for morning seminary because of the distances. A solution to this could be to have on line meetings with video conferencing.
So to the solutions. It would be possible to buy a commercial solution for video conferencing, like for instance cisco webex. But by googling around I see there is a lot of open source solutions. Just a lot of work to test them.
My idea is basically that it would be great if the church could gather around one common solution and support it. Whether it's open source or commercial matters less as long as it is the best solution.
I understand that this is not an issue at all if you live in Utah. But I also guess Sweden is not the only country facing this problem.
Is this a good idea? Have anyone already solves this problem? I searched the forums but I couldn't find anything about it. Does anyone know how other stakes with similar distances solves their communication?
I've heard about some kind of video conference solution that is used officially in church. But the problem with that one is that it can only be used in church meeting houses. We need to be connected from our homes to solve the problems.
Best regards
Nils Kohlström