Saturday 14 November 2020

WOYWW Crop

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday number 600 actually falls on December 2nd. Oddly, it’s a Wednesday.ðŸĪŠ we’ll do that as normal, of course. (I hope!). But the Crop is usually on a Saturday and so, Saturday 5th December it will be. Hurrah.

Now, we Deskers are a world apart, literally.  I’m proposing two separate Zoom meetings across the 5th December so that I and hopefully, some of you, can be online to various parts of the world to enable visiting. If you want to, you can drop in on both, stay awhile or stay the course. You can call in on us at any point during any of the designated meetings, and no one will mind if you come and go at all. It will be lovely.

To do this, you need Zoom. You can download the free App or you can treat it just like any other website and use the url and link that I will publish. If you download the App, there are slightly different actions to take. It’s actually much easier than I thought it would be, and having all participating faces on screen at once is just lovely. 

The App looks like this once downloaded:

Ignore the photo of my two lovelies. My favourite photo ever so far. Once you’ve downloaded, you have to register, of course. Sorry, no getting around it. You can always delete the whole Bally lot once our Crop is over!
Then, when you tap on the App, it opens to reveal this....I have reduced the screen shot to remove dates and things..too confusing.  You click on the Join icon. 
And then another screen magically appears into which you have to put some detail. Detail that I will publish here on this very blog on Friday 4th December. Not before. 
Then you do as prompted;  add the Meeting ID, allow audio and video and click JOIN. Then at my end, (for I am the Meeting Organiser) a pop-up will magically tell me that you’re waiting to be allowed access, which of course, I’ll allow. In my experience there has been a short delay between clicking JOIN and me ‘granting’ access, so please be patient and don’t panic. It’s probably not more than 30 seconds but feels very long when you’re
 a) nervous
 b) trying new-to-you technology and  
c) not sure you’ve done it right because it was easy.

Zoom seems to be updating fast. At the last test, two people used the link and entered the meeting via their browsers. Both had to register with Zoom first though, just as you do to use the App. I suspect at some point that it will be App only access, but for now it still generates a URL as an alternative. I know that Ministry of Defence and Government don’t use it for meetings because just as I can’t guarantee it, security online is always an issue. We’re going to be shooting the breeze, talking glue, paper, fabric and family, so it’s definitely up to you to decide whether to join or not. As with all things WOYWW! 
If you decide to join us, please will you make a legible name badge/tag/desk sign, especially if you blog under a nickname. Set up your phone/camera so we can see it and your lovely face if nothing else....there is no dress code. If you swing by in PJs, gardening clothes, that’s just fine. We want you to swing by. Birthday suits too, if you’re brave. You’re certainly beautiful enough. Bring something to work on too, it’s very much easier to pass the time chatting if you’re cutting, colouring, knitting...eating. The only thing that makes it difficult is extraneous background noise, so it would be helpful if you weren’t in the same room as a TV that’s on, for example.

Now, the big issue. Time Zones
I’m splitting the day, hopefully to allow as much coverage as possible. It would be great if you can join in at both sessions for some or all of the time, I really don’t want to sit on my own!
Session One : 930am GMT till 1130 GMT will cover time zones east of London, Europe to Australia
Session Two : 530pm GMT to 830pm GMT will cover time zones west, the US and Canada etc.

I think that’s plenty of info for now. I hope I’ve answered some questions. Loads of you are already Zoom familiar so feel free to comment if I’ve got something wrong or you know of a better way.


18 comments:

Kyla said...

ooh sounds like a fabulous idea! I hadnt used zoom before (as you mention, the security isnt great) BUT the Bristol USK started using it so I stripped back an old laptop (and I mean old-takes 20 mins to kick into life!!) and only loaded up zoom, basic search engine and some free anti virus etc and works ok so yes, date is in the diary-brilliant idea!
kyla

Sue said...

You’ve done an amazing job at describing the process Julia. It is simpler than I thought it would be. The only other thing that paricipants need to do is open the gallery icon (on the left of an iPad screen) so that we can see each other. Thanks for organising this. Isn’t tech amazing.....when it works ðŸĨģ Hugs, Sue H.

Robyn said...

I'm looking forward to joining by zoom with y'all! thanks for hosting!

Shaz in Oz.CalligraphyCards said...

Will figure out time as with my weird bod I may not be able to sleep and be able to work it in albeit prob a brief drop in at either slot.
PJs very probable unless fo first one when come back from Christmas do!!
Thanks for clear descriptors.. 👌😆
Hopefully it's a breeze for all involved..
Hugs Shaz. Ps I've just asked blogger if they can fix commenting issues as its really become impossible on iPad.
On all browsers.
I'm on mobile now. 😊
Time will tell.

Helen said...

thanks for all the info Julia . should be a bunch of fun

Annie said...

I’m planning on joining in. I’ve set up zoom but I’m very new to it so who knows...sounds simple enough.
Hope to see you soon.
Hugs,
Annie x

Morti said...

I'm familiar with Zoom for work, so t'will be a breeze.

The only thing you've said that concerns me slightly is publishing the link here on your blog, which will open the meeting up to spammers - so you'll have to watch out for who joins and if you can boot them out. I think you can set it so you have to accept, rather than let them join automatically.

The alternative would be to get everyone to email you or something, and that's likely to be too much work.

Would it be worth setting up a closed WOYWW FB group for those of us that use FB to join, in which you can post a link? You could also do a meeting in Messenger, which won't cost you anything whereas Zoom you only get two free meetings over 45 mins with 3 or more folks. Might be worth considering for future virtual crops, or for a regular crop that folks can join virtually from overseas?

Zsuzsa Karoly-Smith said...

So exciting - I plan to be there! I solemnly promise I will tidy my desk by then! You can hold me to account LOL!

LuLu said...

Thanks for details, Julia.

I'm in US, in Chicago CT (Central Time) - have no idea what time that is in GMT. I'll research...

My desktop computer doesn't have a camera - so I might confiscate my hubby's that day - he uses zoom already for meetings. No guarantees.

But most importantly, I don't quite understand how we can be on zoom and simultaneously work on our projects. Can you please explain?

If I can attend, I'm wearing my fave flannel pajamas set and fluffy robe!

Peace,
Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes
LuLu Too Beaucoup

Spyder said...

Been Zooming with family tonight, (On phone, because I don't think my steam run computer would manage it!) The grandkids fept addig silly faces and rather fabulous backgrounds! All good fun!

Sarah Brennan said...

Looking forward to it!

Neet said...

Done it for SW when they couldn't have meetings so should be ok'ish. I say "ish" because I got into pickles then but hopefully will be able to manage it this time.xxx

Caro said...

So exciting! Can't wait. I use zoom a lot so hopefully there should be no issues this end. It is in the diary and I will probably bob into both sessions! xxx

Ali Wade Designs said...

In my calendar for both sessions. I am using Zoom regularly for all sorts of meetings and crafty stuff, so bought myself a camera/microphone which sits on top of my PC screen (wifi not connecting to my phone or iPad in my craft room at the moment, so can't use them) - but I can take that down to show others areas of my crafty tables. Ali x

shazsilverwolf said...

Hi Julia, yes, I'll be there, and will drop into both, all being well. Thats the plan anyway, and I have Tech support on hand if I get into trouble lol. Love & hugs, Shaz XxXxXx

Felix the Crafty Cat said...

Hi Julia, I've never used Zoom but are you saying that we don't need to have the app. but just use the url and link and we will be able to join in with the meetings? Sorry for being a pain but it's not something I'm familiar with. Thanks Angela xXx(felix the Crafty Cat)

Crafting With Jack said...

It sounds very exciting! I do hope I will be able to take part x

Felix the Crafty Cat said...

Hi Julia, down loaded it today and it seems to be okay but not having used it before I've got my fingers crossed. Hugs, Angela xxx