I'm a little bit inspired today, because I've seen on the internet a live 24 hour science discussion being promoted. It made me think about doing a virtual conference. I know lots of people are doing puppetry courses online these days (ok, one or two, but not lots) but I think it would be kind of cool to do a virtual conference.

You could do all the 'normal' things you do at a puppetry festival: live video chat makes for a perfectly good way to do workshops, or forums, or keynote speeches. It would be a bit tricky to do across time zones, but I'm thinking that one or two events could be set up to fit a few time zones and the rest could be recorded for view later or simply offered more than once to suit 'attendees'.

I was also thinking that maybe it could be done so that for a fee you could get a hard copy of materials, workshop notes, whatever, just like a normal festival too. (Fees obviously would be required since you'd have to post stuff via snail mail)

What do you guys think? Is it a mad idea?

(Slightly related, but I'm also thinking of helping someone set up an online course. This person has a LOT of archival audio/video of interviews with some of the greats: Jim and Brian Henson, Fettig, etc. It's a separate question, but while I'm here, would people be interested in a subscription site - ie. small fee to view or download - where you could watch the archival materials? Or would you be inclined to only want to view that stuff for free?)

In the world of magic, this has just started to happen. See: http://www.essentialmagicconference.com/
"The Essential Magic Conference is the world’s first web conference for magicians. 33 speakers over 3 days of conference streamed live worldwide. "

Makes a lot of sense.

Andy

Thanks so much for that link Andy. They are doing very much what I was thinking of, although it seems they deal with the timezone issue by ignoring it altogether and making the events occur in the afternoons/evenings Europe time (Portugal). I wish they had more details though of how they will be doing the live events. It's not clear to me, but I suspect they'll be working with a web designer/developer in order to offer the video conferencing; I'd most likely be a lot more 'low tech' and use something like BlogTV.

Is it just speakers? (Never mind - it says "lectures and demos") I'd love it if a virtual puppetry event could incorporate performances, workshops and Q&A forums.

I think that conference could be really cool. Would take a lot of work and planing by someone though.   I think maybe the timezone thing is ignored because unless there are planners or participants in different timezones it is hard to deal with.

In regards to the site you are looking at setting up with audio and video of some of the greats.  I would vote for free. I am not sure you are going to be able to get folks to pay for the stuff. I could be wrong though.  I think you might do better with a such a site if you offered the info free and relied on paid advertising to foot the bill. I mean think about it. YouTube, Facebook, eHow, ect... that is how they are making the money. Heck even Hulu is free although I did hear they are now offering a paid version with less commercials.

I think that conference could be really cool. Would take a lot of work and planing by someone though.   I think maybe the timezone thing is ignored because unless there are planners or participants in different timezones it is hard to deal with.

I'm happy to do the planning, so long as I have enough lead time to do it. And my main question about timezones is because I know a lot of you guys might be interested, but I also know a lot of local puppeteers who might be into it too. But I guess, like the magician's one above, you just work to a specific timezone and then whoever is in a different one can watch or use the materials later. There's also another way to do this, which is to include pre-questions (ie. attendees could email questions or topics before the event starts, so that they get an answer whether they're attending live or not) or other methods. A live Twitter feed for instance, where someone can live-tweet what's going on. If someone's at work, but can check their twitter, they can still be involved.

In regards to the site you are looking at setting up with audio and video of some of the greats.  I would vote for free. I am not sure you are going to be able to get folks to pay for the stuff. I could be wrong though.  I think you might do better with a such a site if you offered the info free and relied on paid advertising to foot the bill. I mean think about it. YouTube, Facebook, eHow, ect... that is how they are making the money. Heck even Hulu is free although I did hear they are now offering a paid version with less commercials.

The decision isn't up to me; a local puppeteer has this stuff sitting around and would like to make it available. He's asked me to look more into it because I know more about websites than him. I guarantee you though, his opinion is likely going to be "paid only". He wants to make some kind of money from it. I'm not sure how much advertising would satisfy that need.

But the other thing was that I was thinking if it could be marketed less to the experienced puppeteers and more to the hobbyists/fans. Ie. If he has video/audio of Jim Henson discussing his work, then the website can be more about learning from the masters - ie. marketing to newbies - or at least listening to what they had to say. I'd be more inclined to make it a subscription site (free or not), where you get new archival footage on a regular, but spread out, basis. In that situation, people are more likely to be interested in paying a small fee, because you're not immediately saturated with loads of footage and not enough time to view it properly.

The other thing is that he is also looking at running an online puppetry course, and is wondering how/if the two should tie in. It could be that the archival footage is simply a good place to draw people in and advertising could be for his courses. Either way I'm sort of just thinking around it. To be honest, he has so little of an idea of what he wants to do that it's hard to come up with a good suggestion that fits with his plans.

And don't talk to me about Ehow.    But seriously, wading through their website, it's amazingly obvious what their business strategy is: someone types a phrase into google (and legitimate question or not), then someone writes on it. Quality is out of the window. Today I saw an article which discussed the types of puppetry. If someone can explain to me where anyone would find the term "world puppet" used as a category or definition, I'd be extremely grateful. It seems the only person who has used it works for Ehow.

I was at juggling convention recently which streamed the event live (jugglinglive.com).  I would suggest rather than jump in the deep end, start with a one off live streamed lecture to iron out the faults and see what the response would be.

Andy

I've already done one-off events - many here use BlogTV for various live workshops, etc. I know a lot of people out there in non-puppetry land would be interested in online courses, but a festival-type thing might be different.

My idea for the festival is more an extension of something I've wanted to do in the 'real' world, which is to have forums in Melbourne for puppeteers. There's not much on here locally for puppeteers, but at the same time, I can't be assed doing all the organisation for finding a venue, getting people to turn up, etc. Doing a live event instead saves me the hassle.

But also, as I kind of hinted at above, there are other reasons I'm thinking about it, because a friend of mine is looking at doing online puppetry courses. An online festival kind of fits that concept, and if there was interest I may be able to get some investment/resources for it from my friend.

The main issue as far as I can see is figuring out a way to get everyone on the same live website without creating special programs to do it. BlogTV and the like allow private broadcasts, but I'm not sure how exactly it works.

Sorry, clarification required:

Was the Jugglinglive event hosted somewhere - ie. a conference centre - and then streamed live? Because that's not what I'm thinking.

I'm talking about a totally virtual event. Workshops don't have to be in one place, but using video chat to beam from someone's studio or home; etc. Using BlogTV or another website we can have forums simply by allowing more than one person to be on screen at once. All it requires is that the presenter/s have some free time and an internet connection. (Part of why I was thinking in terms of timezones) It cuts down on costs, along with administrative/organisation issues. Of course, if people were keen, I'd look at raising money so I could get perhaps a local venue or something and have a 'hub' for some of the event. (Heck, I'm willing to bet I could convince my local puppetry venue to help out if there was enough interest)

It's certainly less 'professional' in terms of the way it's presented, but I'm thinking something that has more of a community feel and less of a corporate feel. If that makes any sense...

Anyway, just thinking out loud for the most part Criticisms and ideas welcome!

I think there is more value in the interviews as a hook to site then if you tried to sell them outright. Let's face it, as you have discovered, it is really hard to fight the pirates out there. Now what I think might work well is if the video is offered freely on line but in bits and pieces that actually where posted to YouTube with of course a clear marking of the domain they come from. We all know the power of YouTube and how if done correctly can drive traffic to a site. On the site you could offer a CD of the combined interviews with perhaps even some added footage not seen on-line.

The really value though comes in the traffic that you get at the site it self. Since the puppeteers is interested in perhaps doing on-line workshops or classes that and advertising would be the money maker in the long run.

Funnily enough, I didn't even think of offering a compilation CD. I'll mention that to him. I agree that trying to get sales out of it is probably too hard, but like I said, it's not up to me. I'll make a recommendation and see how it goes.