Before I start to whinge, here is a leaflet that I saw in Frome Cheese and Grain this evening. Unsung minorities which are not so small as we would like to imagine are nevertheless important so well done whoever it was for this local initiative.

A brief word today. There is a social and cultural group called Christians in Media. I receive a lot of material including an invitation to come on a zoom call at midday today Thursday the 13th of June.  Maybe it was the time of day but there were only eight of us and four people did not show their faces.

I’m convinced that it is vanity that stops people from showing their faces.  They claim technical difficulties but I don’t believe that because all you do is to plug in a camera in one of your USB ports and the computer does the rest including recognizing the particular make and model of the camera.  When I run zoom meetings I will not accept people without seeing their faces as staring at a black square, or a photograph of someone, does not add to the experience.

The mediator or coordinator was only moderately sure of how to use Zoom and he introduced himself for five minutes and then we had 2 x 20 minute talks about artificial intelligence and the media and the effect on children.

Fairly early on I asked in the chat if the meeting was going to be recorded but that was ignored. It is vital that the person who runs the meeting actually keeps an eye on the chat because if you are muted there is no other way of drawing attention to a particular matter.  There was one point when someone was making a noise in the background because they’re microphone had not been muted but that was indeed dealt with.

Anyway it was decided about 12:45, 45 minutes into the event, that we should split into breakout rooms. I was with three other people and one or two decent points were made. The coordinator told us what he had experienced but seemed uninterested in the result from the group of which he was not a member.

He then said we had to finish now and I wrote a note in the chat asking why do we have to stop after one hour but I got no response to that.

The point is that zoom meetings require extra effort for people to become involved especially if their participation is required. 10 minutes is two short a time to discuss 40 minutes of talk and it left me with a sense of frustration. Mercifully, I have learned the lesson myself and always include people, I always read the chat, I always respond immediately if someone has any sort of difficulty or need.

If the feedback from participants is not required then why not make a broadcast, publish it, and people can listen to it when and if they please.

A participatory event requires a totally different mindset and very few people of my experience I’ve got the balance right. It’s no good leaving a meeting with people wanting to make many points and being unable to do so.

I don’t think this is photo-shopped though you can never tell.  I believe it.