Zoom Collaboration

tahanson43206 · 2020-11-18 10:06:57

This new topic is offered because online collaboration is very likely to be common on Mars.

As of November 20, 2024, the Professional Account is NOT available.

Zoom has been upgrading software and procedures in the past year. The account is still available, but as of now the host cannot log in to accept guests.

The issue comes down to the security code that Zoom sends to newmars@marssociety.org.

We did not have that as a problem previously. It may be possible to log into marssociety.org to gain access to newmars@marssociety.org.

Unfortunately I do not appear to have records of how to do that, or even if there exists such an account.

For now, the Zoom account described below in this post is not available.

We've been using Google Meeting in recent months, and that seems to be working well.

*** the following text is retained for historical reference.

As of July 28, 2023, the Professional Account is re-activated for NewMars members.

Thanks for feedback from GW Johnson!

Here is what I hope is a One-Click link to Join Nightowl ...

Mars Society Volunteer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: NewMars Nightowl << host reminder use marssociety.org account >>
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84398171219?p … UrNmFUdz09
Meeting ID: 843 9817 1219
Passcode: 519958
---
One tap mobile
+13052241968,,84398171219# US
+13092053325,,84398171219# US
---
Dial by your location
• +1 305 224 1968 US
• +1 309 205 3325 US
• +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
• +1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
• +1 646 931 3860 US
• +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
• +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
• +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
• +1 360 209 5623 US
• +1 386 347 5053 US
• +1 507 473 4847 US
• +1 564 217 2000 US
• +1 669 444 9171 US
• +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
• +1 689 278 1000 US
• +1 719 359 4580 US
• +1 253 205 0468 US
Meeting ID: 843 9817 1219
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/khNL7dCPd

Start Zoom in your browser, by requesting zoom.com.

You'll see an option to "Join" a meeting. Click on that button and the request for Meeting ID will appear.

https://www.zoom.us/join

ID is 843 9817 1219
Passcode is: 519958

The Waiting Room is in effect. A Host will admit you to the meeting when a meeting is scheduled.

As of November 16, 2021, the NewMars Zoom meetings are upgraded to the Mars Society Professional account.

As of June 26, 2022, the NewMars Zoom has passed a probationary period. We are now fully fledged and able to accept applications from members.

The Mars Society had need of the Zoom account for the 25th Anniversary Conference.

To use the service, connect on Zoom using either the ID and passcode, or the link.

A host will see you application from the Waiting Room, and accept your request if we recognize you by the name you choose.

If you run into a problem, use this topic to communicate with the host(s).

The procedures for using the new account will be published before the next meeting.

Meetings are scheduled by UTC. Use time.is/UTC as your guide.

To find your local time, use www.timeanddate.com. Please note that all US locations will be in Sunday

Agenda:

1) Welcome members as they arrive
2) Open
3) Open
4) Open
5) If there is time, anything else members may wish to consider

Protocol: Please keep an eye out for "Hands Up" icons. These indicate a participant would like to speak!

A request to use the Mars paid Zoom was granted.

Procedure:
If you would like to be included in the next meeting, post in the Zoom Collaboration topic.

I will monitor that topic, or will ask an assistant to monitor the topic.

Edit: It may be helpful to have a display of UTC time running in a window on the screen
I found one that runs on an older system: https://time.is/UTC

Update 2023/09/11 .... Procedure for setting up and running a Zoom session includes management of arrival of guests in the Waiting Room.

tahanson43206 wrote:

Update past midnight local time ...
The Zoom meeting was still in progress after I finished chores here.
Here are some changes I'm interested in making for the next and future meetings...
We have done enough of these so they should proceed smoothly, but as this evening's experience with RobertDyck waiting 10 minutes to be admitted shows, there are clearly changes needed.
Part of the problem is logistical, and I am addressing that .... The Chromebook that I set up as the Waiting Room is upstairs, and the Zoom site is in the basement, where I have computers set up that are able to handle the workload. Today I ordered a replacement for the Chromebook, which was built in 2015 and which expired for updates in 2020. It still works, but without updates, it is starting to show issues whem advanced services try to run on it. I'[ll install the new Chromebook upstairs, and bring the old one downstairs.
The issue that must be handled that impacted RobertDyck's long wait was that I had NOT given kbd512 co-host powers, so he was unable to see the visual signal that we had a guest in the Waiting Room, and ** I ** missed it for ten long minutes, even though it was right there on the screen. I have checked, but apparently there is no audio signal for alerting the host when a guest enters the Waiting room! Apparently there ** was ** such an alert in the past, but it was for everyone coming or going, and apparently that was annoying, so it was removed. I have submitted a request for an audio alert for folks entering the Waiting room, but have little hope anything will come of the request. it turns out others have made the same request long ago, and nothing has happened.
In addition! I should have had the NewMars screen up so I could monitor the Active list. Had I had the NewMars page up, and if I had been clicking the Active button periodically, then I would have seen RobertDyck's message.
At the moment, I am not aware of a way to automatically trigger a refresh of the Active list on the NewMars page, but there might be a tool available that would perform that service. It's even possible that the Web Browser Automation package could perform that task, if I give it some thought.

Host setup reminders:
ID newmars@marssociety.org

hint 6n-C1-l6

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2021-10-29 07:23:12

A Zoom meeting is in planning to provide an opportunity for our newest member, Clinician_Antilles, to meet forum members.

The first meeting I'll attempt is with C_A and GW Johnson. Their schedules are in review for any overlap that may exist.

For RobertDyck ... your new Zoom studio set up is noted ... please stand by for a meeting time opportunity.

2021/11/05 ... to make room for using the Top Post of the Zoom Collaboration topic for Agenda and meeting times, I'm moving the entire original first post to here:

tahanson43206 wrote:

This new topic is offered because online collaboration is very likely to be common on Mars.
The Zoom meeting technology is available from a variety of vendors, and I would welcome comparisons of the different approaches as we go forward.
What I'd like to report here is a new experience for me ... others in this forum are surely way ahead of me, and I'd invite their reports to add to this topic.
Last night the local Linux User Group held another online meeting with Zoom. This one was spectacular from my point of view.
One of the members/participants asked for help converting a spreadsheet to a database. This person is ** very ** advanced in many aspects of IT technology, and holds positions with several organizations as IT director or equivalent. However, like many of us, this person's education was in a field somewhat removed from information technology, so it is not surprising that he had never had a chance to learn even the fundamentals of database design.
One of the members is a very experienced professional who also conducts a class in a computer language at a local community college.
I have modest experience to offer, so the instructor and I tackled leading the IT Director through the rudiments of database concepts and, specifically, the rudiments of building an asset management system from free software.
What I find astonishing was the (to me almost unbelievable) quality of the video sharing across the Internet. The IT Director shared his screen, and I was able to see the tiny font at the bottom of his display without reading glasses, which I normally wear.
The three of us progressed through selection of the platform (comparing Open Office and Libre Office) and then dove into the installation of all the software required to support the undertaking ... my recollection is that the IT director needed to add Libre Office, and then the Java Software Development Kit, which required his login to Oracle. The instructor recommended using MySQL as the database, but I think that was left as an exercise for the IT Director, since the Libre Office package includes a database engine good enough for our purposes.
We walked the IT Director through creating a couple of tables, a view (which pulled data from two tables) and a couple of forms.
We covered use of a primary key, and use of an index on a data field to prevent duplicates (ie, for Asset Tag).
The experience showed me how the online environment can achieve remarkable results, with the right mix of people.
It helped greatly that the IT Director has a powerful Mac, and high speed Internet connection, and is quick as a whip himself, so that no time was wasted finding software or making decisions.
The two hours of the normal meeting flew by, and the IT Director ended up with the start of a database he could build up himself, and with a sample database from the Libre Office user contributed collection that is a decent fit for his needs to get started, although it only contained one table.
A ** real ** database would have many subordinate tables to support popup menus, so hopefully we'll get a chance to critique his progress next month.
(th)

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2021-10-30 08:37:09

For NewMars members who would like to schedule a Zoom meeting ... please use this topic to coordinate meeting times ...

We have an existing offer of evenings Texas time and weekends.

The email Portal is available, but it is only checked once a day, so it is less than ideal for setting up a meeting.

Please consider using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) for specifying preferred meeting times ... we have members in Europe as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States.

While we currently have no members who live in Asia, we ** have ** had such members in the past, and may well have them again.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2021-11-02 12:06:14

For Terraformer ... can you do Zoom? I'm looking for members who will help me to practice setting up a Zoom session so that if a need arises for a professional/planning meeting that might be called by GW Johnson (for example) I have the procedures down.

To this point, RobertDyck kindly confirmed the system was working in a recent test. The coordination for ** that ** meeting was less than ideal. RobertDyck had to wait longer than should have been necessary, so I'd like to improve the coordination of start time.

Zoom allows more than 3 people but a counter starts running when the 3rd person joins, and the meeting times out after 40 minutes.

The times suggested by GW Johnson that would work for him are evenings Texas/Houston time, and weekends.

I do suggest everyone use UTC (Universal Coordinated Time) to make reservation requests, because we have a global membership.

I'd appreciate a day's lead time to prepare.

(th)

Clinician_Antilles · 2021-11-02 21:29:21

tahanson43206 wrote:

A Zoom meeting is in planning to provide an opportunity for our newest member, Clinician_Antilles, to meet forum members.
The first meeting I'll attempt is with C_A and GW Johnson. Their schedules are in review for any overlap that may exist.
For RobertDyck ... your new Zoom studio set up is noted ... please stand by for a meeting time opportunity.
(th)

Confirmed, thank you to @tahanson43206 for setting this up for us to use! My apologies in the delay in my own response, but the times I would be available are as follows:

Mon-Fri: after 5pm
Sat-Sun: 8am - 11 pm

I would ask that we try to meet this or next Sunday evening for a quick chat regarding the forum, its direction, and ways that I could help fulfill needs.

tahanson43206 · 2021-11-03 06:17:18

For Clinician_Antilles re #5

Thanks for your support of the Zoom initiative ....

As a reminder, UTC (Universal Coordinated Time) is needed because this is a global forum. While we do not currently have Asian members, we could at any time. We have several European members.

Evenings in California are going to be Good Grief times in Europe.

However, since the first meeting I'm trying to line up is with participants from California and Texas, we can try for:

Sunday November 7 at 6 PM in California is 1 AM Monday at Greenwich

According to Google, 1 AM UTC is 8 PM the previous day in McGregor, Texas

For reference, per Google, 1 AM UTC is also 8 PM in Houston, Texas

I am puzzled about the computed two hour time difference of these locations with California.

Per Google, it is 6 PM in Los Angeles at 1 AM UTC.

A Time Zone map found by Google showed (me at least) that Texas is not as far West as my imagination had been painting the State.

The image Google chose is from Amazon, available for sale as a full size laminated wall hanging.

It shows the entire state in Central, except for a tiny little section under New Mexico that includes El Paso.

kbd512 had pointed this out recently, so I was prepared for the distinction.

OK! at this point, we appear to have a date:

Sunday, November 7, 2021 at 1 AM UTC Monday November 8

Backup: Sunday November 14, 2021 at 1 AM UTC Monday November 15

The complication is Daylight Savings Time, which changes November 7th in the United States.

Now for procedure:

Because we are currently operating with the Free version of Zoom, we have 40 minutes available from the moment three participants sign in.

I will post the meeting ID and password in this topic a few minutes before 1 AM UTC.

Participants ** should ** be able to copy and paste the ID and password into the Zoom Join Meeting windows.

The setup here consists of a base station which will show a sign that says New Mars Zoom Meeting.

The host is NewMarsMember ... that is an unattended work station.

I will log on using tahanson43206, using a separate work station.

Because we are still in the early stages of learning how to use this technology, the feature that allows the host to review requests to join is not available.

That feature is the "Waiting Room"

The risk of a spammer joining the meeting is not zero, but it is probably small.

Any member who would like to attend is welcome to do so.

If anyone who has not already tested Zoom, or who would like to practice connecting ahead of time, as RobertDyck has done, please post a request here. We can find a time to try the connection that works for me and for the member.

(th)

GW Johnson · 2021-11-03 08:39:52

If I understand correctly, Sunday Nov 7 at 8 PM Central, 6 PM Pacific, there is to be a Zoom meeting among some of us. Correct?

I will try to still be alive and ready. If my laptop won't work, I'm pretty sure my wife's computer will. But I think it will work.

GW

tahanson43206 · 2021-11-03 08:41:01

European Zoom ....

While a meeting set up for US members may not be convenient for European members, an evening meeting for European members would be quite convenient for US / South America / Canada members (and we have ** all ** of those).

European members I know about include;

Louis
Calliban
Terraformer
Quaoar

There must be several others whose location is comparable in longitude.

If someone from the European community would like to set up a Zoom meeting at a time convenient for them, I'd be happy to try to schedule to match.

(th)

Clinician_Antilles · 2021-11-05 01:44:43

Confirmed, I will be there 1AM UTC.

tahanson43206 · 2021-11-05 05:34:16

For C_A re #9

Thanks for your confirmation!
Originally, the agenda I proposed was just your meeting with GW Johnson.
However, circumstances have changed ... The Deltion company is closing, and the Lander project is in jeopardy.
***
The meeting will be open just before 1 AM UTC November 8th, and due to Time Change in the US, I am (presently) unsure of the times in the US.
www.timeanddate.com seems to offer the ability to compute future times, so I will try to add US time zones some time today.

Update a few minutes later ... now ** this ** is interesting! www.timeanddate.com offers a meeting planner ...

Testing: Event Name: NewMars Zoom
Wow: The corresponding times were shown for many cities, from Addis Ababa through Zurich...

OK! According to the Event Planner, 1 AM London November 8th translates to:

Los Angeles 5 PM Sunday
Houston 7 PM Sunday
Detroit (EST) 8 PM sunday

There may be a way to download the entire city list ... I'll investigate that later.
In the mean time, I'll mark my calendar for 8 PM Sunday EST

I don't know if this is a challenge for anyone else, but I am grateful for www.timeanddate.com to help manage time zones.
The shift between November 8 in London and November 7 in the US is something I'm not used to dealing with.
However, this ** is ** a global enterprise, so it's time to learn how to work with times everywhere.

***
It is not necessary for anyone to notify the host ahead of time if you will be attending.

On the other hand, if you ** are ** planning to attend, and want to confirm your connection works, let me know in this topic and we can run a test at a time that is convenient for both of us. If you are an experienced Zoom user (like RobertDyck) there is no need to test.

I will provide the ID and password in this topic just before 1 AM UTC on November 8 (London) Sunday November 7 (US)

C_A set up this meeting at 1 AM UTC November 8th (London), so I'm expecting he'll be there.

I'd appreciate a confirmation from GW Johnson, although the time selected is within the window set specified for GW Johnson earlier.

(th)

RobertDyck · 2021-11-05 08:42:19

I am expecting to attend. However, Sunday is November 7, Monday is Nov 8. I live in Winnipeg, which is in the same time zone as Houston. But which day is it?

tahanson43206 · 2021-11-05 09:09:51

For RobertDyck and all who might wish to attend.

Please use the Zoom Collaboration topic to coordinate times and dates.

The global nature of our enterprise requires dealing with the International Date Line and confusing situations such as we have here.

It is Monday in London when it is still Sunday in the US.

For this reason, I propose we use UTC as the anchor, and use www.timeanddate.com to discover the correct time in our location.

Thanks for planning to attend!

(th)

GW Johnson · 2021-11-05 11:47:36

I'll be there. If I understand correctly, for me in central time Texas, it is Sunday 7th at 7PM that corresponds to Mon 8th 1 AM UTC. We are changing from daylight to standard time Saturday night, the day before.

GW

tahanson43206 · 2021-11-05 12:27:55

For Dr. Johnson,

Thank you for your confirmation the requested date and time works for you.

I don't want to seem pedantic, but unfortunately, you are saddled with someone who is unable to leave things to chance.

There will be no email to you with a link. I understand you are familiar with that technique, but it is not going to work for NewMars forum.

Instead, I will publish the Meeting ID and the Meeting Password in this topic just as I open the meeting a few minutes ahead of the planned time.

Each attendee may then enter the ID and password into Zoom.

At present we have no provisions for a meeting room.

The meeting will be open to the entire Internet.

If one of our many thousands of spammers decides to crash the party, we will just have to deal with them at the time.

Hopefully everything will go smoothly.

Present attendees include:

Clinician_Antilles
RobertDyck
GW Johnson
NewMarsMember(host)
tahanson43206

(th)

kbd512 · 2021-11-05 13:46:14

tahanson43206,

Are you going to discuss the drilling mission at all?

tahanson43206 · 2021-11-05 13:59:42

For kbd512 re #15

Thanks for your question and for this chance to try to clarify ...

From Post #10

For C_A re #9
Thanks for your confirmation!
Originally, the agenda I proposed was just your meeting with GW Johnson.
However, circumstances have changed ... The Deltion company is closing, and the Lander project is in jeopardy.
***

We have 40 minutes .... a reasonable amount of time should go to a welcome to C_A

However, the closing of Deltion is a major event, so the balance of the time might well go to that topic, if everyone is in agreement.

There is an opportunity for a large company that might be interested in the drilling opportunities on the Moon and Mars to pick up Deltion.

If you know anyone at such a company, there appears to be an opportunity to pitch the idea.

(th)

kbd512 · 2021-11-05 14:17:52

tahanson43206,

In order for my company to provide resources, a contract must exist first. If a contract does exist, then all of the company's considerable resources can be brought to bear on solving this problem. All I can do in the interim is continue to discuss the idea with my close personal friends at the company.

tahanson43206 · 2021-11-05 14:53:00

As of today, 2021/11/05, I have picked up on inquiries by RobertDyck, GW Johnson and kbd512.

The top post of the Zoom Collaboration topic is now dedicated to planning for the next meeting.

Agenda and procedures will be posted there, along with meeting date and time. Time will be posted in UTC (Universal Coordinated Time)

(th)

tahanson43206 wrote:

This new topic is offered because online collaboration is very likely to be common on Mars.
As of 2021/11/05, the first post of the Zoom Collaboration topic will be used for Meeting planning.
The next meeting is planned for UTC 1 AM on November 8th, in London.
To find your local time, use www.timeanddate.com. Please note that all US locations will be in November 7th.
Agenda:
1) Welcome members as they arrive
2) Welcome new member Clinician_Antilles (Star Wars paraphernalia will be appropriate)
3) Open the floor to GW Johnson to discuss Deltion emergency and Lander proposal
4) If there is time, GW Johnson on Orbital Refueling article submission status
5) If there is time, anything else members may wish to consider
Note: While the free Zoom is limited to 40 minutes, I am prepared to open a new session if necessary.
Procedure:
A few minutes before 1 AM UTC November 8th, I will open a host session using a workstation for that purpose
I will post the Meeting ID and Password in the TOP post of the Zoom Collaboration topic.
Members are welcome to enter ID and password into Zoom. You should be connected immediately.
There is no waiting room with the free version of Zoom.
If there is a problem connecting, please post in the Zoom Collaboration topic.
I will monitor that topic, or will ask an assistant to monitor the topic.
(th)

tahanson43206 · 2021-11-06 07:50:52

As we count down to our first official Zoom meeting, it is helpful to have a display of UTC time running in a window on the screen

I found one that runs on an older system: https://time.is/UTC

At the moment this post is entered, the UTC clock shows 13:49:49

The local time is 9:49:49 ... the difference is 4 hours before the upcoming Daylight Savings Time change

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2021-11-06 17:24:14

We may have members practicing to make the Zoom connection.

To help, I'll set some dummy data in Post #1.

Just copy the test data and paste it into your copy of Zoom.

When you try to connect, the connection will fail, of course, but you will have carried out all the steps needed tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I'll put ** real ** data in the fields.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2021-11-07 08:07:53

According to time.is/utc

UtC 14:04:11 at 9:04:11 local time - five hours difference

The first NewMars official Zoom meeting will start (if all goes to play) at 1 AM Monday morning in London, 11 hours from now.

The ID and password will be posted to Post #1 of this topic a few minutes before the planned start time.

The 40 minute clock starts when 3 participants arrive.

We have an offer from Mr. Burk of the Mars Society to allow us to use the full featured paid version of Zoom. It is up to SpaceNut to find out how we can use that service. I hope it is possible for us to take advantage of this generous offer.

(th)

kbd512 · 2021-11-07 17:52:59

There must be a digit missing from that Meeting ID, because if I put a 9th digit in, then I can click the "Join" button. If not, then I can't join the meeting.

kbd512 · 2021-11-07 18:30:17

tahanson43206,

You might want to update the Meeting ID for the Zoom web conference if you want people to be able to join.

tahanson43206 · 2021-11-07 18:34:36

For kbd512 .... Thanks! My Internet service provider chose ** this ** period of time to take the network off line.

I am just now back on. Packet losses were in the 84% range for a while, but they seem to be back to normal of zero.

I'm setting up the host station and will update the Post #1 shortly.

As a reminder to all ... Please hold off on logging in until about 1 AM UTC in London Monday the 8th.

I am running https://time.is/utc to keep track ... we have 34 minutes showing so 26 to go

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2021-11-07 20:02:44

At 21:00 Local time, the Zoom meeting is still in progress...

Attending are GW Johnson, Clinician_Antilles, RobertDyck, kbd512 and tahanson43206

We have room for additional participants if anyone sees this ...

Update at 21:57 local time / 2:57 UTC

The meeting is still in progress (as far as I know) .... Clinician_Antilles and I have signed out, but the meeting was still going.

From my perspective, even though this was done with the free trial version of Zoom, and
even though my Internet provider went down precisely one hour before the meeting, and did not come back until 24 minutes of and...
even though I forgot how to find the meeting ID and password ...
Despite all that four of our brave members beat the odds and connected to the meeting!
Bravo to everyone!

We were upgraded from 40 minutes to unlimited time, which helped to permit detailed discussion of:

Large Ship
Telemeres
Lander Proposal
Radiation protection
Biological life support systems

And those are just a few topics

It appears the mechanism to coordinate a meeting can work, and (hopefully) the host will become more practiced, and the Internet will stay up.

(th)

New Mars Forums

Announcement

#1 2020-11-18 10:06:57

Zoom Collaboration

#2 2021-10-29 07:23:12

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#3 2021-10-30 08:37:09

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#4 2021-11-02 12:06:14

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#5 2021-11-02 21:29:21

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#6 2021-11-03 06:17:18

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#7 2021-11-03 08:39:52

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#8 2021-11-03 08:41:01

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#9 2021-11-05 01:44:43

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#10 2021-11-05 05:34:16

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#11 2021-11-05 08:42:19

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#12 2021-11-05 09:09:51

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#13 2021-11-05 11:47:36

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#14 2021-11-05 12:27:55

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#15 2021-11-05 13:46:14

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#16 2021-11-05 13:59:42

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#17 2021-11-05 14:17:52

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#18 2021-11-05 14:53:00

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#19 2021-11-06 07:50:52

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#20 2021-11-06 17:24:14

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#21 2021-11-07 08:07:53

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#22 2021-11-07 17:52:59

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#23 2021-11-07 18:30:17

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#24 2021-11-07 18:34:36

Re: Zoom Collaboration

#25 2021-11-07 20:02:44

Re: Zoom Collaboration

Board footer