Hello Again; Today, I want to share some things I have learned about google hangouts as I am making the transition from a regular google video hangout to a video hangout on air. I will also share some of the mistakes made, problems found, and planned solutions. But before I get to the meat of this post I need to send out my heart felt apologies to those great friends of mine who tried to participate in last night’s first hangout on air. I am sorry to have wasted your time and the opportunity to start building my audience. I can assure you that I am working on finding solutions. And for anyone who knows me, they know I’m not going to give up easily especially when I can feel the potential of this service.
Types Of Hangouts
First, I believe I should outline the various types of google hangouts and mention some of the differences between them. From my experience there are three types of hangouts. First, there is a text hangout which is just like an online chat room or like when you text back and forth with friends and family. There doesn’t appear to be a limit to the number of people who can be invited to these. But then text puts a much lower level of strain on google’s system, so that is not a surprise. You can connect your google accounts with your phones so you don’t have to be at your computer to take part either. Any member of a hangout group can send out an invitation which will go out to all the members of that group or of a predefined circle. The second type is a video hangout. These are what I was doing in the beginning. I have written about my experience with them as a blind person on the post My First Google Video Hangout Tune In Next Week In these you can only have up to ten people at a time. You are limited on the number of people you can invite directly, but you can make the invitation public. This is because people don’t have to be specifically invited to participate. The third kind is a video hangout on air. This is the kind I was trying to do last night. And it is the kind I plan to do in the future. The primary advantage to this one is that the hangout is recorded and then posted to youtube where it can be viewed later by anyone who wasn’t able to attend in person. Because of the increased storage required by automatically archiving these hangouts on air people have to be invited in order to participate. If they are not invited, they can watch; but they can’t hear what you are saying or talk to you. However, they can watch it afterwards and hear the audio. I don’t quite understand this quirk of the system. You can invite up to 100 people. And as long as someone was invited they can jump in on the conversation at any time. I should say that considering this service is completely free that the restrictions are more than reasonable.
When The Problems Started
After three successful standard video hangouts, I thought I was ready for my first hangout on air. I told everyone I knew to stop by at the appointed time. I posted about it on social media, and I asked people who couldn’t attend to submit questions I could answer during the show. I had assumed it wouldn’t be much different than a regular video hangout. Well, there is a famous line about the dangers of assuming. First, the form to start a hangout on air is more involved. And much of it was difficult to navigate with speech. Most steps require additional confirmations to make sure you really want to do this and have your show recorded to youtube. I also didn’t expect to have to go through an additional section where you agree to all the google rules. I didn’t start until a few minutes before when I was supposed to go live. I didn’t actually get online live until at least 30 minutes after I had planned to be there. Most of my friends who had tried to come on with me had given up. They kept messaging me wanting to know why I wasn’t on yet, and I kept messaging them back saying I think I am now. I was very disappointed in the amount of google’s prompts that could be figured out using just my screen reader. But after the show was over a new friend name Mitchell Walker from Kansas worked with me to solve some of my problems.
Some Things I Learned
Earlier I mentioned that people have to b invited to participate. It was Mitchell who figured that out. It was frustrating during the call to finally have the system go from zero viewers to one and not b able to talk to them. Mitchell called me on my cell phone to let me know he had been there. Well, I’m blind, and it wouldn’t let his voice come through; so I really had no way to know who it was otherwise. smile He was also the one who found out about the limit of 100 people and that uninvited guests can’t take part. So, the next question is how do I get around this problem.
Brainstorming Session
The first problem here is inviting people. Mitchell suggested creating a separate circle on Google Plus just for people who would b invited to the next hangout on air. This won’t work for me because the selection of circles and adding people to them is not accessible with speech. Th different circles are not labelled. For this reason all my connections on there are in my friends circle. Also, it would mean knowing who to invite in the first place. So, even if I didn’t have the problem using google circles; there would still be the difficulty of getting people to tell me in advance that they want to be included. Then I realized I could add people to the list and leave them there until they ask to be removed. After all, just because they get invited each week doesn’t mean they have to attend. This still leaves the question of how to create the circle and add names to or remove names from it.
A Kind Offer
Mitchell generously offered to moderate my hangouts on air until a better solution is found. He said he would create the circle on my page with my log in information. He would add his name to it as well as the names of people I think would want to take part. Then he could start the hangout and help keep me online. We agreed to give it a trial run the next night. We planned the test for 10 PM Eastern 9 PM Central the same time slot I plan to use for the regular Wednesday night get togethers. This was done because it is generally the best time for Mitchell. But it seems to also be a better time for most people thinking of participating.
Trial Run
This time I made a point to b online and ready to start at least a half hour early just in case some part of our plan didn’t go well. This was a good idea as our assumptions about the google hangout on air system were a little off. We thought that if Mitchell was in the circle that he could start the hangout. That was wrong. Whoever creates the event has to initiate the hangout. I didn’t think people would want to attend if the invite came from Mitchell instead of from me. I also thought it would cause confusion among people in Mitchell’s circle. And even though all the people got an invitation, you still have to invite them again when the hangout starts. Since we were both online together this time, Mitchell was able to help me locate the place where you invite people. Through trial and error I figured out that I could just type in the name of anyone in my circle and they would get an invitation. I also learned that I could just type the name of a circle in to that field. This is handy as we have created a new circle called hangout on air. There was another confusing thing about the voice prompts. Apparently when you send an invitation the system considers that person connected to the hangout. So, several times I got messages saying someone had left the hangout that was never there as far as I knew. Mitchell and I had a nice conversation while we both sent out invitations trying to get a third person to join in. Since we weren’t able to test my ability to manage a hangout with more people, Mitchell has agreed to continue being my moderator until he is sure I can handle it by myself.
Managing The Hangout On Air Circle
I mentioned before that managing any of the circles is difficult with a screen reader. But to make my future use of hangouts as independent as possible, I needed to get people moved into the circle Mitchell had created. This wasn’t as easy as I thought either because I had reached the limit of 5,000 set by Google. So, I needed to move people from my friends circle to the hangout circle. And what about any new contacts? To add someone new I would have to delete someone. I can assure you the prospect of going through all those connections to find the ones I could afford to remove was daunting. Mitchell had an idea. He said he would go through them and find contacts that hadn’t been active on Google. He would then read me the name and ask if it was someone I wanted to keep. This way we were able to quickly complete the hangout on air circle for next week’s event and send out an invitation.
Want To Join In?
We will b having the next hangout on Wednesday Mar 19 at 10 Eastern, 9 Central, 7 Pacific, etc. If you think you would like to take part, then it would b a big help to me to know in advance. please send me an email or add me on Google Plus and send me a message through their system asking to be added to the guest list. I have been told that my doing these hangouts has inspired others to try them too. I’m glad to hear that and hope some of you will invite me to your own hangouts soon.
I still feel that a google hangout on air has potential to help grow my business or I wouldn’t be working so hard to do them. I think they will b a good platform to connect with people, build relationships, and promote available products and services. And as I build an audience I may need to require people to RSVP, or I may have to move to a paid webinar service. Of course, that would require additional income from advertising, sponsorship, or more robust equipment sales. If you have any suggestions for making this process easier, or if you have an opinion to share; pleas let me know in the comments section. If you like the post, then please share it with your friends. I look forward to hearing you on a hangout soon. Thanks and take care out there, Max
Taking on the challenge of technology is not easy at the best of times and I don’t find the Google Hangout process particularly intuitive, but at least you’re taking it on. š
I saw your invite on BHB’s late so sorry I missed your event.
Hi Debra; It makes me feel good that you would have joined in if you had gotten the notice sooner. You know that’s one of the big fears what if no one shows up. I tried to add you to the test run tonight, but I understand it was too short of notice. Well, I am still working at it mainly because I feel there is potential. When I started, I said I would give it a month regardless of the outcome. Because of the technical difficulties on doing a hangout on air I am going to give it more time. I added you to the circle for future hangouts. That doesn’t mean I expect you to come. It just makes it easier for both of us if at some point you want to. And if you ever get tired of getting that notification saying the hangout is on wednesday just let me know and I’ll move you back to my friends circle. thanks again and take care, Max
Hey Max
A shame that it did not work out, but I find also that many things worth doing take a little time to get going.
Now that you have learned the difficulties, and how to solve for for now, you can move on to stage 3 of your hangout adventure.
I am also still living and learning in the podcasting world and hope to be able to improve with each new episode
all the best with it
ashley
Hi Ashly; I love that phrase hangout adventure. and who wants an adventure with no challenges. Mitchell and I applied lessons learned from the first effort and made real progress. I will be updating this post later today. But suffice it to say having someone else create a circle specifically for hangouts on air did the trick. Now, I don’t have to have someone start the hangout for me, but I do have to have someone put the names in the circle; so Mitchell has agree to continue acting as my moderator until I get a little more experience with them. I will be trying another test run between now and next wednesday. and your name is in the circle. As i found out that doesn’t mean you have to join in, but it gives you that option. You totally rocked your first podcast with Miss Eileen and you will no doubt get even better the more you do. And your audience will grow each time too. Thanks for all your help and for continuing to be such a good friend. Take care, Max
Google hangouts can be a bit tricky for the ones that haven’t done them before. After the initial setup and use, it’s pretty easy after that. I applaud you for persevering and making it happen. You will soon be an expert. š
Hi Susan; Thanks for having confidence in me. But the truth is if a new friend hadn’t reached out to me I was going to have to go back to the regular video hangouts or possibly shelve the idea for a try at a later time. Now, the only thing I can’t do is add people to or remove people from the circle designated for hangout on air invitees. But that is a very small issue considering where I started with this. I hope we can get together soon. Thanks again and take care, Max
Hi Mr. Midway (Well, you told me this is what people know you as, so I would love to call you that!)!
Greetings!
Google hangouts can be a bit tricky when you are doing for the first time.In fact, I still find it a bit difficult to do “On Air” because I haven’t done a public show yet.
But I admire you you for your courage and perseverance because of which you didn’t give up and found a solution.
All the best to you!
Regards,
Kumar
Hi Kumar; Great to hear from you, and thanks for making me smile by using my moniker. I just decided to get a new domain name to reflect the brand name. I have forwarded it to my existing website. the url is http://www.mr-midway.com Next, I need a new logo so i can start having some shirts and other promotional merchandise made. thanks for the encouragement about the hangouts on air. And if Mitchell hadn’t stepped forward i would have had to go back to the standard hangouts. It isn’t a perfect solution, but it works; and I’v never had trouble accepting help from a friend. so Mitchell will help out until I get it all sorted. Hope I will see you at a hangout soon. Please invite me to your next one. tai care, Mr. Midway
Mr. Midway, I so admire your willingness to be an early adopter of a new method of interactive group communication. Actually, is a google hangout “on air” interactive? I have no idea. I’ve never even participated in a plain old regular Google hangout. Luddite? Guilty.
Hello; I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I doubt anyone would call you a luddite. Most would probably have to get the dictionary out to know what one is anyway. I embrace online methods of connecting with people because I have yet to generate enough income to meet my clients in person. Also, being blind I would need someone to accompany me; and I haven’t found that person yet. A google hangout on air is interactive to a point. You can only have up to ten people on with you at a time and you are limited to inviting 100. anyone who isn’t invited can’t hear you or talk to you, but anyone can watch it after it is over and hear what went on. This makes no sense to me. smile I am just getting started with them and don’t have an audience yet. Like with anything else that is new, it will take time. I am hopeful that it will grow to the point that I will be able to afford a real webinar program. If you would like to tai part, then add me on google plus and I will put your name on the invite list. Eventually there may be two hangouts on air one focusing on the amusement industry and the other for blogging, social media, and blindness. Thanks for using the Mr. Midway. I am starting to get more mail with that greeting and I love it. And to expand the brand I now have a second domain name. It is http://www.mr-midway.com and is forwarded to this site. Take care, Max
Hi Max. I have no doubt your perseverance will result in regular google video hangouts and the tribulations will increase your expertise. Kudos to Mitchell for being so helpful but as you are one of the most helpful people in the field it does not surprise that karma sometimes smiles upon you too. Good luck. You will crack it.
Hi Paul; Thanks so much for those encouraging comments. I try to help others as much as I can, so that part of your reply really made me smile. I think we have the hangouts mostly sorted. The only thing I don’t think I can do myself is the adding people to the hangout on air circle for sending the invitations. However, I can get around that by going to the invite people box and typing in any additional names after the hangout has started. . If you can stop by next week, I’d love to have you. If not, then feel free to submit a question to b answered on air. Thanks again and tai care, Max
Wow, you are tenacious! I more than likely would have given up at this stage and tried again in another 6 months. Says a lot about our characters doesn’t it?
Hi Becc; I thought about it. If Mitchell hadn’t come forward I was going to either quit all together or go back to regular video hangouts. I’m sure you are a bulldog in your own way. Take care, Max
You are obviously persistent and passionate about getting through ~ I have no doubt your efforts will get you there! Thanks for the info. I had really little to no idea what the hangouts were even about!
Hi Vickie; Thanks for your appreciative comment. I am glad that I was able to give you some information that you hadn’t heard before. We will find out how much progress I have made come wednesday night. I would love it if you would send me a question to ask on the next hangout. Thanks again and take care, Max
I also feel that Google handout are bit tricky but once you know them , it helps a lot…
i am happy to know that you have figure out the solution and soon you will be expert…
All of us have problems in start and we must try try again…
Its really and informative post , as i know about different types and stuff..
thanks for share …
Hello; Andleeb; Thanks for your kind words. Yes, we all have problems, and yes most of them can be overcome with a positive attitude, continued effort, and help from our friends. I hope to hear you back hear again in the future. Next hangout is wednesday. If you can’t make it then please send me a question to answer on air. Take care, Max
Trying to learn new technology is tricky. Most of the time I learn by trial and error. Hangouts is cool but Google has changed it a bit so now you have to learn the changes. I belong to a group on Google + called Google Hangouts On Air. They have good information.
Hi Niekka; I was mainly surprised as to how much difference there is between a hangout and a hangout on air. I expected a little more difficulty because of the hangout on air being recorded, but I didn’t expect so much more. we finally had a successful show last night. I will be writing a post about it that will include a link to the recording and my youtube channel. I would like to have more people participate next time either in person or by submitting questions in advance. If you would like to take part, its wednesday night at 10 eastern 9 central 7 pacific etc. and I would need to invite you so we would have to connect on google plus. Also, I would love it if you would invite me to join that hangout group. thanks for the encouragement and take care, Max
I applaud your efforts and perseverance Max. Good things are ahead!
Hi Jen; Thanks for your encouragement. I too feel good things are ahead. Just got the confirmation from a new vendor. and now have to do a video and write a blog post about it. I also need to update people on the hangouts on air and continue working towards my next calliope corner video. also, I think I have decided I want to do some speaking. and i just got invited to another podcast this one by a team of blind entrepreneurs who heard me on ashley’s podcast. and I even invited one of my new blind friends who writes a travel blog to come join us on the bloggers helping bloggers group. Lots going on and more to come for both of us I’m sure. Take care my friend, Max