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Webheads chat logs are posted on the Internet to assist language learners with comprehension of our conversations and to strengthen our sense of community through shared familiarity with one another. All are welcome to join us, but your participation in our activities implies that you approve of our posting on the Internet interactions in which you take part. Please address any comments or concerns to Vance Stevens.

WFW: Writing for Webheads
You can chat with us live, online, free
All you need is an Internet connection and a browser

When? Any Sunday from NOON to about 14:00 GMT and at other times as scheduled
What time is that where you are? Check: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/full.html

Find links to all our current chat areas at the top of most Webheads pages!

Fernanda Rodrigues has created a site which polls users for information on CMC tools they find useful. Nominate a tool or view the dbase here: http://www.prof2000.pt:9999/users/mfr/wia/cmc_tools.asp

Here's how to find us ...

Webheads meets live online every Sunday noon GMT
(for around 2 hours)

All are welcome.

What time is that where you are?
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/full.html

We've been meeting every Sunday at this time since 1998! Since January, 2000 Webheads have been meeting in online VOICE chat, and we've been using video since October 2001.

Voice chat:
Sometimes we have Skypecasts Sunday noon GMT to 14:00, and at other times when announced. To find the Skypecast when we're there visit http://www.skypecast.com and find Webheads or EFLBridges or Worldbridges in the list of Skypecasts NOW.

Second Life:
We tend to migrate to SL later than Sunday noon GMT and stay later than 14:00, and at other times when announced. To find out more check out our Second Life page here or at its mirror here.

What you need on your computer ...

To join us in Yahoo voice and/or webcam chat, you need:

a sound card (for voice)
a Yahoo account and/or a Skype account
download Yahoo Messenger and/or Skype
You need a mic ONLY if you want to talk back and web cam ONLY if you want to broadcast one - you can hear and see others without these items

What do we do when we meet online? Since 2001 we've been meeting at Tapped In. We also experiment with numerous other places (see column at right) depending on what's hot and who's online. As your skills in chaos navigation improve, you can engage us in several places at once.

Some of us try to talk in voice chat site at the same time as we write to each other in one of our text chat sites. We've also been playing around with web cams. It would be best if you try to visit our sites before noon on Sunday to see which are working for you.

Hope to meet you online soon,

Vance

For more information, see http://wfw.webheads.info

Text chat

Meet at Tapped In, an online environment for students and educators. Start at http://www.tappedin.org and /join VanceS or go to /reception and find us there.
We don't use our Homestead chat room for text chat anymore, but it still works if you need an alternative venue

In addition to Yahoo voice and webcam conferencing, we experiment with these sites during our regular chat sessions

As a result of our participation in Global Learn Day 6 in October 2002, followed up by Michael Coghlan's collaboration with Andrew Pinchon, Webheads have been offered use of http://www.alado.net/webheads. To see if it's free: http://www.my.calendars.net/webheads/
We have been making use since summer 2003 of Elluminate vClass which we access through http://www.learningtimes.org. You have to become a member (free) and then log in and come to the "Meeting Room", or to the special Webheads room here: http://tinyurl.com/y3eh
Geoff Kaye at DiscoverE, Australia, has set up a 10 user virtual conference room for use by the Webheads group here: http://www.compued.com.au/discovere/webheads (any user name, no password). More information, click here
VOIP: http://www.gizmoproject.com/download.php and http://www.ineen.com/index.html and http://www.skype.com/
The latter was blocked in UAE and China (early 2005) but was working by late 2005 but in late 2005 UAE newspapers report that Etisalat is looking into ways to block VOIP in the UAE. As of August 2006 it's still working in both the UAE and China, but by Sept 2006 the UAE authorities have finally managed to squelch it for home use. No one is quite sure what they are up to but users throughout the UAE are now reporting no access to the Skype client for VOIP. The papers reported that Internet City in Dubai was unintentionally included in the ban, which is the only 'official' mention I have seen regarding this policy in UAE.

Instant Messengers: You might find us by contacting:

vancestev on Skype
vance_stevens or other webheads on Yahoo Messenger
vance_stevens (hotmail address) on MSN Messenger Service and Netmeeting
ICQ 2774215 (Vance's ID, rarely used now)

Webcam-enhanced chat - see and hear us on Yahoo Messenger

Look for vance_stevens on Yahoo Messenger
Download: http://messenger.yahoo.com/messenger/download/index.html
We sometimes also use iVisit (cross-platform PC and Mac-friendly); http://www.ivisit.com/
http://www.ivisit.org/com/index.html
or PalTalk
This worked well when we tried it Nov 23, 2003: http://www.moremx.com/fcsamples_en.cfm but no more. This was still working in Sept. 2006: http://www.uvault.com/demo/s_room6chat/index.html

Discussion board - Our GroupBoard text chat with Paint graphics and guest book - http://www.homestead.com/vstevens/files/efi/groupboard.htm

Having trouble getting the Java applets to launch? Check out our troubleshooting guide.

Webheads are constantly experimental. In the summer of 2006 we were playing around with a number of Web 2.0 tools with are similar to Talking Communities / Alado and Eluminate / Learning Times. I am tracking developments here until I can think of a better way to present this information (and once we sort out which of these tools are truly useful: This process continues into late 2007 as we gear up for EVO 2008.

123flashchat - Seems to be a paid service. Here is a link to the 123FlashChat audio-video demo room: http://www.123flashchat.com/demo/show_demo.php you can log on as a guest
DimDim written up at http://www.kolabora.com/news/2006/07/27/opensource_web_conferencing_gets_serious.htm
The advantage that Flashmeeting http://flashmeeting.open.ac.uk/index.html seems to have, and this is probably because it is being developed by the Open University (UK) specifically for academic settings, is a very user-friendly set-up allowing for well-structured meetings. Everything is also recorded (similar to in Alado or Elluminate) and so can be reviewed, or visited by those who were unable to make the synchronous meeting. Recordings of sessions using Flashmeeting can be viewed at: http://www.voxmedia.org/wiki/Videoblogger_Videoconferences
Userplane - http://www.userplane.com/ Chris Fry notes "Userplane offers a free chat room if you accept the adverts, but some of them would be unacceptable to some people. They also include ads for ErrorSafe, which tries to install itself on your computer." (uhhh, no thanks - Vance) There is also a paid version (no ads)
Vaestro is audio forum software that you can use on your website for free. Talk to your friends, host interactive podcasts, or use it like an audio blog. http://www.vaestro.com/
Webhuddle, http://webhuddle.com/ has an on again off again server from our observations in July 2006. Dafne reports: "I have been trying WebHuddle, which is open source and you can download to your server: https://webhuddle.com/ While it is in Beta you can use it for free and keep your recordings on their server. You can play them or download them to your hard disk. Documents can be uploaded and it also has application sharing. "
WiZiQ mentioned on the TALO list in Sept 23, 2007 Michael Coghlin said he "just gave Wiziq a quick test and it seems OK. Of course the true test is the reliability of the audio with someone else on line and I didn't do that. But I like the way it looks and ppt and whiteboard worked very smoothly". http://www.wiziq.com/ to sign on. "Free, web-based, nothing to download, Mac compatible," WiZiQ is being used in EVO Moderator Training 2007 and Becoming a Webhead 2008. See http://www.wiziq.com/virtual_classroom.aspx for a Virtual Classroom demo.

There's a Webopedia Quick Reference (March 02, 2007) Guide to Public (Read: Free) IM Services here: http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,3146,1,busk,bchh,h922,6rol

Robin Good's

Kolabora compendium of screen sharing tools: http://www.kolabora.com/news/2006/10/05/screen_sharing_tools_and_technology.htm#cooliris
Official Guide to Web Conferencing and Live Presentation Tools: http://www.masternewmedia.org/reports/webconferencing/guide/

This one works well: In May 2006 Yaodong and Venny met Geoff from /Australia and reported "He generously offers us a nice e-conferencing room with calendar to schedule international collaborative learning. It's at: http://www.inetconferenceroom.com/rooms.nsf/discovere05. Anyone can click the Conference room and enter an ID without password to enter the room. If you're a teacher and need moderator's authority, please feel free to write Venny. The chat room now has 10 seats. Please feel free to use it and jot down (book) the room on the schedule."

When to meet?

Poodwaddle.com

Meet us at: http://www.tappedin.org/
Fnd us on Yahoo, talk to us if you have a sound card (you need a mic to talk, but you can listen without one) or view our web cams (if we have them up, and if you have a cam you can broadcast to us)
Look for us at http://www.alado.net/webheads or http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=273662

For more information and to find out about the people you'll be talking to and see their pictures, visit one of the following

During meeting times, many of us open more than one of our sites in separate browser windows.

For information about: Quick Start | Alado | DiscoverE | Learning Times | ICQ | MSN Messenger | PalTalk | Tapped In | The Palace | Wimba | Yahoo Messenger | Java troubleshooting
Alado voice-enabled presentation room - Andy Pinchon has been a Webhead since Global Learn Day VI in 2002 (he might have joined the group after that, but he became a Webhead on that day). He has been very supportive of Webheads activities and has arranged for us to use - and maintained for us - a voice enabled meeting room at http://www.alado.net/webheads. No registration necessary, relatively small plugin to download, maximum capacity ten simultaneous users, though Andy will arrange for larger capacity if needed.

In January 2008, Andy reports: The new version is MAC enabled. The changes we've made include the Whiteboard feature, the recording in flash feature, MAC enable flash for Firefox brower only feature, and how to upload your powerpoints onto either our server or your own server using FTP.

For information about: Quick Start | Alado | DiscoverE | Learning Times | ICQ | MSN Messenger | PalTalk | Tapped In | The Palace | Wimba | Yahoo Messenger | Java troubleshooting
DiscoverE voice-enabled presentation room - Geoff Kaye at DiscoverE, Australia, has set up a 10 user virtual conference room for use by the Webheads group. You can view all the features of the room by visiting www.compued.com.au/conference/tour Here are instructions to access the room. 1. Go to http://www.compued.com.au/discovere/webheads 2. Click on the 'enter the conference room' link 3. Allow the voice chat software to automatically download. 4. Enter any screen name and leave password blank 5. Have your speakers and microphone connected

For information about: Quick Start | Alado | DiscoverE | Learning Times | ICQ | MSN Messenger | PalTalk | Tapped In | The Palace | Wimba | Yahoo Messenger | Java troubleshooting
Learning Times/Elluminate: vClass voice-enabled meeting room- The Learning Times community have been very supportive of Webheads and have created a voice-enabled meeting room for us at: http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=273662. I made a Tiny URL for it: http://tinyurl.com/y3eh. It is also available using the "Member Offices" link on the left side navigation of the http://www.LearningTimes.org community. We're the last listing, "Webheads - Virtual Office." Registration with Learning Times necessary prior to use, slightly long download on first use, works with Macintosh, 24/7 use for up to 8 simultaneous users and up to 25 with prior notice.

For information about: Quick Start | Alado | DiscoverE | Learning Times | ICQ | MSN Messenger | PalTalk | Tapped In | The Palace | Wimba | Yahoo Messenger | Java troubleshooting
Homestead text chat and Guest Book - The easiest chat for most people to reach used to be our Homestead chat room. However, now that we use Tapped In, we don't go there so often any more. You are however welcome to use the site at any time you wish. To go there, visit http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens. There used to be a Guest Book there but I don't think it works any longer.

You can download and register ICQ at http://www.mirabilis.com
You can find our ICQ addresses at http://www.homestead.com/vstevens/files/efi/students.htm. Vance's is 2774215.

Here's a conversation I had with Felix in 2001. He'd found a site where you can go to access your ICQ.

Grisham 9/5/01 4:15 PM HI VANCE.. i AM AT WORK... JUST FOUND OUT A WAY TO USE ICQ WITHOUT HAVING TO INSTALL IT ON THE COMPUTER
Vance 9/5/01 4:16 PM NOT! How?
Grisham 9/5/01 4:16 PM THE WWW IS http://www.icq.com/icqwebbie/
Grisham 9/5/01 4:16 PM IT'S AMAZING
Vance 9/5/01 4:17 PM Cool. I will try that. Gotta run now.
Vance 9/5/01 4:17 PM thanks for the info
Grisham 9/5/01 4:17 PM SO DO I, BYE BYE

For information about: Quick Start | Alado | DiscoverE | Learning Times | ICQ | MSN Messenger | PalTalk | Tapped In | The Palace | Wimba | Yahoo Messenger | Java troubleshooting
MSN Messenger from http://messenger.msn.com. Has voice and text chat, lets you know when buddies are online, and you can record chats by cutting and pasting from chat window. MSN Messenger used to also be a convenient way to start a one-on-one voice/video conference using Netmeeting, but since it became webcam enabled I haven't noticed this feature in its interface. MSN Messenger is one-on-one for voice and webcam.

Venny keeps us informed about Pal Talk. Here is what he told us in Dec. 2004:

PalTalk messenger 7.0 is released and look just like a messenger. It is at: http://www.paltalk.com/

	Yahoo Messenger	PalTalk Messenger
Pal list	Yes	Yes
Group List	Yes	No
Create room	Yes	Yes
Create group	No	Yes
Audio	Yes	Yes
Video	Yes	Yes (frozen without pay)
Adsed	not too annoying	annoying (too many)
Porn	No	Yes (many adult groups)
Porn filter	(not sure)	Yes

Yahoo messenger seems to be better as a free messenger. The good point for PalTalk is its groups (rooms). You can create a permanent group to form an online commnity. You can see some English learnign groups under Distance Learning and Premium Learning categories. There are also many other categories with lots of groups, like Palk Radio, Social issue, Friend categories.

I've create WebHeads group under Distance Learning category. The admin code is 1234 if you want to enter and admin. Just come and take a look.(from Venny, Dec, 2004)

To reach Tapped In visit http://www.tappedin.org
Log in as a Guest
Click on anyone's name in the Online tab to join that person directly.

Webheads are recognized contributing members of Tapped In:

Vance's Member Perspective appears in this Tapped In 'On the Tapis' newsletter: http://www.tappedin.org/info/newsletter/april02.html and can be read in full here: http://www.tappedin.org/info/perspectives/vs.html
Webheads features in the Tapped In calendar each month at http://www.tappedin.org/cgi-bin/calendar/calendar.cgi. Here is the blurb that appears there:
Event name: Writing for Webheads: An experiment in world friendship through online language learning
The focus of Webheads in Action is on teacher professional development for teachers and teacher trainers and forming communities of practice with CMC tools. http://www.vancestevens.com/papers/evonline2002/webheads.htm Join Vance Stevens every Sunday in Reception at noon GMT (for two hours).

Webheads who were with us before 2001 were most fond of The Palace, but at that time, Palace products became harder and harder to find, and Communities.com was no longer supporting them. However, many independent Palace communities survived, and as of April 2002, it appears that our Virtual Schoolhouse has returned :-(but in 2003 gone away again). Here are the sites we use or fall back on, in order of preference:

We used to meet regularly at the Virtual Schoolhouse, efi.virtualscholar.com, port 9998 - a safe, practical palace purpose-built by Coterie for EFI, English for Internet
mycorner.xsia.com - This site has rides. You have to download zip files and then double-click on them to get the images you need for the rides. Michael and Vance tried it and easily enjoyed the rides, and nothing bad happened to our computers. We particularly liked the Hang Glider ride. If you want to try, we'll show you how.
plantation.chatserve.com:9998 - this Australian-flavored palace is sometimes working, sometimes not

To reach one of these palaces:

Launch your Palace browser, or 'user software'
Pull down 'Connect to a Palace'
Type in your Guest name
enter the url for the Palace you want; e.g. efi.virtualscholar.com
enter 9998 as the port to use

There are many resources, including discussion lists, tools, and a Palace directory at: http://www.palacetools.com.

There used to be Palace avatars at http://www.digimask.com.

The Palace User Software used to be available at the following sites (I'm not sure where you find it as of Oct 2001 - download.com was no longer providing it at that time):

As of Sept 2002, there's a Mac version: http://messenger.yahoo.com/messenger/download/beta/macbeta.html

Here are some of the complaints we see:

I was wondering do you know what the correct program i can use to for java chat...i downloaded all kinds of versions at un but i still can t see anything to chat, its just a blank box, i feel left out...help...
after loading the caht room it says that Chatapplet not found and doesn't go ahead, it srops there and i can't do anything else

Here's what you have to do to fix it:

First, thing, are you behind a firewall? If so ask your network administrator what restrictions there are on chat. Or if you're doing this from a home computer, route yourself around any personal firewall or security programs you're running.

Second, check that Java is enabled on your browser (in IE6 it's Tools / Internet Options / Advanced)

If that doesn't work, run Windows updates: http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp. Get all the ones you're missing. The latest Direct X might be particularly important, so you might want to start with that.

If that doesn't work, or if you're using a browser other than IE, try downloading and installing the update here: http://java.sun.com/getjava/index.html

If it doesn't work, try "Frank Langa's BrowserTune2000 homepage, where you can get a comprehensive testing of your browser's functioning, while at the same time getting a tutorial on all the hidden assets of your browser." If you want to get right to the point, run the first stage tests and then skip to the ones that deal with Java. http://www.browsertune.com/newbt/

Still no Java? Visit http://www.download.com and try downloading a different browser, or get a more recent version of the one your using. Some browsers you can try are IE (Internet Explorer, Netscape, or Opera)

If that doesn't work come to Tapped In any Sunday noon GMT to about 14:00 and we'll try to help you live and online (Webheads, I guess you saw our web page).

Program

How to get there and where to get it (free)

Delphi text forum

http://forums.delphi.com/webheads/messages - This site has got so blatantly commercial we hardly use it anymore. In its heyday it used to allow voice chat using the robust HearMe client.

Excite, now defunct

As of May 1, 2001, our Excite chat room went off the air at http://www.excite.com/communities/chat/voicechat/rooms (this was just days before Vance gave a plenary address in Cyprus at which Excite was to be used).You used to be able to log in as a guest and GO! Webheads

the Groove

Groove has chat, forums, instant messaging, audio chat, and shared file spaces - and if you look carefully you can still find a free version in early 2003 (read the license information): http://groove.net/ or http://www.groove.net. After trying it with Michael, Vance agrees that it has potential, but attempts to use it with other Webheads revealed shortcomings in our knowledge of how to properly use this tool, and since then, we haven't practiced with it. (Stop presses: Yaodong and Venny were experimenting with Groove in early 2003)

Homestead text chat

When Homestead was a free site, setting up a chat room here was a matter of drag and drop (it still is that easy, but it's no longer free). Because getting transcripts from the Java applet is a hassle (cut and paste, no thank you, esp. as Tapped In is so convenient) we rarely use our Homestead text at - http://www.homestead.com/vstevens/

There used to be a guest board here but it unexpectedly went belly up in 2003.

Real Media

Real Audio is used to play video and audio files sent out by classmates. http://www.real.com/products/
You can use Real Audio Producer to make your own audio and video recordings. http://www.real.com/products/tools/producer/index.html?src=productsmain

Tapped In Classic

For Tapped In Classic, we had screen shots of these instructions at http://www.vancestevens.com/findbuds.htm#tappedin.

Tapped In Notes
Here are a few commands we used in Tapped In CLASSIC (this is now for historical interest; they don't work at all in Tapped In 2)

Explore /help @messages to figure these out; e.g. @leave me is leaves the room in a hurry OR @arrive vances is "new message" - there is some difference between @enter me is and @enter susannen is; and there appears to be an @join me is ...
To see what's in my pocket, I type /audit vances and then look in MY ITEMS
To put things in containers type /put nameofitem in nameofcontainer
info is at http://www.tappedin.sri.com/info/software.html

BJB's notes:

How to drop and retrieve info from recorders

Type /create &recorder named year/month/day webheads (or whatever name you choose)
Type /drop year/month/day webheads (this turns the recorder on. It has a finite capacity of about 1200 lines which is usually an hour's worth of dialogue. When full it will automatically stop recording.)
To turn a &recorder into a note use the command /unrec nameofrecorder. Since the recorder is already in the room, it is still visible to everyone and anyone can read it. If you don't want anyone to read it, type /get nameofnote. That will pick it up and put it in your items where only you can read it.
Type /get year/month/day webheads to pick up the recorder to take it to your office.
/mailme: you can use that command for any note you hold, any note that is dropped in a room, or any help file in TAPPED IN.

To make recordings available to others

Option A: get an emailer from supplies, drop it in your office, and put the transcripts in the emailer...then you can direct people to the emailer in your office. An emailer is what is used in the ASO for retrieving transcripts. The only problem with using an emailer is that only TAPPED IN members can retrieve the scripts.
Option B: get a container from supplies (name it webheads transcripts) and put your webheads notes in the container. Anyone can still read the transcripts in a container. If you don't want anyone to read them, and want to put them somewhere, get a library from supplies...you can lock that container.

If you want to bring your class to the SAC, you will need to get student accounts for them. A student account provides a private, safe and secure opportunity for the student to log in to the SAC. For more information about how to apply for the accounts and information about how the accounts work see http://www.tappedin.org/info/students/join.html. Please allow a week to 10 days for the accounts to be established.

Tapped In 2

Profiles and Descriptions in TI2

Your membership ID is your introduction to the community members. Help us build a sense of community by making sure you update your profile and description after you have registered in the new version of TAPPED IN (http://www.tappedin.org/new) To do this, click on the ME tab, go to Settings, and then Edit Description. What you enter in your description is what people will see when they ID you.

Advanced Tech Tip: Photos and Icons in TI2

A new feature has been added to TI2. You can add your photo and an icon. Currently, photos appear in your description and icons show when you click on the ME tab and go to People (Buddies). To add a photo or icon click on the ME tab and go to Settings. Under Edit Description you will see directions. The size limit for photos is 160 x 160 pixels and the size limit for icons is 40 x 40 pixels.

Telcopoint

Telcopoint was supposed to be a reincarnation of Hear Me, but free sites were never given enough bandwidth for them to work properly.

Vance had a Telcopoint chat room at http://www.vancestevens.com/hearme.htm
Michael had a Telcopoint chat room at http://www.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/hearme.htm

Wimba

At one time Wimba let Webheads trial their synchronous voice tool, Voice Direct.

We used to have sites where you could add your voice to our recorded discussions, but Wimba ceased being free in early 2002 and all our threaded voice discussion boards disappeared. For the historical archives ...

Our official Webheads voice board was at http://www.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/wimba.htm
Vance had a voice message board at http://www.vancestevens.com/voiceboard.htm
Lots of Webheads in Action put up Wimba voice boards; see http://www.vancestevens.com/papers/evonline2002/messages.htm#wimbaurls
There are directions for Wimba voice chat logon here.

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For comments, suggestions, or further information on this page
contact Vance Stevens, page webmaster.

Last updated: January 6, 2008- 06:00 GMT

Copyright 2007 by Vance Stevens
under Creative Commons License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

January 12, 2007

WFW: Writing for Webheads You can chat with us live, online, freeAll you need is an Internet connection and a browser

Last updated: January 6, 2008- 06:00 GMT

WFW: Writing for Webheads
You can chat with us live, online, free
All you need is an Internet connection and a browser