IBHA Chat Program

  • Sunday, November 25, 2018 5:02 PM
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    Message # 6931847
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    All,

    Would there be any interest in setting up an IBHA chat room? The goal would be to have an online space where big historians could just chat, share big history related articles, and just have a simple, online location to discuss big history.

    If there is any interest in this, please feel free to either post here, or e-mail me at heathe.yeakley@bighistory.org. 
  • Tuesday, December 04, 2018 5:50 AM
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    Reply # 6944739 on 6931847
    Yvonne Fritz

    Hi Heathe,

    could you explain that a bit more?

    You wrote: "... an IBHA chat room? The goal would be to have an online space where big historians could just chat, share big history related articles, and just have a simple, online location to discuss big history. "

    I thought that this is what this forum is for! So, how would a chat program or a chat room be different from this forum?

    Like, would this be a closed space, where only IBHA members can read and write? This forum is open for everyone to read, only members can write. 

    P.S. So far I have used only email and this forum for communication with other big historians. That works well for me. Although I am also on Yammer in the BHP teacher community, there is too much distracting small talk going on there for my personal needs. In other words it's too chatty. However, I can see how it is valuable to those BHP teachers in a high (and middle) school context. But then, that is not exactly me, trying to teach middle-aged adults

    Hope my comment helps, greetings from Germany.
  • Tuesday, December 04, 2018 10:45 AM
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    Reply # 6945035 on 6931847
    Heathe Kyle Yeakley

    Greetings from America, Yvonne!

    To address your point, yes, this online forum is intended to give IBHA members an informal space to discuss whatever topic. But a forum, much like e-mail, isn't "real time". I post something and then wait for someone to respond. That response might take an hour, a few days, or a week (or never).

    So, some background on this topic.

    FaceBook has been in the news several times this year for various (often disturbing) reasons.

    I used FaceBook messenger almost exclusively to communicate with friends.

    With all the concerns about online privacy and whether or not FaceBook is/isn't using my personal data for who knows what, I began to realize that I had become overly dependent on FaceBook as a method of communicating with people.

    So I began shopping around for a tool to replace FaceBook messenger. After trying out a few different apps, I came across Telegram.

    https://telegram.org

    I messaged several friends and explained why I was leaving behind FaceBook messenger, and several people agreed with my logic and also installed Telegram. My friends and I use Telegram now for real-time communication.

    You can use Telegram to one-on-one direct message people, or you can setup channels (rooms) where groups of people can participate in a group conversation. My friends and I have a general channel that consists of about a dozen of us, and we just have this ongoing conversation where we talk about whatever we want.

    It occurred to me that I could start an IBHA channel on Telegram and invite big historians to join. We could use the channel for real time communications and share ideas, plan events, share big history related articles with each other, etc...

    I think I'm going to go ahead and make the channel. We can try it out. Maybe no one uses it, or people try using it and lose interest. The worst case scenario is that no one uses it and I delete the channel.

    I have Telegram installed both on my phone and on my computer. If you're interested in trying out an IBHA chat room, e-mail me your phone number so I can add you to my contacts and connect you to the channel.
  • Friday, December 07, 2018 8:17 AM
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    Reply # 6949609 on 6931847
    Yvonne Fritz

    Hi Heathe,

    thanks for your detailed explanation. Since you've looked into different messengers, I have another question. Telegram is also free and there are no ads etc. And they want to keep it free. How are they paying for the costs?

    I mean it is nice to get a service for free, but operating the service does come with costs! So, what is the price for the user with Telegram?
  • Friday, December 07, 2018 10:30 AM
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    Reply # 6949772 on 6931847
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Yvonne,

    That's a great question.

    https://telegram.org/faq#q-how-are-you-going-to-make-money-out-of-this


  • Saturday, December 08, 2018 10:15 AM
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    Reply # 6951126 on 6931847
    Ken Solis

    I like the idea, especially because many of us in this organization, it seems, are outside academic circles.  Being an "island" has its drawbacks and being able to share ideas increases progress in so many ways. Thank you for your investigation on this matter.
  • Wednesday, December 12, 2018 5:47 AM
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    Reply # 6956459 on 6931847
    Yvonne Fritz

    Hi Ken,

    great! I have already joined the IBHA group on Telegram. So, ifyou contact Heathe, he can send you an invite-link.

    Hi all,

    I will definitely stay away from Facebook. It's just too much, and what's the harm in having groups on different channels? We are different people after all!

    I can see how Telegram (or Facebook) could be useful for having more informal chats, perhaps to find a discussion topic while this Forum then provides the space for more serious and lengthier discussions, a place where you want to take more time for a reply. Does that make sense?


    Last modified: Wednesday, December 12, 2018 5:50 AM | Yvonne Fritz