Re: [Mittagsseminar TI] update

[Emo Welzl <emo@inf.ethz.ch>]

Dear Laszlo, dear All,

Thanks for the message. In Zurich  we skipped only two slots of 
Mittagsseminar: 
<https://www.ti.inf.ethz.ch/ew/mise/mittagssem.html?action=show&what=list&year=2020>, 
and we went on. Not as usual, but via zoom, and it really works nicely. 
Even I could do it, so it must be really easy. It is not as good as the 
presence-based one, but given the circumstances, good enough. Let's hope 
the usual Mittagsseminar will be back soon. (And, as Laszlo indicates, 
some changes on other ends that are beneficial will perhaps even stay.)

Greetings to Berlin,

Emo

On 31.03.20 19:08, László Kozma wrote:
> Dear theory-group colleagues,
>
> I hope everyone is safe & healthy, and not afflicted with either 
> coronavirus or "cabin fever". I am missing the noon seminars and our 
> after-lunch coffee discussions.
> As the situation slowly unfolds, and given the obvious negatives, I 
> try to look at some positive aspects:
> - overall slowdown of human activity, good for environment & nature,
> - those in lockdown with kids -- time for various activities, and 
> strengthening of patience and character for all involved parties,
> - opportunity to read and meditate on life, the universe, and 
> everything :)
> - opportunity to indulge in all the legitimate and/or misleading 
> information about the situation,
> - opportunity to look angry at those who wear masks, or at those who 
> don't wear masks, depending on our opinion on the matter,
> - anything important I missed? How do you manage?
>
> As for the slowly approaching semester, I so far made the following 
> preparations:
> - XP-PEN drawing tablet (works very nice, good for collaboration too) 
> -- there are much fancier ones, this one I bought for around 40 euros,
> - xournal and xournalpp on linux -- quite simple and nice software for 
> note-taking -- also reasonably configurable,
> - idroo.com with a nice zoomable interface, very lightweight, useful 
> for research collaboration,
> - Skype/Zoom/Jitsi/Webex/... "Can you hear me? Yes? No? Did someone 
> enter/leave?". Recording screen/webcam and uploading video?
> - any other technical ideas?
>
>
> I was wondering: assuming there will be no presence-based-activities 
> in the semester, do we have any idea how to simulate group research 
> activities like the noon seminar or spontaneous discussions? I mean 
> teaching is doable and is already shaping up. One-on-one or small 
> group meetings are also doable via skype or such, but research may 
> suffer from lack of interaction. If it is too demanding to do an 
> actual noon seminar online, a modest proposal would be to use some 
> simple forum/wiki/whiteboard, where we could put short notes:
> "I've read paper ..., it is about ..., my take-away is ....."
> Could something like this be useful? Any thoughts/suggestions?
>
> Best regards,
> Laszlo
>
> _______________________________________________
> agti-Mittagsseminar mailing list
> agti-Mittagsseminar@lists.fu-berlin.de
> https://lists.fu-berlin.de/listinfo/agti-mittagsseminar