Virtual Lightning Talks

One of the highlights of the Code4Lib annual meeting is the “lightning talk” rounds. A lightning talk is a fast-paced 5 minute talk on a topic of the presenter’s choosing. They are usually scheduled on an ad-hoc, first-come-first-served basis on the day of the event. They are an opportunity to provide a platform for someone who is just getting started with public speaking, who wants to ask a question or invite people to help with a project, or for someone to boast about something he or she did or tell a short cautionary story. These things are all interesting and worth talking about, but there might not be enough to say about them to fill up a full session timeslot.

“Virtual Lightning Talks” replicates this conference activity online in a virtual meeting environment. Each one-hour block consists of 10 six-minute sessions (one minute for the presenter to take control of the virtual meeting environment and test audio followed by a five minute presentation). Presenters show their work by sharing their entire desktop; the presentation can consist of slides, web browser, command-line shell, or any other application that can be shown on the desktop.

Code4Lib Virtual Lightning Talks is using the Saba Centra webinar platform (Java-based, multi-platform) through LYRASIS.

• Check out the minimum configuration guidelines and system test page for the webinar software.
• Questions and comments relevant to the presentation (e.g. for the speaker) go in the conferencing tool's chat window. Side comments and snark go in the IRC channel.
• The event will be recorded for later viewing.

The webinar platform supports desktop sharing by Mac, Linux, and Windows servers. Centra offers to options to join a conference: desktop-based and browser-based. To share your desktop, you must join the conference using the desktop software.

Technical Requirements: Minimum configurations for Mac, Linux and Windows are on the system test page. In addition, the conference will use Voice-over-IP (VoIP), so you must have a microphone to present (and preferably a headset to eliminate echo).

Prior to the webinar: Download and install the Centra desktop software. Versions are available for Mac, Linux, and Windows. After installing the client, run the Centra system test to verify connectivity.

At the start of the webinar: Follow the link to the event and enter your e-mail address into the form. You must select "Launch on Desktop" to open the Centra desktop client.

• The webinar software will open 30 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. If you want to have extra time to test the system and get ready for your presentation, sign in during this 30 minute window.
• Your screen resolution must be 1280 by 768 or less.
• If you have more than one screen/monitor, disable all screens but one. (The software will share all of your screens as one large desktop, making it hard for people to follow.)

April 29, 2011 at 1:00pm Eastern U.S. Daylight Time (see this time in your local timezone). Webinar link (After sending out a tweet on April 8th, I noticed that there were only 6 presenter slot signups, which is only 36 minutes. I increased it to 9.)

Presenter Signup

Participant Signup