Ancients and Zoom

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by dougsmit, Apr 2, 2020.

  1. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    I would enjoy hearing from anyone with experience or interest in discussing ancient coins (not modern) on Zoom. Please contact me by Coin Talk Private Conversation. I am particularly interested in hearing about measures you employ regarding security an privacy concerns.
     
  2. Avatar

    Guest User Guest



    to hide this ad.
  3. Ryro

    Ryro Trying to remove supporter status

    I’m intrigued to understand the concept. Using zoom to do what with ancients?
    I used zoom recently while at working discussing with a college. I’m used to skype, webex etc.
    Is this some cool way to show off coins that I don’t know about?!:woot:
     
  4. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    Deacon Ray and rrdenarius like this.
  5. Cucumbor

    Cucumbor Well-Known Member

    I've used Zoom only once for a distance meeting with colleagues. I felt it handy and simple, but have no more experience of it. The image was fine and the sound OK
    It should work fine for the purpose

    Q
     
  6. ancient coin hunter

    ancient coin hunter 3rd Century Usurper

    I've used it a couple of times. My mom uses it all the time for her political activist meetings.
     
    svessien likes this.
  7. AncientJoe

    AncientJoe Well-Known Member

    Some of the "Zoom is malware" reporting is overblown: it requires you to click a specially crafted malicious link within a Zoom chat. Their encryption isn't fully end-to-end but this isn't a major issue for normal users, especially when using it from home.

    There is an issue at the moment with some meetings not being password protected and therefore allowing arbitrary people to join but as long as you set a password and chat with people you know, you're safe.

    (Source: I work in the cybersecurity industry)
     
  8. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    I have decided that I, at my level of knowledge, will not be organizing or 'hosting' Zoom activity quite yet but will leave that to others who feel comfortable with the concept. I will be interested in what comes of all the negative press they are getting now. I am more attracted to the idea of 1 on 1 meetings than on hosting a large group but both my wife and daughter have uses for it with groups for their purposes. I will be paying more attention to their experiences and try to learn how to use it. Thanks to all who posted here and all who sent me Conversations.
     
  9. FitzNigel

    FitzNigel Medievalist

    I am happy to host - if we had a large group, we just might need to establish some ground rules so it is not overbearing.
     
    dougsmit likes this.
  10. hotwheelsearl

    hotwheelsearl Well-Known Member

    Back in college I used zoom once or twice for an online class. The mandatory discussions required you to login to zoom and talk to others. It was convenient, that's for sure.
     
  11. pprp

    pprp Well-Known Member

    And the easiest way to get access to the sought data is sometimes stealing the physical records or physically abusing the data curator. Cyber security is very important as long as you have your ass covered all ways
    o_O
     
    AncientJoe likes this.
  12. Clavdivs

    Clavdivs Well-Known Member

    Just do not use the default security settings with Zoom. You can harden it down with strong access passwords and only share with those you want to join and you will be fine (for our purposes).
    If anyone sets up an ancient coin related discussion I would be happy to join.
     
    Justin Lee likes this.
  13. Gavin Richardson

    Gavin Richardson Well-Known Member

    Had a virtual poetry reading with my intro to lit students this morning via zoom. I’ve taught Sunday school class for the past two Sundays using it. Had a couple of other sessions with my students using it. It works very well, in my experience, with about 15 people. More than that and it gets unwieldy. Works better with gallery view on a laptop or desktop than on a phone, where you can see only about four people at a time.

    You’ll need Zoom loaded on a webcam-equipped desktop/laptop or smartphone.

    Zoom for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=us.zoom.videomeetings

    Zoom for iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zoom-cloud-meetings/id546505307

    Basically the host initiates a meeting. Then he or she will have to send an invitation email to all people who might want to participate. The recipients then click on the link in the email and they should be in.
     
    Justin Lee likes this.
  14. Alegandron

    Alegandron "ΤΩΙ ΚΡΑΤΙΣΤΩΙ..." ΜΕΓΑΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ, June 323 BCE

    I have used Skype for several years, both for business and for personal. It was a good platform to chat globally at several locations. We chatted either by voice, or visually. I was involved with facilities all over Europe, the Americas, and Asia. It was nice to get us together to coordinate projects, download files, do some show-and-tell, etc.

    I found that texts, email, and faxes were antiseptic, and did not fully communicate. If there were issues needing clarity in real-time, audio-visual contact via Skype (or a similar medium), was next-best to everyone flying to a location and meeting face-to-face. I usually kept my side MUTE until I needed to jump in. It kept the over-talking to a minimum.

    Of, course, I used to hold many of my meetings, sometimes even the online ones, with everyone standing. It encouraged folks to get to the point, stay on-point, and significantly lessened the meeting times. :)

    It is also fun to Apple FaceTime with my Grandkids on my iPhone.


    upload_2020-4-3_17-40-42.png
    THRACE Chersonesos
    Æ10 1.0g 386-309 BCE
    Roaring lion head -
    Star of five rays
    SNG BM Black Sea 726 SNG Stancomb 463
     
    Last edited: Apr 3, 2020
    Bing, rrdenarius and Justin Lee like this.
  15. red_spork

    red_spork Triumvir monetalis

    I've used Google Hangouts for a while, both at work but also occasionally for discussions with friends. More recently I've been using it to have virtual beers with a group of friends I used to meet up with at the bar each week. I've never had any issues with it honestly. For security you do need to keep the links private, but this is relatively easy, and we've had no problem just sending out the "magic link" that lets you join the meeting a few minutes ahead of time each week.
     
  16. Ed Snible

    Ed Snible Well-Known Member

    I ran Zoom and WebEx for many years with my software teams and now use them for my coin clubs.

    In the last few weeks I have run two coin club meetings by WebEx and attended two by Zoom.

    Several of my older club members don't have computers. They claim to really appreciate that video conference systems let them join without a computer by telephone. Both of them live alone and are nervous about socializing because they are old and we live in the New York Metro Area. It is best if these folks are encouraged to talk, even if they can't show coins.

    Holding coins up to the laptop camera does not work. The coins are illegible. I have tried sharing with a USB microscope and the coins are visible but the magnification is too great. It is also too slow.

    Sharing coins is best done with the "share screen" feature of Zoom/WebEx. Most new users have a hard time finding the button SHARE SCREEN. I have been sending out a picture of the controls with labels.

    Nearly everyone has photos of at least some of their collections. For users without photos, the "slab verification" feature of NGC, NGC Ancients, and PCGS has decent pictures. So everyone can show something.

    PowerPoint works the best. When folks are trying to double click on a folder full of icons they don't realize how slow and boring it is. PowerPoint makes it easy to flip through pictures and add text. The folks who have spoken at coin clubs often have this skill and something ready to go for the first meeting.

    If people are showing exhibits don't drag them out. Most collectors are bored stiff of coins outside their own favorite speciality unless the coins are extremely valuable. So if you don't have valuable coins, only show a few, especially if you have more than 10 folks in your club!

    I don't know how it is in your town. Here in NYC we are mostly sheltering-in-place. Everyone who has been to the meetings I have attended has seemed to really appreciate having the virtual club, seeing each others' faces and hearing their voices.

    Last I was on a Zoom meeting hosted by a candidate for US Congress. He was interviewing a doctor about Coronavirus resources in southern Westchester County. People are dying here. About 20 minutes in someone showed up and started presenting hardcore pornography. The host kicked him off, but then a dozen school children showed up and another pornographer. The candidate shut down the meeting because his tech guy didn't know how to use the Zoom host controls. This "Zoom Bombing" was in the news the next day. It is the new annoyance of the age..

    For that kind of security there are some basic steps to "lock" the meeting with a waiting room.

    lock-zoom.png

    If the meeting is "locked" the host has to explicitly let people in. Attendees see a screen that says "you will enter the meeting when someone lets you in" until the host brings them in. At the club last night the meeting was initially open but locked after 15 minutes.

    Tomorrow I will attended a Zoom presentation by the American Numismatic Society on coins of Antony and Cleopatra. This will be the first presentation by them I will attend virtually. I have attended these in person, which were formerly open to all with a fee for the included lunch. Tomorrow's is only open to ANS members. (If anyone is interested I can report how it went here.)
     
  17. Gavin Richardson

    Gavin Richardson Well-Known Member

    Ed, I wish I could like this post 1000 times. I'm getting inundated by tech info by our IT. This simple graphic gives me all I need to know. I've sent it to my teaching colleagues. Hope that's ok.
     
    Nicholas Molinari and Ed Snible like this.
  18. randygeki

    randygeki Coin Collector

    Just be mindful that the camera is on and don't take it to the bathroom. There's a very funny work meeting online where some lady did that.
     
  19. Ed Snible

    Ed Snible Well-Known Member

    I didn't mean to be a conversation killer.

    Doug, did your club ever start doing Zoom meetings? Is anyone elses' ancient coin club doing Zoom meetings?
     
  20. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    My only Zoom is a church group.
     
  21. Barney Dale

    Barney Dale New Member

    Hi. My name is Barney Dale, and I put together a collection of ancient Roman and Greek coins back in the early 1960's and I am now looking to sell the coins individually or in groups. Many of the coins are small Greco-Roman city state coins. Do you or anyone else have any suggestions as to the best way to sell these would be.
    Thanks
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page