This is a very big game changer

Some tv news outlets have already been experimenting with Hangouts:

As a podcaster, this immediately brings to mind a live studio audience. Those in your Hangout and, say, a twitter back channel.

My friend and fellow podcaster, Dr. Vibe and I immediately jumped on trying things out as soon as we heard On Air was available to everyone.

So how does it work?

Naturally, you’ll need to have a YouTube account. For branded pages, I recommend a separate YouTube account. Please note that in order to have a recording of your hangout, you’ll need to verify your YouTube account via SMS, a one-time process.

When you start a hangout, you’ll see a new option allowing you to “Enable Hangouts On Air”.

Click it and once your Hangout window appears, you’ll notice something new at the top. Broadcast URLs for you to share and code to embed on the left of a big, red button to start the broadcast.

Users get an eye catching notice before entering a Hangout that’s being broadcast. Note that users need to explicitly agree before being able to join. Nice touch, Google!

Curiously, we were able to broadcast our Hangout via the embed link on Dr. Vibe’s website without pressing the Start Broadcast button. Mind you, his site is hosted on wordpress.com and the page was in draft mode. We didn’t have a chance to test further to see if this is a bug or a very thoughtful Ux feature by Google.

I can’t wait to get started with my own Hangouts On Air for Stutter Social and beyond!

Enticed to give a Hangout a try? With six months of Hangout participating and host experience with Stutter Social under my belt, I’m sharing my best practices of hanging out.

1. Turn off TVs, radios and other noise makers in the room

Google engineers did a great job at filtering out background noise coming from each Hangout participant. However, it can’t filter out the tv in the background, other people in the room and those police sirens blaring through your window. As a curtesy to your Hangout mates, please ensure you’re in a quiet room.

2. Adjust yourself before entering the hangout

We first see our own video when we are about to enter a hangout. This way, we can adjust our hair and such before entering.

However, some users forget to adjust the location of their laptops. If you’re on your laptop and are using your internal mic but need to move your laptop around, please do so before entering. Your laptop’s internal mic picks up the noise of the moving around that you don’t hear on your end. It’s really loud in our ears at our end since we’re using headsets or earbuds.

Mute your mic (and video would be good, too) if you need to adjust your laptop during a hangout.

3. Turn off your mic and/or video when speaking to a family member

We have the ability to turn our mics and web cams off right in G+ Hangouts. This is a good thing because microphones are pretty good at picking up distant sounds. This means that, yes, we can still hear your conversation going on in another room when you’ve stepped away from your computer. While we may not be able to make out words, it’s extremely distracting and uncomfortable to be able to listen in on private conversations.

If you need to leave for a while, consider leaving the Hangout and returning when you’re able to. G+ Hangouts have a maximum of ten participants and you can free up a space if your Hangout is full.

4. Not everyone has the same equipment as you

Keep in mind that not everyone is able to produce clear sound or video. Perhaps they are using their internal mic, or a very cheap microphone or a logging in at night in a dark room. Maybe they just can’t go to another room. If this happens to you, please consider making some changes as it will improve the Hangout experience for you and your Hangout mates.

5. Explain why you’re muting other participants

Sometimes people don’t realize there’s noise coming from their end. Or they have no control over eliminating it.

A feature of G+ Hangouts is all participants are able to mute each other (we are also able to unmute ourselves so don’t try to use it as a punishment feature) . If you need to mute someone, please explain to them why. And don’t forget to mention that hey can unmute themselves every time they speak.

6. People pop in and out of Hangouts

Don’t take it personally. It’s either a hardware issue on their end, their Internet access isn’t fast enough to handle everyone’s video streams or their schedule simply ran out.

People who keep popping in and out within a second or two are those with slower Internet speeds. Check out G+’s technical recommendations.

7. G+ page admins show up under the name of the G+ name

I am identified as Stutter Social as I host Stutter Social Hangouts started via the Stutter Social G+ page. In fact, everyone else listed as admins of the page are also identified as Stutter Social. This can get confusing in the text chat rooms. When this happens to you, be sure to identify who is doing the typing.

8. Speaking of text chat, first timers don’t see it

G+ Hangouts have a text chat feature. This is great for welcoming newcomers who arrived in the middle of someone speaking. It’s also great. For quick side conversations. Keep in mind that these side conversations can become quite distracting from the video conversations so try to keep them a a minimum. Remember, no matter what corporate life claims, humans were never made to multitask.

9. Get accustomed to repeating simple instructions

Participants may not even be aware of the text chat feature nor the button on the top left corner to open the room. Participants may not know how to adjust their settings. As people pop in and out of Hangouts, be patient as you need to explain (or hear someone else explain) how to work their way around the place.

Since G+ doesn’t have a private text chat feature (a good thing in my opinion), you can help trouble shoot offline or point them to a link or two. G+ has some great help pages for Hangouts.

10. Sometimes a user will not see another user’s video

Hangouts are still in beta so there are some bugs and knickknacks that still need working out. Remember, the Goole servers and your computer are trying to process all that video and audio filtering and syncing.

The problem could also be on your end so do make sure all is working on your end first. You wouldn’t want to miss out on the full Hangout experience assuming the fault rests with Google.

11. Be respectful of everyone

I really don’t need to mention this, however, we also have the ability to block someone in a G+ Hangout. Be aware that if only one person participating in a Hangout even accidentally blocks someone (it has happened), that someone won’t be able to come back in. Even if 8 out of the other 9 participants don’t have that someone blocked. So use this feature with great caution.

Especially since its so close to the mute button.

Even if you don’t have the need for “yet another” social network (seriously, G+ kicks Facebook any day. If only all my friends would jump ship), G+ Hangouts offer a great opportunity to connect with other people who share similar interests via video conferencing.

I feel this is a much more natural way that us humans were made to interact with each other. While nothing will never, ever beat meeting in person and it’s a welcomed change from forum trolls and text-on-screen lacking emotional context and tone.

Up to ten people can participate in a Hangout. And it doesn’t at all get confusing. You know when someone is done speaking and the Google user experience designers did a great job at making it easy for people not to speak over each other.

You have a main view area and small thumbnails of everyone in the Hangout. The thumbnails are video! Not a static image of someone on a beach or someone’s wedding photo.

The main view area simply shows you the video of whoever is currently speaking. It automatically switches to the next person who speaks.

It is such a seamless experience that a few times I forget I’m in front of a screen and I point to people or point my face towards someone’s thumbnail as if we were all sitting at a restaurant table!

And of course, being able to put an actual live face to Hangout participants makes everyone more approachable and easier to establish friendships.

How much does it cost to use this?

NOTHING! It’s totally FREE (hear that Skype?). And it’s ridiculously easy to use. Any G+ user can start a Hangout as well as a branded G+ page. The New York Times hosts panel discussions, several television media outlets use Hangouts during their broadcasts and – full disclosure – I’m the co-founder of Stutter Social, an online community turned organization which uses G+ Hangouts to create online support groups for people who stutter.

I’ve seen lists of prolific bloggers, professional organizations and musicians making use of Hangouts. Heck even cooking demos!

Hangouts perfected online collaboration

My Stutter Social team mates live all over the world. Naturally, we use Hangouts for our meetings. We’re able to collaborate on a document using Google Docs (now “Drive“) right in a Hangout. Instant collaboration by all members.

Other applications you can use include screensharing, drawing tools, SlideShare, YouTube, games and more.

So yeah, I’m definitely a fan(boy) of G+ Hangouts

Anyone with a gmail account automatically has a G+ account. Log into gmail, look at the top left corner in the black bar, see your name with a plus sign in front of it? Click it. You’re now in Google Plus.

Great interface, eh? My eyes love it and thank the designers profusely.

There are two ways to find Hangouts to try out. Click the Hangouts button on the left menu and on the right side you’ll see a list of all your contacts who are currently in a Hangout. Simply choose the Hangout you’d like to join.

The other way is via a nifty plug-in for Google Chrome named Hangout Canopy. It lists all the Hangouts currently going on.

You can even invite people into a Hangout by TELEPHONE. It’s free for U.S. and Canadian phone numbers.

You can also participate in Hangouts on your smartphones and tablets. We’ve had someone join us on Stutter Social while riding the bus home. Co-founder, David Resnick, connected via his iPhone to give a tour of a venue where he was about to play in a concert.

And this is only the beginning. The Google engineers have been working closely with users gathering feature wish lists, bug reports and even hanging out with us.

One particular feature I cannot wait for is Hangouts On Air. Currently in invite only exclusive beta, this gives us the option to broadcast our Hangouts on YouTube. This, my friends, will open up A LOT of opportunities.

edit: Google announced the public roll out of Hangouts On Air a day after I posted this! Woo hoo!

I can’t yet mention what I or my Stutter Social team have up our sleeves but watch this space!

I’ll talk about best practices when participating in a G+ Hangout in my next blog post.

I was interviewed by The Globe and Mail to talk about my latest digital venture, Stutter Social, an online virtual support group using Google Plus Hangouts. Read more about it in this blog post.

Journalist, Wency Leung, did an excellent job at telling the Stutter Social story. And interviewed two Stutter Social regulars further raising awareness for reader about how socially awkward stuttering can be.

I’m so happy to be part of something that is helping people and is a feel-good social media story!

I’ll be giving a session once again this year at PodCamp Toronto! Actually, I’ll be co-presenting with my friend and PodCamp Toronto co-organizer and community management team member, Dr. Vibe of The Vibe and Vegas Show.

Entitled, “Empowering and Enlightening Communities with Digital Media“, we will be talking about how digital media tools are being used to empower and enlighten non-mainstream communities. I’ll be representing my stuttering community via case studies of my podcast, Stuttering is Cool and online support group that I co-founded, Stutter Social, while Dr. Vibe will represent his community of Canadian black men and his award winning blog and podcast, The Vibe and Vegas Show.

In addition to podcasting, we will talk about how Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus Hangout brought each of us success stories and our new exploration into, yes, Pinterest.

Listen to our presentation live Saturday, February 25th at 11:45 a.m. Via the widget at the top of this page. If you missed it, don’t worry – it’s archived! Just press play.

It’s too bad the iPad doesn’t take very good photos indoors. But that still doesn’t take away my excitement of being interviewed on CBC Radio One’s superb afternoon drive program, Here and Now hosted by Laura Di Battista last night!

We chatted about my latest digital venture, Stutter Social, how social media tools are useful for support groups, The King’s Speech, and what’s it like to grow up stuttering. Best of all, I also had the chance to debunk a few common stuttering misconceptions and spread a little awareness. The host also mentioned my podcast!

It was quite thrilling to come into the studio and chat for 7 minutes (that’s a long time for radio!). Of course, I was nervous but once I was on the air, I was completely at ease and happy to stutter in front of CBC Radio One’s listening audience :) Much thanks to Laura Di Battista for making me feel totally comfortable. She’s a great interviewer.

It was also cool to see Jim Curran sitting beside me reporting on Toronto’s rush hour traffic. It was great to be able to put a face on the voice I heard many, many times as I listened to Hear And Now over the years.

To my delight, my interview is archived on the Here And Now website on it’s own page called, naturally, Stutter Social.

Related reading: I was interviewed on CBC Radio

While I love this idea and think it’s perfectly the right direction for any television studio or network to go, I can’t help thinking about rural Canada’s under served Internet service. It’s 2012 now and there are lots of places in Canada still using dial-up because the monopolies deem it too expensive to bring broadband. Even where I live —a hop, skip and jump away from Toronto— I can only get 3Mbps on a good day.

However, fortunately, digital media doesn’t only mean live streaming Hockey Night In Canada. There is a wealth of possibilities to take advantage of: apps, games, video digest clips, buffers, you name it (but proper broadband would be nice).

This idea of CBC TV going totally digital reminds me alot of the Al-Jazeera English channel’s use of Youtube to connect with viewers (started up by a former CBC head honcho). Particularly, their show, The Stream.

CBC Radio has done a great job in embracing digital media in recent years. From posting videos of their radio shows like Q to fully integrating social media like my favourite show, Spark.

The video above is part of a national, grassroots campaign of CBC TV fans brainstorming ideas.

Stutter Social is a new organization I recently co-founded with my friend, David Resnick. It connects our fellow stutterers all over the world through group video chats. Using Google Plus.

Why would we want to do that? Because it’s often difficult to meet other people who stutter in your geographical area so you end up facing your unique social challenge alone. It is said that only 1% of the population stutters. We are faced with many prejudices including bullying at school, losing job interviews and worse of all, stuttering is misunderstood as a character flaw. Science continues to prove that it is neurologically based.

So meeting other stutterers online is the next best thing! In fact, that is our goal with Stutter Social. To spread the message of the National Stuttering Association – if you stutter, you’re not alone.

Why Google+?

We decided to use Google+ Hangouts because it’s free to use, pretty easy to use and a lot more stable than Skype. When David, myself or our other Hangout hosts starts a chat, we post the link to the Stutter Social Google+ page. As well as the Stutter Social Facebook page, Twitter account and right on the Stutter Social website homepage via a great big green button. You can’t miss it.

We host three to four Hangouts per week right now and momentum is growing to include more in timezones around the world (stuttering is taboo in some geographical locations while others do not even have speech therapists!). On average we get about five to nine people hanging out at one time and our Hangouts last about 2 hours. Sometimes longer! Topics of conversation include stuttering, of course, our experiences and off topic stuff like, well, whatever happens to be on our minds at the time!

Hangout Hopping and going viral

Thanks to a brilliant Chrome plugin named Hangout Canopy, which allows users to go “Hangout Hopping”, Stutter Social even played a role in spreading awareness about stuttering. In fact, one night, David suddenly found himself educating a large number of Hangout Hoppers. The next day – blog posts about our unique use of Google+ Hangouts started popping up in G+ Streams. Such as this article written by Peter McDermott. And David being interviewed on Sarah Hill’s KOMU News program.

New website

Initially, we used Google Sites to host the Stutter Social website. But as momentum and media attention grew, we knew it was time for a new home for our organization. As creative director, I designed the new Stutter Social website with a simple user interface consisting of only need-to-know information up front and center to bring users to our Hangouts as quickly as possible. Or to find future Hangouts via an embedded Google Calendar.

David and I really like using Google+ Hangouts for Stutter Social and now with the arrival of “Hangout with extras“, we have a few more features to engage participants.

David and I chatted about Stutter Social on a recent episode of my podcast, Stuttering is Cool. You can also listen to a few snippets of typical conversations in our Hangouts.

Stutterer or not, I hope to see you in a future Stutter Social Hangout. I’d also love to hear how you are using Google+ Hangouts in unique ways. Please share your story in the comment section below.

I drew and posted this comic on my graphic blog after suffering from a bout of social media information overload.

I created a four-part series over at my graphic blog teaching a little bit about the similarities of the telegraph and today’s Internet. It’s inspired by the book, The Victorian Internet, and it “takes place” in a fictional version of PodCamp and PAB called, well, TelegraphCamp.