Earlier today I tried something new: a 30-minute training session using a Google+ Hangout (with extras). The extras include screen-sharing, so I was able to show ten others some tips and tricks about SSIS Scripting.
I had a blast!
Community-Inspired
This all grew from an idea bounced around on a test of the new features of Google+ Hangouts conducted less than 24 hours ago. Grant Fritchey (Blog | @GFritchey | SQLPeople) and I bounced the idea around and within a few minutes we had a plan and a name for it: MicroTraining. You can read more about the inception of the idea here.
Not everyone who wanted in got in. There’s a 10-person limit on Hangouts. I can control who sees the Hangout when it starts by leveraging Circles – a group of people with whom I share information via Google+ (hence the reference in this post’s title…). Google promises more features soon, including the ability to record these sessions.
To the Cloud!
This is another example of the way the cloud is changing things. As I mentioned in The Sky Is Falling, the cloud is a game-changer. Perhaps one of the attendees of today’s MicroTraining session will put some of what they learned into use as early as today. No one traveled, everyone was either home or in their office (as far as I know). The ratio of away-from-other-tasks-time to training-time was almost 1:1, with perhaps a minute or two spent setting up this first session. High impact, low disruption, efficient. In other words, game-changing.
Conclusion
Will I do more? You bet I will!
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Andy,
Have you tried JoinMe? They allow up to 250 participants. If you use the Pro (pay) version for $19/month or $149/year, you get a conference line that includes international calls.
~Mike
Had to reschedule mine for 11:00 today. I’ll put up a blog post to let you know how hit goes too.
Looks like your first was a booming success. Well done.