A small number of tickets are still available for the seminar this coming Saturday (12 March 2011), 5,000 Years of Tradition: mudbrick architecture ancient and modern, which will be led by Dr Jeffrey Spencer, Maria Correas and Caroline Simpson. For further information or to book your place please visit http://www.ees.ac.uk/events/index/54.html
In addition, technology permitting* we are planning to broadcast this event live online via a channel created using the USTREAM platform:http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ees-events
Side view of the remaining wall of the old Shenhur mosque. Photo by Maria Correas. Further info:www.ees.ac.uk/news/index/85.html
Those of you who have been members for a few years or more will have noticed (we hope) that among the many changes the Society has undergone recently, we have tried to improve our output in two ways in particular: firstly by arranging more lectures, seminars and other events than ever before and secondly by improving the range and quantity of EES news and related content online. Our aim in doing this has been to improve the experience of being a member by keeping you better informed of the full range of EES activities, and providing you with more first-rate Egyptology than you would have had access to previously.
There is always room for improvement however, and one concern which we have wanted to address for some time is drawn to our attention with just about every new event we advertise. A typical response to the announcement of a new study day or seminar reads as follows: ‘this looks wonderful, I wish I could attend but I live overseas. Is there any way you could make it available online?’
For some time we have been considering how best to do this. One of most successful elements of the programme of the last couple of years has been the seminars held at Doughty Mews. We can only accommodate a very limited number of members at these events and tickets usually sell out. However, the limit on numbers makes for a more intimate atmosphere; the experts invited to give these seminars are encouraged to involve the audience in discussion and, as anyone who has been to one these events will attest, the invitation is usually taken up with great enthusiasm! We have been asking ourselves how we can take the vital elements of our successful seminar series and combine them with the communications channels provided by the web to create an event that members anywhere in the world can participate in? As a response to this challenge we will be testing the possibility of reaching new audiences online by broadcasting certain events via the web.
The first of our events to receive this treatment will be the forthcoming seminar mentioned above 5,000 Years of Tradition: mudbrick architecture ancient and modern.The event will be broadcast via the Society’s page at USTREAM, an online platform for broadcasting, watching, sharing and discussing live events.
To watch the event please tune in to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ees-events at 11.00 am GMT.
The Society's broadcast channel at USTREAM.
We are hoping not only that you will join us to watch the event but that you will contribute to it as well! USTREAM provides the facility for you to post comments and questions while the ‘show’ is on air making it a truly interactive experience; we strongly encourage you to contribute in this way and will, if possible, relay your comments and questions to our speakers so that they can respond during the broadcast.
To post your comments you will need to be logged into one or more of the most popular social networking communities, specifically Twitter, Facebook, AIM or MySpace, or to USTREAM. Simply click the icon for whichever of these suits you best to log-in (at right on the USTREAM page - see below); if you don’t yet have an account with any of these communities you can sign up by following the links above. We recommend Twitter and Facebook as the Society already uses these platforms to spread the word about our work (see the links on our homepage)!
Comments and questions can be posted during the broadcast via the box at the right of the USTREAM page.
We believe that the best way to partake in EES events remains to attend in person, not least as it provides the best opportunity for us to put you, our members and other supporters, in direct contact with the experts (such as Professor Kenneth Kitchen - see below), and we hope to see more and more you of you at our seminars and other events in future. Nonetheless, we are very excited about the possibilities offered by online broadcasting and hoping this will allow us to reach a wider and more global audience than ever before!
Professor Kenneth Kitchen chats to members after his seminar, Exciting Near Eastern Adventure(r)s Abroad in North and South, on 26 February 2011. For more photos see here.
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*Please note that a good internet connection is required to view live events. A standard broadband connection (2mbps per second or higher) should suffice. Furthermore, apps are available for viewing USTREAM on Apple iOS, Google Android and Windows Phone 7 mobile devices: http://www.ustream.tv/mobile/viewer