The CGSE Launch Event - Feedback!

Thanks to everyone who joined in the CGSE launch chat last night!! We saw lots of people from all over the world participate, which is great!

Here are our initial thoughts:

On the platform

Skype certainly has a high international penetration, which is great for a project like this; however, there are a few functionality issues that we’re going to speak with them about.

Would like to see a more dynamic search functionality on Skype – so that once you search for #CGSE, you can not only see who else is participating, but whether or not they are online/want to chat.  The search results also limit how much information you can see.  For example, the name box cuts off some users’ company name, so we’d like to see more room there.  You can click on the information icon (the blue circle with an “i”) to see participants’ full names (complete with city code and company name).

It would be great if you could create lists on Skype, to organize your friends – better yet, create a CGSE channel.  Will keep you posted on any progress with this!

On the experience

We were excited before the launch last night, but now we’re really excited!  It’s clear that the CGSE has huge potential and thanks again to everyone who signed in last night! 

The Creative Global Social Experiment

A few notes on the experience, based on our conversations and some initial user feedback.

The success of the CGSE will greatly depend on our members to take the initial step of connecting with other CGSE participants.

As the event organizer, I added everyone with a #CGSE name and messaged them.  While not everyone was online, I was really pleased with how many people have already updated their status!   I spoke with people from New York, Amsterdam, Marseilles, Los Angeles and Toronto within 40 minutes.

Video chatting with strangers was a little weird at first, but after a minute or so you realize it’s the same thing as meeting someone new in a meeting, group, etc. 

There was one recurring comparison between Chatroulette and the CGSE, with CGSE being “like Chatroulette, but minus the pen…”  Indeed, we see the CGSE as a much more targeted, professional communication tool than Chatroulette (but are wildly impressed with Andrey Ternovskiy, the 17-year-old student behind the project)!

If you had trouble changing your name or searching for other CGSE participants, make sure you're using the most current version of Skype (update)!

Next Steps

Next steps for the CGSE are to continue signing in and reaching out to other members of the creative community.  We’re receiving lots of messages everyday from people who have discovered the project and want to participate, which is great! 

We would also love your feedback on timings.  Right now, we’re thinking of having the CGSE be a continuous project with “events” every week, to encourage more targeted participation and discussion topics.

It has also been suggested that we have themed-chats (CP+B-styles), so stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, please do keep signing in and reaching out to other members, as well as sharing the project on your social networks.  And as always, suggestions, feedback and chocolate are welcome  J

Cheers,

Jackie @sosticky & @theCGSE