Audience Participation

[ChrisGammell]

Hey Guys and Gals,

I'm wondering how you guys would like to interact with the show. Do you think you'd show up when we usually are recording? (4-6 pm EST, 7-9 am Sydney time) Would there be some other way you'd like to interact with us? Do you think WotW is successful?

Appreciate any and all feedback/hatemail/whatever. Y'all are the reason the show has been fun, so we want to keep making it fun.

~Chris

[Strube09]

Wouldn't be able to participate at that time.

However I figure the WotW will wear out eventually... Maybe consider a "Project of the Week" to spice it up. People can submit pictures or videos and you guys can review them give them an "Atta boy" and maybe get their project some exposure.

Dave always says to get out there and do it... Well we have seen the benches... let’s see what these benches are producing.

Thanks
Strube

[Bored@Work]

I think WotW has already worn out. I can hardly remember an electronics forum that doesn't have a "show your workbench" discussion thread since ages.

[Uncle Vernon]

Thanks for the interest in feedback Chris.

Given the difficulties in timezones, work commitments etc, (You and Dave have enough difficulties coordinating as it is) could you consider a mailbox for written and/or recorded questions, topics for discussion etc, from listeners. You guys could pick a few creme of the crop listener items for discussion as time permits.  This would probably easier and would cater for a  much wider group of participants.

[Time]

could just start an amphour IRC channel

[mikeselectricstuff]

The problem with  any sort of realtime interaction is it's likely to be too distracting, and therefore disrupt the flow for other listeners. The realtime task of deciding which comments/messages are sufficiently interesting would probably be too hard to do without requiring a third party 'editor' to keep things smooth.

I suppose it might be feasible to gather commends during the show then comment on them at the end, but I think even that that without a little time to digest and filter, and I suppose you could edit out this time for the people that aren't listening in real time.

[Flavour Flave]

I reckon a live show could be really good. "TRIIII IT OOWWWWWT" as Dave might say it, see if it works. I assume most listeners to the show are quite savvy and mature so any contributions they make could be interesting. Like an interesting back story to WBOTW from the horses mouth.
From listening to your show I reckon you two could handle a live show easily and self edit on the fly. So "TRIIII IT OOWWWWWT!"
Please.

[ChrisGammell]

So something like a "design question dropbox" perhaps? Different than the "Suggestions" tab?


And the IRC thing would be easy enough, could just keep that running whenever.

[JohnS_AZ]

A few comments (IMHO) ...

From a listeners perspective, live audience participation is highly over rated. I recently changed which local news channel I watch because the old one was wasting too much time reading the tweets and facebook posts they received. That's -not- what I watch the news for. I watch Adafruits Ask an Engineer, and it's often quite awkward and 'stumbly' when they're trying to take live questions. A Q&A with questions being submitted on the site seems to me to be a good option.

WOTW: I still enjoy that segment, though sometimes I think they go on a bit long. I believe over time all of your core fans who are likely to submit one will have done so, and the segment may fade away naturally.

Project of the week (as suggested above) could be fun, but it could get a bit dicey. If someone submits a project that is poorly done, or is really just crap, are you going to say so?

IRC: An AmpHour IRC chat channel could be fun. I've taken to hanging out on the Savage Circuits chat and enjoy it a lot. Besides, it's nostalgic for me ... I met my wife on IRC about 14 years ago. :-)

[baljemmett]

IRC: An AmpHour IRC chat channel could be fun. I've taken to hanging out on the Savage Circuits chat and enjoy it a lot. Besides, it's nostalgic for me ... I met my wife on IRC about 14 years ago. :-)

You should drop by #eevblog on chat01.ustream.tv -- some weeks we even have a conversation! 

(It's the IRC channel that backends the chat applet on Dave's Live Show page; not sure if you need a ustream account to get voice.)

[JohnS_AZ]

You should drop by #eevblog on chat01.ustream.tv -- some weeks we even have a conversation! 

Okay, I'll squat on that channel for a while and see what it looks like.

[Uncle Vernon]

WOTW: I still enjoy that segment, though sometimes I think they go on a bit long. I believe over time all of your core fans who are likely to submit one will have done so, and the segment may fade away naturally.

Project of the week (as suggested above) could be fun, but it could get a bit dicey. If someone submits a project that is poorly done, or is really just crap, are you going to say so?

I'd tend to agree. I think the real danger is the OTW and the associated necessity to provide content. I'd prefer to see OTW changed to ON. With Workplace Of Note or Project Of Note we could assume that only the noteworthy stuff gets mention. You can still publish photo links of the stuff that doesn't make it to air.

I'd agree wholeheartedly with John's assertions about Twattle and Foolbook content, sorry world but most of it is just inane and not worth repeating. Sure quote the most witty and intelligent tweets but most is just a waste of keystrokes best left that way.

Sorry Dave and Chris, but while I'd encourage more participation from others I still believe the show's longevity will rely on your ability and time to source and edit out the most interesting content. Thus far you guys have been doing a pretty good job of that.

[EEVblog]

Sorry Dave and Chris, but while I'd encourage more participation from others I still believe the show's longevity will rely on your ability and time to source and edit out the most interesting content. Thus far you guys have been doing a pretty good job of that.

Since when have we been doing that?! 
We just rock up and talk about whatever.
We do a spreadsheet list of stuff for each week, but about 80% goes unused. Some weeks it's almost 30 minutes into the show before we get to anything on the list!

Dave.

[Uncle Vernon]

Sorry Dave and Chris, but while I'd encourage more participation from others I still believe the show's longevity will rely on your ability and time to source and edit out the most interesting content. Thus far you guys have been doing a pretty good job of that.

Since when have we been doing that?! 
We just rock up and talk about whatever.

Ah yes bet Subconscious Dave is far more organised and is keeping the less entertaining stuff away from the talk muscle command streams. 

[Jimmy]

You last ep 32 you spent time talking about crap and I loved it.

Should you do a live show?  NO

Should you do techinal stuff? NO     

Should you have more participation like an interview? If its interesting maybe

Should you do beginner stuff? NO

Should you add more jokes? YES the funner the better

I work in a mundane but interesting job. Sometimes I downlaod your MP3 and listen to it on an Ipod while fixing automated machines at work.  I think you guys have done a great job. I would love to hear more about new tech that is comming out that I can lookup and research later if interested when I am at my pc.

Dave does have a good sence and stops himself alot from continuing a rant which is good and I love your passion as it has got me more involved in doing more engineering and electronics stuff again.

Chris you said I should have looked this or that up before the show. Well I don't blame you for not doing it. I know you guys don't make a profit from what you do so who cares I was more anoyed that you bought up the fact you should have done more research.

[apex]

The Amp Hour is really great!

Some things you could improve:
- Could you make some breaks and play music in that time?
- Load more external guests, maybe a bit like ChaosRadio?
- Provide torrent downloads
- Talk about your recent projects
- Make more categories, maybe "Hack of the week" and "Company of the Week" (I know, some of these are already done in the shoutouts, but not all!)

Keep it going!

apex

[ExtremHybrid]

I love the WotW part of the show. I consider it inspiration for my own workbench. I also think it is a great way for people to insert themselves. It offers people a personal way to contribute to the AMP HOUR. Forums are great and all but this WotW is a really great section.

I agree with the arguments to discontinue it, because, I catch myself not being happy about not being able to look at the pictures at the same time you people talk about them.

BUT…i seriously and highly recommend, that you outsource the WotW part. Basically, you collect the entries and you add them into a gallery on the Website. On every show you can also use 1 or 2 min to update people on new entries. Only stating what ammount of people from where and what age and gender have submitted. That’s kind of a shoutout value and I bet people love to be named on the radio show!

So just for the naming value of it, I would suggest you keep WotW mentioning in your episodes, without the detail picture discriptions. ANd just outsource the actual pictures into a WotW gallery accessible via a tab on the Website.

I hope this idea comes into consideration becaue I LOVE WotW! And actually, I was planning on submitting myself, when I have my workbench overhauled.

I have the feeling the WotW section also inspires people to redo their workbench so they can present it. But every redo usually has also a productivity gain factgor in it. So if you inspire people to redo their Workbench and it helps them gain efficiency by employing the lessons learned with the old workbench design, then I think WotW is just out of that reason worth keeping!


I personaly would love to hear more about the industry. Having more people on the show GUESTs would be great.

More jokes, more rants!

Live shows? Hmm...no, not really...i cant imagine being online for that.

Please do not start doing Beginner stuff. I am myself not a highly experienced professional, and I certainly would gain from listening to simpler step-by-step topics. But I think the Amp Hour is more of a industry no-bullshit rant-for ever reality check-show!

I think other people can do the beginner stuff....it also leaves room for others to involve themselves.

Greetings from Germany,
- ExtremHybrid

[masterburner]

I figured it was time to register here, after more than a year of lurking around (been around the EEVblog sinds EP1. Same goes for the AH. Stupid "newbie" title...).

I like the amp hour the way it is: lots of on and off-topic rants, industry news, shoutouts...
I also enjoy WotW, because it's just great so see other people's work space. Yes, there are many other forums where people can show their workbench, but being on a radio show with 2 complete strangers discussing your workplace makes it even more interesting.

Please don't start doing anything too technical, because any interesting technical content is hard to clarify with just audio. Same goes for beginner stuff. Making something clear for a beginner, doesn't really work with just some explanation about it. And besides, there are tonnes of other resources for beginners stuff out there.

Audience participation sounds interesting, but please don't start inviting everyone who wants to say "hi" on the radio. It should be something related/interesting/ranty. I do like the idea of short interviews with other engineers or other people from "the industry".

I really like the amp hour the way it is. I enjoy listening to it in the bus/car/whatever, or at home when I'm blowing shit up, or taking stuff apart before turning it on.

Keep up the good work, Chris and Dave.