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Gather.town is an online virtual communication space where users control video/audio‐enabled avatars (with chunky, 1980s graphics!) in a conference centre environment.
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QUICK LINKS:
UKCEH2 (no guest list: this space is open to all) The Hydro-JULES Centre (please email Toby your login email (use tobmar * at * ceh.ac.uk) so that I can grant you access to this space). This space was used successfully for the Hydro-JULES Quarterly Teams Meeting on 4th March 2021. |
ACCESSING GATHER IN TWO STEPS:
1. Create a profile by putting an email address into here, whereupon Gather will send you a 'magic link' and you can choose an 'avatar' (i.e. the character you will appear as in the conference).
If that magic link does not arrive within a few minutes, please check your spam folder, but it's also possible that your institution has not yet whitelisted their email address (login * at * mail.gather.town) and you may need to request this (e.g. I had to request this for all UKCEH and BGS emails in Feb 2021). n.b. if you prefer to use a personal email rather than a work email at this point, then that should work fine too.
Please note that there is no password for logging in: you just request a new magic link every time. You should be able to use Gather.town equivalently in your browser or as a Desktop app.
2. Once you have a profile set up, close any Zoom/Skype windows you may have open (Gather needs exclusive access to your camera and microphone) and then click on one of the QUICK LINKS top right and you're in!
1. Create a profile by putting an email address into here, whereupon Gather will send you a 'magic link' and you can choose an 'avatar' (i.e. the character you will appear as in the conference).
If that magic link does not arrive within a few minutes, please check your spam folder, but it's also possible that your institution has not yet whitelisted their email address (login * at * mail.gather.town) and you may need to request this (e.g. I had to request this for all UKCEH and BGS emails in Feb 2021). n.b. if you prefer to use a personal email rather than a work email at this point, then that should work fine too.
Please note that there is no password for logging in: you just request a new magic link every time. You should be able to use Gather.town equivalently in your browser or as a Desktop app.
2. Once you have a profile set up, close any Zoom/Skype windows you may have open (Gather needs exclusive access to your camera and microphone) and then click on one of the QUICK LINKS top right and you're in!
Extra info
I have been inspired to experiment with this platform because of its success during the 2020 Ameriflux meeting.
I have been inspired to experiment with this platform because of its success during the 2020 Ameriflux meeting.
- Gather.town was designed by a team at MIT.
- If you want to try a demo without making a profile or signing up, go to gather.town and click on "Try out the demo".
- I found this video useful: it is a 6 min video that I thought was a very clear and visual way of seeing how the video platform works (the video is not by Gather: it's actually by MCB Recruitment in Seattle and shows Gather.town being used for a recruitment process).
- There are many alternatives to gather.town nowadays (e.g. see 14 here and others here).