With social distancing in effect here in the UK and all pubs, bars, caf\u00e9s and restaurants closed for the foreseeable future, we need to find new ways to socialise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, Friday night saw the opening of the “Virtual Boozer”, with me in my Man Cave and my mates James, Pete and Phil all on a video conferencing link. I have to admit it was a little odd, but it worked… and, as we couldn’t meet in person, it was a good way to hook up – even if most of the conversation was COVID19\/Coronavirus-related.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ll admit the idea is not my own: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can\u2019t go to the pub, so our regular pub crew got the beers in and went on @zoom_us<\/a>. And… while it wasn\u2019t the real thing, it was lovely. #StayAtHome<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/HFkWIa32iO<\/a><\/p>\u2014 Sharon O’Dea (@sharonodea) March 19, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
So, how can you set up your own Virtual Boozer (a virtual pub for the lads – I should note that our more sophisticated female partners have asked for a virtual wine bar”)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I thought quite hard about the platform to use:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Facetime needs an Apple Device so that’s not inclusive. <\/li>
- I’ve trying to avoid Facebook. It’s toxic in so many ways.<\/li>
- WhatsApp is limited by the number of participants (yes, I know it’s owned by Facebook).<\/li>
- Zoom’s free tier is limited to 40 minutes.<\/li>
- I couldn’t work out if Google Hangouts is a dead product or not…<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
In the end, I went with Microsoft Teams. Mostly because it’s a tool that’s familiar to me (I use it every day at work) and because it works cross-platform but partly because I have an Office 365 E1<\/a> subscription and it’s included. There is a free tier for Microsoft Teams<\/a> too…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are by no means all of the tools available though – there’s a huge list that’s been collated in the Remote Work Survival Kit<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I tried creating a Team for the Virtual Boozer and inviting external recipients. In the end, it was just too complicated – with six steps to ensure that external access was granted (and still failing to invite external people). So I fired up Outlook, created a meeting, used the Teams add-in to drop in some meeting details, and emailed my friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the Virtual Boozer is open! #vPub<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/Fvi4te54MC<\/a><\/p>\u2014 Mark Wilson ???? (@markwilsonit) March 20, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote>