TECHNOLOGY: Anyone else using Google Sites?

[dallas10086]

I was just playing around, seeing how these google sites worked.  But can you only view the site if you have a google account? 

Not necessarily, you just have to 'register' with Google. I have my email address as the sign-in.

[geoffsm]

I love using a google cal for rehearsal schedules, that way the whole cast can check it and it can be updated without using new stacks of paper every time.

I'm using Google Calendar for the season that I start in May.  It's nice because the artistic director, TD, and myself are authorized to make changes, whereas the actors and rest of the staff can view everything once they are invited.  Of course, I'm still generating separate schedules for the actors, just so that I can include more detail and make things a bit clearer, but the online calendar gives everybody an instant overview for convenience.  It also helps that I can sync it to my blackberry relatively easily, as can anyone else in the company with smart phones, etc.   

[dallas10086]

Well, we're into tech week and I would have to say the experiment with Google Sites was a 50/50 success -

It turned out to be an invaluable resource for the production team. Everyone used the site at least once, either to upload documents or download them, and having the calendar and contact lists online turned out to be beneficial. The producer for the show said he has plans to make this a permanent fixture for future teams on several more complicated shows coming up, specifically Rent and Annie.

Unfortunately it wasn't as successful on the cast's end. For the first half of rehearsals I only did the online callboard, which after it was updated would send an email to cast members. But several of them, even after reminding them twice to subscribe to site changes, did not subscribe; and after one time when they didn't get the callboard updates, I switched to personally emailing the callboard. I didn't want to take a chance of another missed rehearsal when we had just a month to rehearse. Every rehearsal was precious! Another problem I had was syncing Google Calendar with Sites; even when I had given an actor permission to view the calendar, Sites would say they weren't authorized to view it. The only solution I found was to make the calendar public rather than private. From the feedback I received I believe if this problem hadn't occured so early on and for so long the actors would have used Sites more.

Overall I'm really glad I tried it, even if it wasn't 100% successful. Were this another show with more rehearsal time, or a musical that would require more people in more than one rehearsal space, it may have gone differently. I'm glad that the end result meant that a theatre will be using Google Sites for their production teams and that I was able to introduce the process to them. I will definately be trying this again as soon as I am able.

Since we've abandoned the actors version for now, I am able to send invites for those that would like to view the site. PM me if you would like to take a look at it and I will add your email address to view it.

[sgoldsbo]

I used Google Sites to set up virtual callboard for my last show. I used it to post rehearsal reports, a contact list, a script (it was in development) a weekly rehearsal schedule and a calendar. I think it was pretty successful, although there were a couple of members of the production team who still wanted rehearsal reports emailed each night - I just set up a separate email list to those select few.

My company is very tech savvy so I'm lucky in that people are already used to going online to check things. It wasn't a huge transition for us. I did hear that people appreciated having a central location for all information. And I appreciated receiving fewer calls asking when designers could stop by

I would call it a success - and I'm planning on using the same system for our next show.

[MatthewShiner]

Unfortunately it wasn't as successful on the cast's end. For the first half of rehearsals I only did the online callboard, which after it was updated would send an email to cast members. But several of them, even after reminding them twice to subscribe to site changes, did not subscribe; and after one time when they didn't get the callboard updates, I switched to personally emailing the callboard. I didn't want to take a chance of another missed rehearsal when we had just a month to rehearse. Every rehearsal was precious! Another problem I had was syncing Google Calendar with Sites; even when I had given an actor permission to view the calendar, Sites would say they weren't authorized to view it. The only solution I found was to make the calendar public rather than private. From the feedback I received I believe if this problem hadn't occured so early on and for so long the actors would have used Sites more.

In the end, setting up a mailing list to push out e-mail of daily call and/or reports is nill cost and nill work load issue.  And, again, PUSHING information is always better then making someone come to it.

[Adam]

My school is switching all of our email systems to be google hosted this year. I am hoping that i can use a google page really effectively because everyone will already have the account required for it. Yes, I am still going to be pushing the information out to everyone, and using a traditional callboard in the theatre, But i think having this as a site where people can go to check stuff that may no longer be on the physical callboard, or back pages in their email will be a positive thing.

[CRVerdusco]

I have been using Google Sites (and google pages) for about 4 years now for hosting Digital Callboards.  I would have to agree it is a lot easier for the cast if the information is pushed to them.  Whenever I move to a new venue they are often hesitant of using the sites but quickly change their minds.  Most recently I was in residency and therefore set up a master site for the entire season.

One of the easiest ways I found to push information was to set up the subscribe feature to my own e-mail then with filters and mailing lists it would automatically e-mail everyone on the mailing list.  The other way to deal with this problem is have members subscribe to the RSS feeds that google just started to host.

I do remember the problem about google calendars but got it working in the end, I will have to look to remember what I did.

If anyone has any questions or would like to check out my sites just send me a PM and I'll send you the links.

[MatthewShiner]

Again, why is any of this better then just sending out an e-mailed version directly to a contact list?

[Adam]

I Wasn't saying that a site was going to replace emails to a contact list, But be a second place that someone could look if they needed to. I think it's always better to have multiple was to get the information they need. And with a site, you could host documents and drawings that the designers could upload and get from eachother instead of having to ask around and wait for replys.

[dallas10086]

As the project proved, when it comes to callboard information, always push email. If you're going to do Google Sites, do it for the production team.