This system is designed to allow meetings of just about any size to have an automated queuing system. It does have a few features that could be regarded as making it usable for controlling an mildly unruly meeting - for example it can be set to shush people speaking out of turn - but it is not primarily designed for this: for example it has no eject functions built in.
Below is reproduced the help card that is delivered with the system. This illustrates how to use it, as well as giving you a reference point if you buy one and lose the help card.
The meeting control lights are designed, similar to the soap box system, to let a moderator run a meeting. This system is designed to allow a meeting to run in a more genteel environment, sitting around a table with "call buttons" in front of each speaker to add them to the queue.
The buttons (there is only one in the box, but it is copiable) change colour based on position in the queue, and communicate with the server (one only of these), which maintains the list and keeps the speakers in order. Choosing the moderator is done by putting their name in the description field (Edit>General tab, second field down) which will allow anyone to moderate a given meeting.
Buttons are simply touch to register at the start of the meeting, then touch to turn on (join the queue) and touch again to turn off (leave the queue). The moderator's call to speak will also turn off the first person's light as they take the floor to speak. When the meeting is over (see below for moderator controls) ending the meeting will cancel any outstanding lights, and unregister them all.
If the moderator touches the server they get this menu.
- Start and End start and end the meeting: 'Start' changes the text and lets people join the "to speak" queue; 'End' clears the queue and all the lights that are on if people have been playing with them. It also clears the registered speaker from the light so people can register at the next meeting.
- Next Speak invites the next speaker to say their bit, moves the list along, sends out a message saying who has the floor etc.
- Floor lets everyone speak without shushing - so people can have a chance for an open discussion about what they've just heard if your meetings run that way.
- Silence sets the system so it sends out a shush message to everyone except the registered current speaker and the moderator if they speak. There's actually, as I said before, no way to stop people actually speaking in SL - just like IRL you can't stop them speaking without gagging them which isn't really used at round table discussions.
- Floor and Silence are opposites of each other, a bit like an on/off switch.
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