Guidelines for Participants

There will be a new Zoom room for each day of ST4. The details of the Zoom room will be posted only on the slack channel #announcements by 10.30 am in the morning each day. The Zoom room will support 100 participants including the host and the speaker, in case the number of attendees exceeds that amount we will start a livestream link which will be posted on the same slack channel. Prior to login if you already see the livestream link posted on slack it means you will not be able to enter the zoom room and we request you to proceed to livestream to see the lectures. You can ask questions live on slack lecture channels for the specific topic, there will be one moderator dedicated to monitor that channel live. So, we request you to always check slack channels before you login.

While logging in to Zoom room please use your full name. Bear in mind, if you are logging in from a tablet/mobile device the default name is often set to be the device name (e.g. GalaxyJ6, iPad etc.). If the host does not recognize your name you will be denied entry.

The Zoom room will be made open 15 minutes before each session commences and participants are requested to join before the session starts. Due to myriad circumstances in which most participants, including the speakers and organizers, find themselves, we will be extremely strict about following the schedule. The zoom room will be kept online every day for the entire duration including the breaks, so if people want to discuss during the breaks they can do so live over zoom.

Please keep your video off at all times (unless specifically requested by organizers to turn it on), this will help in maintaining a good bandwidth during the conference. Also always keep yourself muted unless you are asking a question or contributing to an answer.

If you have an academic question, please raise your hand first. The raise hand button may be found by clicking the reaction button in the control panel. One of the moderators will ask you to unmute yourself (a quick way to do so in Zoom is to press and hold the space bar, which temporarily unmutes you). Once unmuted please proceed with your question. It is desirable, although not mandatory, to turn on the video while asking a question for more humane interaction with the speaker. Note that depending on the situation, the speaker or moderator will ask you to post your question on slack so that the speaker can attend to it later offline. Once your question is answered please lower your hand virtually.

All the questions will be addressed in a chronological manner depending on who raised their hands first. Please be patient and wait for the moderator to get to you. He/She will ask you to unmute and ask the question. If you are not able to ask questions due to some reason, we strongly suggest you to use the slack channel for the respective speaker for asking questions during the school. One of the moderators will be keeping an eye on the channel and will ask your questions to the speaker. Even if it is not answered immediately, the speaker will answer it offline. We strongly recommend not to use the Zoom chat for asking questions.

Each lecture topic will be supplemented by a team of moderators (the names will be given to you beforehand). Most of these moderators will have the capability to write on the iPad screen shared by the speaker. This is the virtual way to emulate the grand tradition of ST4 where any participant could in principle walk up to the board and write their own equations/arguments etc. to better facilitate a question-answer exchange. While asking questions, if the moderators feel the need to step in and write your question they will do so, but you also have the right to request help from a moderator. Zoom has its own annotate feature which is not to be used at all without explicit permission from the host.

If you have a question that is a technical problem (loss of video/audio, lagging video etc.), please try to write on Zoom chat or the #st42021 channel in slack instead of unmuting and interrupting the session. If you cannot access the chat or receive no response for a considerable time, then check your internet connectivity. If you do have connectivity but cannot get connected to Zoom or got logged out of the room, please send a direct message in slack to the ST4 organizers' account.

While we have prepared to the best of our abilities, since we do not have access to institute level internet connections, it is likely that we may have some trouble or interruptions beyond our control. We solicit your patience and support in case of such an unfortunate event and request you to keep checking the slack channel #announcements for updates and new links.

Please be respectful to your fellow participants at all times over the Zoom sessions as well as over slack. Any untowardly conducts will lead to a warning and repetition may lead to even expulsion from the slack workspace.