CoNZealand will be using a mix of platforms to deliver our first-ever virtual Worldcon.
The social hub of the CoNZealand platform will be Discord. From here, you will be able to enter, talk with bidders at their bid tables, hang out in our social spaces and attend parties.
Programme items will be in Zoom, with the type of item determining what type of Zoom meeting we will use. Most events will be streamed to members and will also be available on The Fantasy Network’s app.
Our schedule will be in Grenadine, where you can read about our Programme Participants, plan your convention schedule, and get to the programme items.
Finally, the Exhibit Hall, home to the art show, dealers hall, displays and commercial exhibits, is being built on the convention’s new members-only website. You’ll need a modern up-to-date web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, or Safari; Chrome is recommended. This website will also house a wealth of information, including the Convention Newsletter and other convention publications.
These will all be tied together with a single sign-in point for authentication through the CoNZealand registration system, while meeting standards for maintaining the privacy of our members.
Email accounts
In order to register for CoNZealand, we will need each member to have a unique email account. If you share an email account with another member, we will not be able to issue two unique sign-ons. If you need to register a new email account to do this. You can find directions on how to do this at Free Online Learning at GCFGlobal . Visit their website for more instructions if you want information on changing the settings of your gmail account or how to choose a strong password.
Technical Requirements
Regarding the technical requirements to participate in the convention, your equipment will most likely be fine. To deliver a good convention experience, we are using many components, all of which work on many devices. Even if some of the systems won’t work perfectly on your device, you should still be able to engage adequately with CoNZealand through other systems. By “device”, we mean a computer, a smartphone, a tablet, or a web-connected TV.
To get the best CoNZealand experience, your device should be able to:
- Surf the Internet using a modern browser;
- Browse the CoNZealand website
- Log into the CoNZealand member website, https://members.conzealand.nz/ with your account;
- Join the Zoom test meeting (https://zoom.us/test) Click the shield (or settings) icon, check your camera on the page, and your speaker and microphone on the page; and
- Watch videos from Twitch and YouTube without the picture or sound stuttering (https://www.twitch.tv/ and https://www.youtube.com/).
To test your own device(s), try the WebRTC Troubleshooter (https://test.webrtc.org/). It provides a good check. Click the Start Button. If you get ticks on everything except IPV6 and Reflexive Connectivity, your device should be OK.
Discord
You will need to register for a Discord ID to use the Discord-based chat rooms. If you have not used Discord before (or do not have a Discord ID) then follow these steps:
- Go to https://discord.com
- Click the blue Open Discord button
- Discord will offer a user ID, but you should tailor your user ID:
- Click the Settings cog (lower left next to the headphones)
- In “My Account” pick a username (or accept the default), add the email address you used to register for CoNZealand, and select a password.
- Click Save.
You can use Discord from a browser, but many users find that the experience is significantly better in the app. We recommend that you install the app from the Download tab on a discord.com page.
Because your online name is the primary way for people to recognise you, you might like to choose a user ID that will be recognizable by people who know you.
Internet Usage
Over the five days of CoNZealand, you will probably use between one and three megabits per second (Mb/s). If you join for 10 hours per day you could use 60 Gigabytes or more of internet capacity. You should confirm that your plan is suitable. We recommend having an unlimited plan for the duration of CoNZealand. Ideally you should be able to stream at 10Mb/s or more, and you can test this with https://speedtest.net
Your CoNZealand Experience
If your device passes all of these tests, you should have a good experience. However, we can’t test every device, or guarantee that every device will work. CoNZealand does not have the resources to support specific situations or combinations of hardware. If your general web-surfing experience is good, and you can stream YouTube videos comfortably, then most likely your CoNZealand experience will be good too.