Webconferencing is the quickest and simplest way to hold meetings with participants located in a number of different places. The advantages are obvious – meetings held at central locations are time-intensive, in terms of planning and travel, and can also result in considerable costs being incurred. Webconferencing allows all participants to be easily connected with each other, so that they can see each other and work together on the same document, just as if they were all sitting in the same conference room.

In our new whitepaper you can read more about webconferencing and how a pen tablet or interactive pen display can increase effectiveness of webconferencing:  Wacom Whitepaper Webconferencing_EN_Screen.

On a weekly basis, I need to train new DAM users as well as give quick tutorials to current DAM users on specific aspects of the DAM.

There are two ways I can train anyone regardless of where they are in the world as long as they have an internet connection. Neither involves expensive, time-consuming travel. Why should anyone spend a day traveling just to meet for an hour of training?

I regularly get a call, email or instant message with a specific DAM question. I often forward them a link from an intranet wiki with relevant information and supporting documentation to answer their questions. The wiki includes a FAQ page compiled of Frequently Asked Questions which links back to related parts of the DAM manual for details. This can include step by step directions on how to perform a specific task in the DAM. This is my indirect way to train, support and reinforce the ways to use the DAM.

Then, there is the direct way. If they need further assistance, we can setup a quick web conferencing session (a screen sharing conference call).  Most people are familiar with the idea of the conference call where many people can call one phone number to collaborate simply by voice. Now, add the component of sharing your computer screen with the people you are speaking with. Pull up the DAM on your computer screen so everyone can follow along, see your cursor and watch step-by-step motions during the training. Note that everyone needs a fast, reliable internet connection to do this and the person sharing their screen will need to really slow down their motions for the cursor to be followed because there is often a small delay between what is said and what is seen when screen sharing. If training involves people outside of my time zone, I am careful to schedule training when it is convenient for the majority, but we  are certainly not limited to the 9am to 5pm schedule any longer (that can be good and bad, depending what the priority happens to be).

There are several web conferencing tools available whether they are free or paid, but all . Some of the well-known free web conferencing services are quite good. The main differences I have noticed with the paid versions of web conferencing are often:

• Better security
• More reliability
• More options (like built-in polling and IM)
• Allow more users at one time on the same web conference

I have heard of some organizations recording and making available a series of  ‘how-to’ videos  to supplement their written documentation about how to use  the DAM.  This can be more time-consuming in the creation of these videos and if your DAM system ever upgrades, those videos may need to be updated to reflect new (often improved) changes to workflow. Luckily, Web conferences can also be recorded and watched on demand at a later date.

Of course, all these tools can be used for so much more than just DAM training and support. As an early adopter to these tools, I have seen many naysayers begin to eventually adopt the same tools (for the same reason$). It is amazing how efficient and effective tools can grow so rapidly in popularly. I hope this gives a helpful glimpse of how training can be done regardless of geographic location.

How do you train your remote DAM users?

The Internet continues to expand, evolve and develop. Born as a technology out of a military requirement, Arpanet, the ubiquitous nature of the Internet has meant that mankind has developed all kinds of uses for this communication medium. I sometimes think what would happen, if one day we woke up and found that the Internet was gone. The Internet has managed to permeate and touch our lives unlike no other technology. We are increasingly becoming more and more reliant on it to satisfy our insatiable urge for knowledge and entertainment. We can now, even watch our favourite television programmes across the Internet and stream our favourite programmes across continents ourselves using technologies, such as the Slingbox.

For this blog, as with most of my articles, I won’t reinvent the wheel, and as always will use existing web related resources, wherever, possible. In today’s blog, I am aiming to:

1. De-mystify web conferencing, webinars, teleconferencing and video conferencing.
2. Provide a list of web conferencing/webinar solutions/teleconferencing/video conferencing for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and larger businesses.
3. Provide further resources/reviews for informed decision making.
4. Explain the difference between web conferencing/webinars and teleconferencing.
5. Explain the benefits and features of online meeting software.

One of the problems that bloggers like me and indeed the general public/businesses are facing these days is the old adage, big fish, eat small fish. The IT solution arena, faced with global competition and diminishing returns, a desire by the big players to have monopolies etc has led to the IT market undergoing significant reshuffle and consolidation. This has led to a great deal of confusion on who owns who, especially if you are not actively following the IT industry. For the uninitiated and for the benefit of everyone, the Internet infrastructure is already largely managed by Cisco routers. To provide Cisco with competition in this arena and to strengthen its other networking products, last week HP purchased 3Com.

Let’s stick with the theme in the previous paragraph. Within the web conferencing, webinar, teleconferencing and video conferencing solutions, the demarcation of what now signifies a particular solution is becoming blurred as they all seem to be morphing together, so in the not too distant future, what this morphed technology will become and be called, is open to speculation. This thought is further strengthened by the acquisition of WebEx by Cisco in 2007 and the recent offer in October, this year, of video conferencing solution provider, Tandberg ( UPDATE – This offer, incidentally, has been upped again in November). Within the video conferencing arena, telepresence, has been touted as the next killer application, although while gaining some ground within larger corporates, it hasn’t really taken off. That may change with Polycom’s new telepresence solution. Polycom has created a clever alliance with Microsoft by licensing its technology, thereby protecting its position. As Tandberg bites the dust, in this David vs Goliath battle, so far the Goliath’s seem to have the upper hand as these solutions move into the lucrative world of Smartphones.

Best solutions for SMEs

Dimdim is free for up to twenty users as a hosted solution and free for upto 50 users if a business hosts it on its own servers. I was quite impressed with their clever use of YouTube for their tutorial videos. One site that I visited levied some criticism of its features and I was quite pleasantly surprised to view the first comment submitted was by one of their employees informing the reviewer that his criticism had been submitted to the developers for further investigation. I predict that Dimdim is the web conferencing platform to watch for and should very soon be giving the big players a run for their money.

Yugma is my next free solution and is free for up to 20 people as well. Again, Dimdim and Yugma are the rising stars of the web conferencing world and both offer Pro versions for businesses.

For teleconferencing, I haven’t been able to find many solutions (I admit, I was researching web conference solutions in more detail) but having used BT MeetMe in the past, I believe it is available cost effectively for SMEs. Skype, does allow for upto 25 users to have a teleconferencing call across the Internet FREE but be wary of the possible loss of quality on calls. Skype Video conferencing (requires a web camera) and is currently limited to a one to one session.

Best solutions for larger businesses

It is worth reading Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for web conferencing 2009 prior to making any decisions as it is a great in depth report and to view a comparison of the top ten (In their view). For other reviews, please click on the following: Review 1, Review 2, Review 3.

For larger businesses the names that are most recognised are (in no particular order), WebEx MeetMeNow, Microsoft’s Office Live Meeting, Citrix GoToMeeting, Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, Fuze Meeting, Intercall, iLinc, MegaMeeting, Glance, WiredRed e/pop, Zoho Meeting, Elluminate Live, IBM Lotus Sametime, Unyte Meeting, PGi Netspoke webconferencing, and others.

To end this week’s blog, I can inform everyone of the topic of next week’s blog. Recently, I have been assisting the CIO Executive Council to promote the Council as the UK Liaison Development Director. Next week, I’ll be discussing reasons why UK CIOs should become members of the CIO Executive Council and how the council can assist the CIOs agenda, as this is an organisation managed by CIOs for CIOs.

To become a member/further information, please contact me ahmed@itfindit.com – http://council.cio.com/.

If you would like to attend our next event detailed below, (CIOs only), please send me an email:

European Regional Membership Meeting, London, Westfield, LLC

Dec 2nd, ‘09, 9 am – 4 pm Europe/London (GMT+0)

Description

The CIO Executive Council invites you to join host Gerhard Karba, Global CIO of Westfield, LLC at their facilities in London for an agenda rich with discussion surrounding the latest challenges CIO’s are facing in guiding their companies into the economic upswing. There will also be a Council sponsored dinner on the 1 Dec at 1830 hours at The Meat and Wine Company Restaurant. The meeting itself begins on the 2 Dec at 0900 hours to 1600 hours.

Specific agenda items:
1. Gerhard Karba will lead a discussion on how CIOs can influence and manage demand on IT services as we emerge from the recession by addressing the lack of an enterprise “master plan.”
2. Council General Manager Pam Stenson will present the Council Board of Advisors’ influence agenda for 2010, “The Journey to the Future-State CIO,” and engage participants in how to develop and execute on this agenda.
3. Group CIO Ian Alerton of Wachovia will present on how innovation has played and will play a key role in moving his enterprise into better economic times strengthening his company’s market position and accelerating their growth.

As a web worker who routinely switches back and forth from Windows (s msft) to Mac (s aapl), I look for web conferencing services that are Mac-friendly, because we no longer work in a strictly Windows world.

Citrix’s GoToMeeting, part of the Citrix Online collaborative suite, is one such service. It also meets one of my other prime requirements — the client is easily installable by users of all levels. One thing that will spoil a web conference before it’s even started is when participants have a hard time installing the local client so they can’t join the conference. This issue can happen to even the most experienced web worker, not just the technology neophyte.

I am sticking with the Mac client for this post, but Citrix also provides a similar user experience and features in the Windows version. Neither client is a permanent install.

Web Workers and Web Conferencing
Today’s web conferencing tools have to be more than just a venue for team meetings — they need to be full collaboration tools to help web workers and their project teams communicate seamlessly.

Citrix GoToMeeting Features

Citrix GoToMeeting for the Mac supports up to 15 conference participants, and includes the following features:

• Screen Sharing. Screen sharing is useful for online demonstrations, collaboration on documents and spreadsheets, and online training. As travel budgets remain tight, screen sharing and some creativity can help geographically dispersed project teams stay in sync on projects.
• Meeting Recording and Playback. Taking meeting minutes is an archaic, mundane, and bureaucratic task, and GoToMeeting includes meeting recording and playback which keeps an audio and screen recording of the entire online meeting. This is a better record, because it spares the misunderstandings and gaps that can sometimes creep into note taking. It is also more efficient for an online team to move to meeting recording because participants can better focus on the meeting. UPDATE: the Mac version of GoToMeeting doesn’t support meeting recording — it’s only available on the Windows version.
• VoIP and Telephone Support. Web conference attendees can dial into the conference via a VoIP or landline phone. Currently, GoToMeeting offers free VoIP and phone conferencing. You also have an option to use your computer’s mic and speakers for conducting audio communications.

Launching meetings takes place within a few clicks, making GoToMeeting an ideal choice for teams that need a web conferencing platform that users of varying levels will have no problem using.

GoToMeeting is available for purchase from GoToMeeting.com. (A free trial is available.) The site includes the latest licensing and pricing information.

Which web conferencing tool do you use?

Adobe (s adbe) has launched a new version of its web conferencing app, Connect Pro, that adds the ability to integrate existing telephony/VoIP solutions. (Adobe calls this “Universal Voice.“) This feature should make Connect Pro more attractive to organizations with existing telephony packages in place, as it won’t add to phone costs. As well as being able to use any existing telephony service inside the app, you can record audio from telephone-based participants along with your web conference, and stream audio from them to those using VoIP. Other enhancements in this release include improved security controls and an increased maximum number of conference participants (now at a mammoth 80,000 users).

Adobe also has announced that it is working on various native mobile apps for Connect Pro, with an app for iPhone and iPod (s aapl) due to be released first.

Does Universal Voice make Connect Pro more attractive for your company?

In today’s global economy the demand for a fast and easy to use Web Conferencing solution has never been greater. As a result, RHUB has responded and developed their TurboMeeting Version 4.0 web conferencing and remote support appliance. Version 4.0 was recently released with some of the most exciting upgrades to date. Some of the upgrades include remote printing, LDAP integration for enterprise models only, video broadcast, and flash-based view-only client with faster and reliable view-only experience with no download of any kind.

Version 4.0 supports 200+ attendees in one meeting room and has improved recording with better reliability as well as smoother fast-forward and reverse. You will find that the speed of your meeting is faster because of improved compression algorithms. File transfer for remote support and remote access will also be faster and easier to do.

TurboMeeting Version 4.0 by RHUB appliance still offers remote support for PC and Mac users and includes an upgrade to view-only function for a Mac presenter. This is the only appliance that offers a patent pending Universal Attendance technology that provides support sessions by using a browser on any platform including Windows, Windows Mobile, Mac, iPhone, Unix and Linux. You can remotely access computers at home or in the office from anywhere, anytime.

Your web-based meetings are still secure because it runs behind your own corporate firewall. In addition, this easy to use on-premise plug and play appliance allows you to truly own and control your web conferencing technology without the need for additional IT resources. You can use TurboMeeting for web conferencing, webinars, remote support and remote access without requiring participants to download and install software.

To learn more about Turbomeeting 4.0 Web Conferencing and Remote Support Appliance, visit RHUB www.rhubcom.com web site.

Further to my earlier post this week about my live web presenting session, we had additional successes with our Thursday night session with our computer contact group. What did we do differently?

1. I changed the setup in the presenting area in my office, which was the remote site.  We adjusted the lighting to make the room slightly darker and eliminated some backlight which caused a little glare in the first round.

2. I relocated my speaking notes from my desk to a raised vertical stand tucked in closely to my laptop to minimize my eye movement. The net effect allowed me to look more directly at the camera so the setup was more like a newscast arrangement.

3. In the meeting room end, we turned the MacBook laptop around so the web cam was facing the audience. This certainly gives you a better sense of connection with the audience as the presenter. We are able to do a better job adjusting the mic settings to allow me to hear questions from the audience more clearly.

All in all, a much better experience. The next meeting with this group is scheduled for February. At that time, we will offer a chance for some of the 100+  attendees over the two session to join us in an online meeting. If winter driving is a factor, we should have improved attendance with the online option – bonus!!!

~ Mark

I have participated in many online meetings with audio and screen sharing of agendas etc. Yesterday I had a chance to do a presentation using Adobe Connect, a professional web conferencing solution with our elementary school computer contact team.  This product is licensed for use in Ontario publicly funded schools.

I was the remote presenter – but not too remote in this case, just tucked away in my office, although I could have been anywhere with a decent internet connection. I was viewed at the meeting on a projection screen via the client laptop and data projector setup in the meeting room. This seemed like a good test run environment as I could attend the meeting if we had any technical issues. I was really interested to reflect on 3 aspects of the live presentation.

Technical Reliability: Our technical set up worked very well overall – no major issues. On two occasions there was a brief pause in audio and video delivery. In my role as presenter, I was aware this was happening as the green bar which bounces to indicate the mic is active stopped moving, so I was able to pause and wait for the condition to pass. There are many factors which may cause a minor hiccup in the audio and/or video stream including server performance, network traffic, firewall connectivity or local machine performance at either end. We will do some monitoring in future session to gain additional insights into this.

Presentation Considerations: It felt very strange as the presenter as in this particular case I could not see or hear the audience. I felt like I was talking in a vacuum. It is very difficult to get a sense of whether or not you are delivery the presentation well when there is no audience cues or reaction. It is amazing what you pick up standing in front of a live audience. You automatically make eye contact, adjust your voice levels and pace, move around (at least somewhat) and visually you have a sense of whether or not the audience is understanding the content.

In terms of my office setup, we did check web cam clarity, volume levels and adjust lighting (watch for shadows). Having a suitable backdrop is important. My bookcase was acceptable, but many backgrounds are not. I made note of two things in this area.

1. The relative height of the web cam relative to your eyes. You need to think of the ’shot angle’ in the same way a newscast is done. I think  having the web cam a eye level so you can look straight ahead is better.

2. I had a few notes on my desk to refer to in addition to the powerpoint slides being broadcast along with the web cam images. I want to raise up the notes to minimize the number of times you glance away from the web cam.

Audience Reactions: I was interested in the audience reaction. While many saw this as a useful tool that offered many benefits, some expressed a preference for face to face meetings. No reaction is right or wrong, just interesting to note.

Next Steps: We are running our second meeting presentation tomorrow night so I will try to make some adjustments to my setup. I want to set up a 3rd connection which would show the audience on one of the web cams to give me a better sense of audience reaction. We are also going to monitor the bandwidth usage while the session is occurring, so that will be interesting.  We will offer remote attend to our next set of meetings in February.

It is great to keep moving ahead.

~ Mark

Social distancing is a strategy that the federal government has included in the response plans for an H1N1 epidemic. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services states in its Guidance for Businesses and Employers to Plan and Respond to the 2009 – 2010 Influenza Season:

“If severity increases, public health officials may recommend a variety of methods for increasing the physical distance between people (called social distancing) to reduce the spread of disease, such as school dismissal, child care program closure, canceling large community gatherings, canceling large business-related meetings, spacing workers farther apart in the workplace, canceling non-essential travel, and recommending work-from-home strategies for workers that can conduct their business remotely.”

The guidance also states:

• “Explore whether you can establish policies and practices, such as flexible worksites (e.g., telecommuting) and flexible work hours (e.g., staggered shifts), when possible, to increase the physical distance among employees and between employees and others if local public health authorities recommend the use of social distancing strategies. Ensure that you have the information technology and infrastructure needed to support multiple workers who may be able to work from home.

• Identify essential business functions, essential jobs or roles, and critical elements within your supply chains (e.g., raw materials, suppliers, subcontractor services/products, and logistics) required to maintain business operations. Plan for how your business will operate if there is increasing absenteeism or these supply chains are interrupted.
• Set up authorities, triggers, and procedures for activating and terminating the company’s response plan, altering business operations (e.g., possibly changing or closing operations in affected areas), and transferring business knowledge to key employees. Work closely with your local health officials to identify these triggers.

• Plan to minimize exposure to fellow employees or the public if public health officials call for social distancing.

• Establish a process to communicate information to workers and business partners on your 2009 H1N1 influenza response plans and latest 2009 H1N1 influenza information. Anticipate employee fear, anxiety, rumors, and misinformation, and plan communications accordingly.”

The impact on the business can be significant if the enterprise has not planned ahead. Key communication and collaboration tools (e.g. e-mail, instant messaging, web conferencing, and team workspaces) should be identified and evaluated for capabilities to help an enterprise to continue to function in the event that facilities are closed and large numbers of employees in certain geographic areas are ill or have to work remotely.

InnerPass (IP) takes a large leap towards Unified Communications and Collaboration with the highly anticipated release of the latest version of their Skype application, InnerPass 2.0. The application conquers the difficult task that many web conferencing systems have in offering an affordable solution that’s both intuitive and robust.   2.0  has a sleek new professional interface that allows you to access its core functions of file sharing, conference calling, screen sharing and group chat from a single page.

Read More

News of a possible H1N1 virus, or “Swine Flu,” pandemic is causing many commercial firms and government agencies to examine their Continuity of Operations (COOP) plans so business can soldier on during the crisis. The threat of an H1N1 outbreak is even prompting the United States Centers for Disease Control to recommend that small businesses have telework and business continuity plans in place.

This could place even organizations with well developed telecommuting programs in a challenging position, because a major virus outbreak may mean that their remote worker needs exceed their current capacity.

On the flip side, there are organizations that are far from telecommuting-friendly, which face even more challenges because they aren’t set up for remote working. In order to keep their business running in such a crisis they are going to need to buy or build an infrastructure to meet a new model of working.

At WebWorkerDaily, we get a chance to review some of the best office productivity, social media, online collaboration, project management, and Web 2.0 tools that in a worst case scenario — like a pandemic outbreak — can help an organization maintain some semblance of operations and communications, even though its employees and contractors are working from home during the crisis.

Perhaps your organization already has a well-honed telecommuting policy, however it is prudent to look for chinks in your telecommuting plans before the worst case scenario happens. Here is a look at some tools and services you can use to keep business operations running.

Office Suites
While Microsoft Office (s msft) is probably your corporate standard, an extreme scenario like a pandemic outbreak could place your newly minted web workers on their home PCs or on a limited number of organization owned notebook PCs — there might not be enough Office licenses to cope with this scenario. This means you may need to consider web office solutions to make up the shortfall. Good choices include:

• Google Apps is a good choice for augmenting your corporate standard Office suite, even though it is not as feature-rich. There are fee-based and free versions available.

• Zoho Business is another ready solution, with a wider variety of applications that Google Apps.

• Simon and I recently covered the impending rollout of  Office Web Apps. While it isn’t available yet, the model it promises is ideal for a scenario like this, because it can offer users remote access to their important Microsoft Office files with a familiar interface.

Web office suites can help you keep your work accessible online, which is especially handy if all your workers don’t have remote access to your corporate network.

Social Media
Whether or not your organization has embraced social media behind the firewall, suddenly becoming a home-based organization means that employees are largely cut off from each other. Social networking tools can help them stay in touch with each other and the organization as a whole.

Some corporate-grade social media tools that might fit the bill include:

• Socialtext, a corporate social networking and collaboration tool that we’ve covered previously.
• Yammer, a Twitter clone, is another option for injecting social media into your organizational communications (see our previous coverage).

Each solution has fee-based and free versions.

Project Management

Putting your project management tools online is a prudent move, even before a crisis — but it could become a necessity in light of maintaining corporate operations in the midst of an H1N1 outbreak. However, Microsoft Project maintains its crown as the most popular — albeit mostly desktop-bound — corporate project management solution. Here are some good online project management tools:

• Basecamp is a the most well-known of all of the online PM tools  — we’ve written about it many times previously.
• Zoho Projects is an economical and innovative project management solution that Doriano previously covered for WWD.
• Charles reviewed Team Effect which garnered some mixed comments but is worthy a trial.
• PBWorks (formerly PBWiki) is another online project management option and according to Simon’s review it is definitely worth considering

Each of these solutions have fee-based and free versions.

Instant Messaging
Keeping your team in touch with each other even if they are all stuck at home is vital. If your organization isn’t already using instant messaging, then you need to consider it as part of your contingency plan.

Some instant messaging solutions you should consider include:

• Open source clients like Pidgin and Adium which let you encrypt chat sessions over commercial IM networks including AIM, GTalk, Windows Live, and Yahoo (s yhoo).
• Microsoft Office Communications Server also offers web-based access to its IM client. If your organization is running it, take steps to ensure your staff has access to it from home.

Web Conferencing & Collaboration
Today’s web conferencing and collaboration tools are ideal for keeping your team working together even though they’re not all working from the same office. Here are some options for web conferencing:

• Acrobat.com includes ConnectNow. Thursday covered Acrobat.com coming out of beta. It has free and fee-based versions and includes online collaboration features.
• Dimdim, which we’ve covered before, is an excellent low-cost teleconferencing tool
• Simon covered the beta launch of Team Apart, a free online collaboration tool that offers white board, video conferencing, and file sharing. Depending on the progress of the beta, it might be worth considering.

Crises and Web Working
Whether you are building out or just augmenting your communications infrastructure in light of the H1N1 threat, I recommend checking out these  applications now and not on the eve of a crisis. You should also make sure that employees know how to use these applications and how to access them well in advance of having to actually implement your crisis plan..

How is your organization preparing to continue operations during an H1N1 virus outbreak?

Image by mzacha from stock.xchng.

Do you own or operate a small or medium business? You must be acquainted with web conferencing because you could be cutting costs by utilizing this internet meeting technology.

In a nutshell web conferencing can be thought of as a group of technologies that lets groups of persons hold interactive web meetings and collaborative gatherings. It utilizes the internet and readily available paraphernalia like headsets to make internet gatherings economical and uncomplicated.

All enterprises have meetings and conferences. The smallest one-person shops still have to meet with their customers and vendors. In larger companies internal team meetings among employees preponderate. Whether the gathering is large or small, the people are often separated geographically across cities or around the world.

The most evident major dollar expenditure when members assemble from diverse places is travel. Normal travel expenditures include food, lodging, rental cars and airfare. Picture the savings when all the members can simply remain in their own offices and have an online collaboration as opposed to traveling.

Your company runs up against another disguised cost when participants travel to conferences. The cost of time wasted in airports, in cars, on planes is usually not considered, and it generally is considerable.

You can now get a no-cost 30-day trial of the highly regarded GoToMeeting online conferencing service.

Isn’t this the million-dollar question? No? A couple hundred thousand, maybe? (Okay.  Maybe the answer is only worth a few hundred dollars.)

Whatever the value, a variation of this question has generated a terrific discussion in the ASTD LinkedIn group. The original post from Donna Gilliland, President of MOSTraining, Inc. read:

“Online Live Training: what challenges do you face? Have you started delivering training live online training yet? If so, which of the following tools to you use?”

She listed:

• GoToWebinar
• WebEx
• Telspan
• Others? 

Then she asked, “What do you find to be your greatest challenge in training live online?”

Several people chimed in, all of whom seemed to be focused on two key areas:

• Presenters’ skills
• Tools/technology

What’s missing here?!?

CONTENT!!!

Yes, I’ll keep preaching this. Yes, my face is blue from repeating it over and over. And no, I’m not tired of repeating myself quite yet.

Why is content so important?

Because if your content doesn’t match the delivery mode, it doesn’t matter how interesting, entertaining, adept, practiced, experienced or knowledgable your instructor/facilitator/trainer is, the online event will fail. Completely.

If your content doesn’t match the delivery mode, it doesn’t matter how many polls, chat and breakout rooms you use, how pretty your slides are, or whether you use phone or VOIP, the online event will fail. Utterly.

So I’ll say it again: your content needs to be presented in a way that enables your learners to learn. Sounds obvious, but failing to do this is the primary reason most online events fail.

Webinars are a great example. They’re easy to conduct and attend, relatively inexpensive, and everyone seems to be offering them. Even when they should be doing something else (see When A Webinar Is a Bad Idea).

Only after you’re sure you have decided on the best delivery mode for the content you’re training should you be thinking about how you’ll handle the technical side of things, and choose the instructor.

Period. End of discussion.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get some pink back into my face

Internet web conferencing has demonstrated just how small the world has really become. With the provision of increasingly interactive solutions, service providers have enabled many companies to reach new heights of productivity. It has also increased the number of communication tools available to large and small enterprise.

In the context of globalization, forging partnerships is a matter of survival. Many businesses have found themselves swallowed up by larger corporations, sometimes outside their home country. Interactive web conferencing has created a synergy of ideas and productive capacity that might have proven challenging with standard communication technology.

Platform Support

Most people don’t like to be left out, and this is especially true in the workplace where command of data can make all the difference. With internet web conferencing, any user are able to join a meeting quickly. The type platform of used, whether a Mac or PC should not be a deterrent to taking part in a web meeting. Some businesses have been known to use both platforms and need web conferencing solutions that make attendance seamless. Web conferencing providers like RHUB Communications and GoMeetNow offer solutions that are compatible with both platforms.

Thinking Globally

If the internet made the world smaller, interactive web conferencing has given it a voice. In-person meetings, large conventions and seminars may well become a thing of the past in the next few years. Computers and the Internet make it possible to get more done from one location. Web meeting software has taken this a step further with an array of user -friendly features like remote support and video streaming. A prime example of this is TurboMeeting Version 4.0 offered by RHUB.

With internet web conferencing, companies will be better able to position themselves on the global stage. Such is the impact of this technology that businesses may well find that corporate strategizing is tied to keeping pace with new developments in the field.

Today at the DEMOfall 09 conference, Fuze Meeting unveiled the latest version of their online meeting software which now integrates with social networks like Twitter and Facebook as well as various email address books. But what’s more interesting about the new version of this web-conferencing tool is its ability to let you start or join meetings from your Blackberry or iPhone. Mobile web conferencing? It has arrived.

Web conferencing solutions are nothing new, but if there is one thing that seems to be consistent across the board it’s that they’re harder to use than they should be. Fuze Meeting attempts to make the experience easier thanks to their 100% browser-based product which doesn’t require any downloads in order to run. Sharing features allow Fuze users to share all sorts of media, including HD content, as well as do screen sharing.

With the new version launching today, Fuze Meeting also makes adding collaborators easier than before as it now integrates with several email applications, social networks, and IM platforms. Supported services for gathering contacts include Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn. Additionally, you can share links to your online meetings with others via Facebook and Twitter, which is great for promoting a public meeting or event. Skype integration is also new, letting Fuse users chat with their online buddies from within the web conferencing software. Meeting participants can use Skype to join in the audio portion of the meetings, too.

However, the most interesting new feature in this latest version is the new support for mobile web conferencing. Currently offering both Blackberry and iPhone versions, Fuze Meeting users can schedule, launch, and join in meetings directly from their mobile device. On the iPhone, users can even share media from their phone’s photo library. As with the desktop solution, mobile users can view screen shares, documents, photos and videos.

Fuze Meeting vs. HP SkyRoom

At the DEMO conference, Fuze Meeting followed a launch from HP, who also debuted a new online meeting solution called SkyRoom. Like Fuze Meeting, SkyRoom’s big selling points are affordability and support for sharing HD content. But when Fuze showed off their mobilized versions, it was HP that appeared to come up lacking. In today’s modern workplace, where folks are working remotely, on the go, and often only have a mobile smartphone available for connecting with their colleagues, it’s Fuze Meeting that seems to have the more forward-thinking solution. However, since HP plans on including SkyRoom for free on all HP workstations starting October 1st of this year, they’ll definitely have an edge up in terms of user base.

By Sarah Perez

http://www.readwriteweb.com

A teleconference is a telephone or video meeting between participants in two or more locations. Teleconferences are similar to telephone calls, but they can expand discussion to more than two people. Using teleconferencing in a planning process, members of a group can all participate in a conference with agency staff people.
Teleconferencing uses communications network technology to connect participants’ voices. In many cases, speaker telephones are used for conference calls among the participants. A two-way radio system can also be used. In some remote areas, satellite enhancement of connections is desirable.
Video conferencing can transmit pictures as well as voices through video cameras and computer modems. Video conferencing technology is developing rapidly, capitalizing on the increasingly powerful capabilities of computers and telecommunications networks. Video conferencing centers and equipment are available for rent in many locations.
Teleconf

People link Launched the software based Video conferencing solution which is a one point solution for Video, Audio and data conferencing. This solution uses software based CODEC and can easily be Integratable to any windows Operating system and hence with this technology any one can do video conference from Board room, Desktop or Laptop. Now days every one looking for a true value solution, Peoplelink reduces the Capital investment and recurring cost one side and on the other side this video conferencing solution gives 100 times enhanced features to the investment.This solution has many more advantages like, this works on simple broad band internet connectivity also has a built in features like Data Presentation (which has a set of Features like White Board, File sharing, Co-Browsing, Dektop/application sharing, File transfer, Vioting, conference recording and Agenda) MCU inbuilt (Enables you to connect with 2500 users at a time and can see 48 video’s on the screen) Fully customized video lay outs Supports SD, HD, FullHD and Telepresence 50 free client licenses for a single user license Moderator control and many more.
With this cost effective video conferencing solution things have become much easier and faster specially for the companies like Corporate and Large corporate have enhanced this solution for their investments and communication Video conference, software based video conference, web conferencing

Before introducing the site teleconferenceservice.org, I just want tell a couple of words on my relations to teleconferencng. As for me, I did’t do any teleconferecing until very recent times , when our company started downsizing and now I even cannot imagine how to do a business without teleconferencing – it is so great . I think it is a way the business is going to be run in the future
The site teleconferenceservice.org is all about teleconference services – what they are, how to use them, advantagesand disaadvanteges of using teleconferencing,. The site is relatively young but you see that it is growing fast .In site’s content you may find a lot of useful tips for teleconferencing, no matter whether youare completely new or have had some experience with teleconference services before, as I have. Here you can find teleconfernce services explained in an easy to understand manner
Teleconference Service

What is web conferencing? And why ought executives of medium and small-sized businesses wish to know about it? Here’s an idea: Web conferencing can cut the high cost of travel and give your office workers more profitable time.

Web conferencing is a technological system that utilizes the convenience of the internet to make video conference calls readily available for any business operation. By using current internet networks and easy to obtain peripherals like microphones and webcams, it makes the dated, uneconomical mode of teleconferencing outdated.

All enterprises have meetings and conferences. The tiniest one-person shops still have to get together with their customers and vendors. In bigger companies internal meetings among employees come more to the fore. Whatever the size of the company or conference, it’s possible that the participants are in different buildings, different cities, or different continents.

Travel and related expenses can be huge when people from various areas meet in person. Airfare is just one of the expenses. Lodging and meal costs can really add up also. You can cut out travel expenses from the calculation when you take advantage of a web conference service instead of an airline.

You may be unaware of it, but there’s a further relevant expense incurred by your business. The cost of time spent on airplanes, in airports, in cars is often not accounted for, and it generally is considerable.

You can now get a trial subscription that’s free for 30 days of the award-winning GoToMeeting web-based conferencing service.

What is it?

Client communications are the heartbeat of any freelance business, and web conferencing provides a handy vehicle for freelancers to stay in touch with clients — no matter where they are. Sending data to clients by e-mail has serious limits in the time needed in engaging clients and the lack of face-to-face interaction. Real-time communications, opened through web conferencing, engages clients at multiple locations and sets up a best practice for any efficient freelance communications program.

Web conferencing are live online meetings that use the internet and easy-to-use software. Participants link through their respective PCs over the internet by means of a web address or URL to connect to the conference.

They provide live chat, video and voice, demos, presentations and training, and cross platform support which allow you to:

* Make long-distance calls easily and inexpensively with VoIP, Skype, instant file sharing, and online whiteboards.

* Synchronisation of live demonstrations, presentations and web pages.

* Education and training: such as explaining to clients how to use their new websites, CMS etc
* Real time collaboration and remote access of PC.

* Record and playback of your podcasts

* Host live web based seminars

* Employ web conferencing to sell, train or consult, to multiple people anyplace worldwide, utilising MS Office products, OpenOffice, high-resolution imaging, and other data files.

* To intercommunicate across Windows, Mac, and Linux systems employing a wide-variety of web browsers.

Many professional freelancers nowadays turn to video (such as Skype, VOIP) or web conferencing (NTRMeeting, MS Office Live Meeting, GoToMeeting) as a communications tool to engage clients, a new survey has discovered. Robert Half Technology, a California-based IT staffing company, recently canvased 2,500 freelancers and 62% reported current usage or intended use of videoconferencing technology. More than one-half reacted positively about current or intended use of videoconferencing. Survey participants mentioned that these technologies assist them to interact with their clients through collaboration and provide an efficient and affordable method to preserve and share knowledge.

Survey participants also stated that web conferencing provided them with the following advantages: (list below will vary depending on the application.)

* They became much more productive

* It saved them time and hassle

* It saved them money on traveling costs

* It is rather inexpensive for a premium service

* It is FREE for up to 20 users

* It is suitable for a meeting between 2 or 200 people

* It is the next best this to meeting in person.

Some of the most popular Web conferencing applications that you can use include:

NTRMeeting

Cisco Webex

Microsoft Office Live Meeting

GoToMeeting

VIA3

Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro

VYEW

DimDim

Yugma

Additionally, a special type of web conference, Webinars, are also extremely popular communications tools. Webinars are commonly one-way, where a speaker has restricted interaction with the audience, and can include audience response canvasing to enable questions and answers or speedy examination of information introduced.

Holding a web conference differs only slightly from a personal meeting in regards to delivering material. Attendees “view” each other via a webcam which is a very different experience than being in the same room.

Following are some handy tips to ensure a winning web meeting:

* Make sure the vendor providing the web conferencing service has experience with an assortment of clients

* The vendor’s technology shouldn’t invariably be the latest because it might prevent participation across client organisations at locations where information processing technology is out of date.

* Look for significant communications and thought provoking features such as instant messaging, or the utilisation of a whiteboard to share thoughts and solutions during a web conference.

* Work through the content of the web conference employing a small focus group ahead of time to guarantee the material runs smoothly and will be easily understood.

* Always leave time at the conclusion of the meeting for a question and answer session.
Web conferencing technology represents the wave of the future and permits freelance communications to occur with greater simplicity and access for people and business´s worldwide. The key to employing the technology correctly is by wisely selecting a vendor, assure your audience remains involved in the subject matter and that participation rates with your clients persist.