May 30, 2005
Web Conferencing 101
I've been using web conferencing software, namely Microsoft's Live Meeting (formerly known as Placeware) and Webex, for over 4 years now. These are great tools, and honestly, I can't remember how we lived without them!
But trust me, presenting to a group of 10 people in a room is quite different from presenting to 10 people in diverse locations, none of whom you can actually see. I infinitely prefer the first scenario, but I don't always relish spending time and money traveling to a remote location to give a short talk or training session.
I'm still learning how to make the best of these online sessions, but for those of you out there just getting started, I thought I might be able to offer a few useful tips.
First, let's talk logistics.
- If you want to start on time, attendees should be instructed to join the web conference at least 5 minutes in advance of the time the conference is due to start. It can take a few minutes to download the necessary plug-ins and get settled in.
- If you're the presenter, ALWAYS log into the conference call and the web conference at least 5-10 minutes before the presentation is set to start. It can be confusing (or impossible) for attendees to try to join a web conference when the host isn't present, and remember, you've told them to join in advance!
- By the way, I always suggest that attendees join the audio conference call before logging on to the web meeting. That way if they're having difficulties joining, I can try to talk them through it.
- Remind attendees to mute their phone unless they have a comment or question. Background noise can be very disruptive over a conference call, with or without the web conference!
- Don't forget to check to make sure that the audience is seeing on their screen what you THINK they're seeing on the screen. I recently forgot to turn on desktop sharing, and I rattled on for several minutes before I was informed that they weren't seeing anything. Duh. You might want to check in with participants at regular intervals to make sure that things are still running well on their end and that you are all, literally, on the same page.
- Close your email program. Outlook can interrupt your presentation in a number of different ways. You can always turn off notification, etc., but it's usually easier, and more fail safe, to just close Outlook altogether.
- Make sure your computer is securely plugged in. Okay, this one probably goes without saying, but I did once accidentally knock the power cord out of the socket, and since I was the host, all of the participants were also kicked out of the conference. Everyone had to get logged in all over again. It wasn't pretty.
- Keep your web conferences to no more than 60 minutes. It's hard for attendees to stay alert for longer than that, even when you're presenting in person. The likelihood of participants staring at a computer screen for hours on end is low. They'll leave to get a cup of coffee and you won't even know they're gone.
- Take advantage of the ability to record your training sessions if you're using a conferencing service that supports it.
Now on to presentation techniques.
- If you're presenting to a group in a remote location, draft someone in the group to be your eyes and ears. I usually discuss this with the individual in advance of the meeting. I ask them to please interrupt me if people are looking mystified at something I've said, or if they're asking each other what the heck I'm talking about. (That's the disadvantage of that mute button that I mentioned above!)
- If possible, I like to have some "live" attendees in my location. It helps me stay engaged.
- If you DO have a live audience at your location, MAKE SURE TO REPEAT QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to the whole group! There's nothing that will make people feel left out faster than dead air with the faint sound of conversation going on in the background.
- Stop and ask if there are any questions, but don't be flustered by a few seconds of dead air. Silence is not the enemy. I usually just wait a few seconds to make sure that people have the opportunity to speak up, and if no one does, I move on. Note that if you ask for questions, then keep talking to fill the time, no one will be ABLE to ask questions. Though with most conferencing services you can take questions via a chat box, which gives you another option for audience participation.
- Let me repeat, silence is not the enemy. It may feel even more uncomfortable in a web conference to not fill the air, but a few seconds of silence here and there while you get your bearings is not as uncomfortable as it may seem to you. In fact, it may allow people another opportunity to break in with questions or comments.
- Try using a polling slide to get feedback from the audience. Many attendees find it difficult to speak up during a conference call. But you need to connect somehow, so take a quick, but relevant poll if it's appropriate.
Web conferencing is a great way to train and collaborate; it just requires a slightly different perspective. I hope these tips help.
If you have web conferencing tips and experiences of your own, please share them!
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)March 13, 2005
Instant Meeting
If you're not using web conferencing tools for training and/or collaboration, you're missing a great opportunity to connect with people that you otherwise might not reach. Though these tools are quite inexpensive when compared with something like video conferencing, price still can be an obstacle.
If cost and ease of use is holding you back, you've got no more excuses. Take a look at the PC Magazine article, "Instant Meeting" for reviews of seven services including GoToMeeting Corporate, which gets their Editors Choice.
Most of these tools are great for small meetings with fewer than 10 people. (Webex and Live Meeting that can handle hundreds; for a price, of course.) And these simpler tools don't have all of the bells and whistles that the big guys offer, but most people won't miss things such as integrated audio conferencing. But I certainly would miss the ability to easily record the online sessions, a feature that's not offered by any of the services on the list with the exception of Linktivity WebDemo Hosted.
By the way, Live Meeting is getting a face lift this month. I'm hoping for easier setup. Their current administrative interface just cries out for usability testing.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 01:28 PM | Comments (0)August 26, 2004
Web Conferencing - I Want it All
Someone must have made a rule that no one tool is allowed to have EVERYTHING that you need and want. When it comes to web conferencing, the major players, such as Webex and Live Meeting, offer relatively mature products, so it's hard to accept their limitations. Consequently, I've become very fickle, trying new products soon after their introduction. Then disappointment sets in when I learn that the new kid on the block is missing some critical feature.
I have modest web conferencing needs. I typically use these products for training sessions rather than collaboration, so desktop and application sharing are my bread and butter. Not a problem, just about any web conferencing product offers those features. So what are my complaints?
Webex
Webex meetings are quick and easy to set up. I have a webconference room, and can pop in whenever I like. The participant and host password are always the same. And it's very easy to pass control of the conference from the host to any other participant. But I can't easily record the audio and video from our training sessions. Darn.
Live Meeting
Placeware was bought by Microsoft, and was subsequently renamed Live Meeting. Funny thing...it seems to have become unnecessarily complex during the transition. That sure didn't take very long! :-) Just setting up the meeting is a challenge....what's the difference between an auditorium meeting place and a web meeting place? According to customer support, there really isn't any difference. So why do I have to choose!
On my last web conference I must have forgotten to specify that I wanted to record the session. At least I assume that was the problem since the record menu option was unavailable to me.....but why isn't the record option just there? Why does it have to be specified in advance? Do attendees always require a password? Apparently the answer is no, but it's not clear in the setup that you can leave that field blank. If I want to co-host the conference, then both presenters MUST log in as as presenters. You can't pass control on the fly as you can with WEBEX.
On the other hand, their ability to record straight from the interface, and seamlessly include the telephone conference call for the audio portion is relatively unusual in web conferencing, and the one feature that keeps me coming back.
Breeze
I tried Macromedia's Breeze, which was flexible almost to a fault. How many different screen layouts do you really need? But because it uses Flash, which most computers already have, only the host needs to install software, which is a definite plus. Still, they don't offer a pay-as-you-go option, which is a deal-killer for me. I'm just not ready to commit.
GoToMeeting
The people who brought you GoToMypc.com have introduced GoToMeeting. I haven't tried it, but the price is quite reasonable, and it's sounds fairly straightforward. However, it requires the installation of an executable on the host and participant PC, which can be an issue in some organizations, and they don't offer the ability to record.
Is the perfect web conferencing tool always going to be just beyond my grasp? Can a girl be happy with more than one web conferencing product? Tune in next time....
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 05:38 PM | Comments (0)January 08, 2004
Take a Meeting Online
Web conferencing is one of my favorite web tools. The ability to share an application or Powerpoint presentation with people in different physical locations is extremely powerful. It's useful to a wide variety of people such as salespeople, trainers, presenters, lawyers and certainly librarians. And most web conferencing services are easy to use, and relatively inexpensive. So what's not to like! Well, more on that later.
PC Magazine reviews the major players in the web conferencing arena, including Webex, Microsoft Office Live Meeting (aka Placeware) and Raindance in Web Conferencing: Take a Meeting Online.
The article is a good feature review. But I wish they had attempted to assess reliability in addition to the bells and whistles. All the features in the world won't help you if the site malfunctions while you have 20 people in different locations waiting to see a screenshot. When problems occur, it's hard to know if the service itself is flaky, or whether the vagaries of the Internet or your own particular network are at fault. I speak from experience, and it's not always pretty. When it's good, it's very very good. When it's bad it's awful.
Let me know what your experiences have been with the different services by sending me an email at cchick at lawlibtech dot com, and I'll post your comments. (I have temporarily turned off the comment feature due to a recent comment spamming incident, but send your comments to me, and I'll make sure they're added.)
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 08:54 PM | Comments (0)December 07, 2003
Netmeeting is Dead, Long Live Placeware
Dead may be an exaggeration. Let's just say Netmeeting has been pushed into a comfortable, though somewhat sudden, retirement.
Microsoft has announced that Netmeeting will be replaced by Office Live Meeting, aka, Placeware.
I've been using Netmeeting for several years now for training purposes. It's simple and reliable. But there's no question it has been looking a bit long in the tooth lately, and the requirement for a conferencing server to accomodate over 8 connections is limiting, to say the least. Since Microsoft's purchase of Placeware in April 2003, I was wondering what their plans were for Netmeeting. Obviously that question has been answered!
I worked with Placeware a few years back, and was very impressed with it, but at the time they didn't offer a "pay as you go" option, which WEBEX DID offer. So for those situations where I needed more than Netmeeting could handle, I typically fell back on WEBEX. It turns out that Placeware does now offer a "pay as you go" option, so I think I'll try it out again and see what they've been up to for the past couple of years.
Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)
