On-line Collaboration Software

At the CTC Conference Call last Friday, I was asked to do a brief presentation on web-conferencing tools. Naturally, a presentation about web-conferencing tools deserves a presentation given on a web-conferencing tools, especially since the call consists of people literally all over the US. Therefore, I set up an account on Vyew, and gave my presentation there. You can still view the presentation (and its mishaps) if you go to Room 313064.

I chose Vyew primarily because it's free and doesn't require any downloads (other than a Flash plug-in for your browser). We also didn't require VOIP or any other fancy features. It worked relatively well, for our purposes. The call was part presentation, part experimentation. Everyone was able to see the presentation, and seemed to have a good time exploring the features, especially the whiteboard. This was somewhat problematic, in that I allowed everyone the ability to modify the presentation, which can be a bit distracting when the slide you're talking about disappears. At one point, I had to reload my powerpoint slide, so if you visit room on Vyew, you will see a very disjointed set of slides. When I was done, the other VISTAs on the call had a good time with the whiteboard feature.

I also attached is my original powerpoint slides, as well as my Excel file which contains a comparison of several web-conferencing tools, including a side-by-side comparison of their features and price.<

Comment from danielle martin on December 12, 2006 - 9:22pm

Hi Tim,

Can you post the files here on your blog?

I wish I had this a week ago. My presentation last Tuesday using WebEx failed completely, because I did a Windows Update and they didn't support the Windows Media Player 11 I needed to show my videos. Then when I tied to uninstall it and restart the session, it totally lost the whole event. Not fun. Did you find any tips in your research on best practices/techniques for presenting using this software vs. doing it in person?

Thanks,
Danielle

Comment from Tim Wescott on December 13, 2006 - 2:29pm

Hmmm. I know I uploaded them. I'll try again.

EDIT: Looks like I succeeded this time.