Posts Tagged ‘Web Applications’

Web Conference Features

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Ever since a web conference has been available there have been a few features that have always been available. 

Whiteboarding – One of them is the ability to white board with your participants.  The concept is that if you could do it in a physical meeting room you would want to do it in a web conference since it is meant to simulate that meeting environment.  The web conference version of whiteboarding allows participants and the host of the web conference to draw freestyle on the whiteboard in the meeting space and all participants are able to see the results of the drawing on the board and also to participate themselves.  This particular feature has some uses but this web conference capability has not seen wide adoption I think because people are not as used to drawing with their mouse and it is not as easy to do as walking up to a whiteboard, grabbing a marker and drawing.  Don’t get me wrong, I think it is pretty easy to use, but people are just not as apt to do it as they would be in a physical meeting room situation.

PowerPoint Sharing – The ability to share a PowerPoint slide show with your participants during a web conference is a key feature that has helped lead the way to web conferencing’s success.  People have quickly become comfortable with doing a remote presentation using a web conference and sharing a PowerPoint slide show.  I think that the sense of detachment is easier to comprehend for a host since in a presentation environment you are basically by yourself showing slide and sharing comments whether you are in a person to person meeting or not.

Application Sharing – When application sharing first came out the thought was that participants could truly collaborate on a web conference by sharing applications and letting others control the application to get tasks done on a web conference.  I am not sure this has really happened yet, but people do find that simply sharing their desktop or an application on a web conference is easy to use and understand for the host and participants alike.  All you have to do is click on the application and all the participants are seeing what is on your desktop.  Its that simple.

Now there are a few more features that have been introduced on some web conference platforms that really enhance the experience.  One of them is the ability to record the web conference.  With a push of a button you can record the web conference and the audio portion of the call.  This makes sharing the presentation with people who missed the live web conference simple.  Another cool feature that is gaining momentum is the ability to provide files for the participants to download from the web conference.  The equivalent of hand outs in a physical meeting, this web conference feature makes it easy to provide materials to your attendees as part of the meeting.  And another feature people seem to like is the ability to send a meeting thank you and survey following the meeting as an integrated part of the web conference.  This is especially liked by people who a re running seminars as they are trying to connect to a n audience that they are many times trying to sell something to. 

The web conference feature list continues to grow because the use in web conferencing is on the rise and people want to better emulate the person to person meeting.  Look for more web conference features in the future as more and more people continue to adopt this valuable service.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Web Conference vs. Conference Call

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

A Web Conference versus a Conference Call, is it a fair fight?  It is hard in some respects to compare a web conference with a conference call.  A conference call is held on a telephone and has no visual element to it unless everyone looks at the same document at the same time you sent to them previously.  But then, you really don’t know if they are looking at that document do you?  A web conference on the other hand allows you to show documents, web sites, applications, etc to all of the participants on your web conference at the same time.  It even allows you to edit the document real time and can even allow the participants to edit the document on your computer.  And a web conference generally has a conference call component to it unless you are meeting with a single participant.  Then you can just call them on the phone.  So, is it really a contest.

Well, no.  It really isn’t, but most people are choosing to hold a conference call instead of a web conference so why is that.  A conference call has certainly become easy to use and most people have been exposed to the practice of dialing an access number and putting in a pass codeto enter a conference all these days that we rarely have to explain the technology anymore.  And no one is intimidated by using a telephone to access a system and provide commands to the system using a touch tone command like you do to control a conference call.  People are just used to it.  And a conference call provides the basic means needed to communicate with other people over long distance, a voice connection.  Let’s face it, the telephone has been used to communicate over great distances and has been accepted by everyone as an essential means to communicate for business and personal reasons.  On a conference call you can discuss anything and refer to documents if everyone has access to them or was distributed them prior to the meeting.

A web conference on the other hand is relatively new.  It has really only been in existence less than 15 years and only in the last five or so become widely accepted by businesses.  But web conferencing can do what a regular conference call just can’t do.  A web conference can allow the host to share visuals with the participants on a conference call.  And as the saying goes “A picture is worth a thousand words”.  So adding a visual element to any meeting helps with the retention of the material and the engagement of the audience.  I think the only reason that every conference call is a web conference is that people are just not that used to communicating using their computers as they are with their telephones.  As people continue to integrate they way they use their computers with their telephones there will be a shift in the way we communicate and using visuals to help communicate will be the norm.

So, is it fair to compare a conference call and a web conference.  Not really, a web conference wins hands down.  But for now, the telephone has a 100 year head start in establishing itself as the de facto communication device and is winning the race.  For more on Web conferencing visit www.zipconferencing.com

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