Web conferencing is an attempt to put half of the airlines out of business. Rather than fly across the country for a meeting, groups can meet virtually using software and the Internet to conduct business.
Done wrong, it’s a catastrophe waiting to happen – an incompetent or inexperienced presenter attempting a lackluster presentation across eight time zones with bad equipment is a giant cluster of fail. But done right, it’s better than a live conference – cheaper, faster and more informative.
Unlike a regular teleconference, a Web conference can be interactive. The presenter can take an audience through interactive slides and data, and can see when people are following and when people need more guidance. A webinar can also provide VoIP conferencing and streaming video to participants. (As an aside – the term “webinar,” like “freeware” and “netbook,” no longer serves as a defensible trademark.) Web hosting is distinct from video conferencing using Web cameras to create a virtual boardroom meeting – you can do both at once, but they’re different things. Some people lump the group together with teleconferencing, VoIP services and other technologies under the banner of UCC -- Unified Communications and Collaboration. The term UCC began to gain currency in late 2006.
Most Web conferencing software allows a meeting to switch presenters mid-stream and to record the conference session. Some allow a presenter to take control of the desktop of a participant, to demonstrate software or guide through data.
Literally hundreds of companies compete in the Web conferencing market. Cisco Systems’ WebEx commanded the Web conferencing market for years. Citrix’ GoToMeeting, Microsoft Office Live Meeting and IBM Lotus Sametime Unyte each offer services backed by a large technology investment. And Google Wave – an experimental, invitation-only collaboration tool – may challenge everyone eventually. But the industry – including some of our partners – has a wide range of companies targeting specific niches. HyperOffice released HyperMeeting in 2008 as part of a larger suite of office collaboration products. Jive Software focuses on combining social media and collaboration. Box.net offers a virtual “deal room” for secure documents involved in negotiations.
DimDim and Zoho are open-source Web conferencing alternatives. DimDim requires no software download and supports 20 attendees. Customer support and the ability to customize meetings require a subscription. It’s a beta and it’s free – expect bugs.
Web conferencing, generally, seeks small and medium sized businesses as a target market. That said, there’s a sweet spot in company size for this to work well. A company generally has to have reasonably competent IT person around to make Web conferencing work well. That implies a company large enough to have a computer person around … or at least someone has to have some facility with Web tools.
The equipment for a Web conference may be no more complex than a three-year-old laptop and a fast Internet connection, or may require elaborate Web cameras. Some services require no software download at all, with the whole set up working as a software-as-a-service subscription. It depends on what you’re trying to do.
Web conferences need to be treated with the same level of security you would apply to any communication online. If you plan to share sensitive information, you must have security software installed on your computer and on the computers you communicate with. Security will naturally influence your choice of conference provider as well – you’ll need to use a service with at least SSL security protection.
Web conferencing can be a bit of a bandwidth hog. A Web conference with Powerpoint slides might eat 200kbps of bandwidth per user. A good cable modem, fast DSL or T1 line should be able to handle it, assuming you don’t have a warehouse full of people on the conference. Reliability of your Internet connection will be a more important consideration – if your connection goes down mid-conference, you’re done.
As should be obvious, firing people by teleconference is bad. This kind of company is unsuited to Web conferencing. This kind of company, however, doesn’t appear to exist.
Cost isn’t the only factor here. Some solutions look inexpensive, but the cost to add participants may add up to more than a monthly eat-all-you-want service from another provider. You need to know how many participants you can expect to host at any one time.
If you’re a small business with limited IT expertise, you’ll need a relatively simple service. Your time is worth something. Even if it’s relatively simple for you, it needs to be dead simple for folks on the receiving end, with no downloading of software.
Pay for what you’ll need. If you’re not planning to use video conferencing, just audio and slides, then you shouldn’t use a service that costs more with a video bundle. VOIP and file sharing is fairly standard, however – you shouldn’t skip those services.
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