Most of
the vendors researched for this survey provide hosted services, meaning
that the company provides all of the infrastructure for registration and
broadcast. All you need to provide is conference participants with PCs and
telephone lines. Many of the vendors also sell their software, allowing
organizations to build and run their own conferencing servers. If you have
your own IT staff, it is possible to consider running a conferencing system.
Before doing that, take these factors into consideration:
- Have you experimented
with the various hosted services and found one particular format that
fits your organization well?
- Do you have the
staff to not only keep the service running during all hours of use,
but also to answer support questions from attendees?
- Do you want to
customize the solution beyond what a hosted service can offer, such
as integrating with your proprietary database systems?
- Do you have the
bandwidth to support all expected users well? (if many of the users
will be on a local LAN, an internal server could increase performance)
In general, it probably
doesn’t make sense to run a service “in house”, unless
you have artificially low expenses, such as underutilized IT staff that
you need to keep. However, in specific cases where your usage pattern differs
from the service provider’s “typical” customer, you might
be able to save money running it internally.Running in-house might make
sense in these limited cases:
- Training that
occurs largely inside an organization’s network may see better
quality audio & video if the training server is physically located
on the local network.
- When tight linkage
between the online conferencing system and other enterprise information
systems is desired, a hosted system may not offer this flexibility.
- When software is
relatively simple, such as a text chat or discussion groups server,
and a hosted solution with adequate flexibility cannot be found.
III. Centralized Service vs. Peer-to-Peer
There are 2 major designs for web conferencing products: Centralized and
Peer-to-Peer. Most of the established conferencing services are centralized
– meaning that a single flow of communication goes between the presenter’s
computer and a central server run by the service provider. Each audience
member opens up a communication stream to the central server. The server
and its network connections are designed to handle large numbers of audience
members without slowing down.
Many new conferencing services (such as WebConference.com) us the Peer-to-Peer
design. This generally cuts costs because the central server, if any, operates
simply to match attendees with the presenter. After the match is made, each
of the attendees open up a separate communication stream to the presenter’s
computer. Therefore, the presenter’s computer needs to have a fast
enough internet connection to accommodate all of these separate streams.
Dialup connections are not recommended if there will be more than 1 or 2
attendees. Also, in order for attendees to be able to “open”
connections to the presenter’s PC, security measures such as “firewalls”
at the presenter’s site might need to be programmed to partially drop
their guard.
In the case of WebConference.com, the company has stated that even one audience
member on a slow connection can slow down the entire conference for all
participants. This is not necessarily the case with all Peer-to-Peer designs.
IV. Chat Technology
Text or voice based chat allow people to have live conversations
online. Voice chat is more similar to a telephone conference call (although
more like talking on walkie talkies), lending itself to a single conversation
thread in a single “room”. Text chat allows multiple conversations
(threads) to occur simultaneously. That can make it both slow and confusing
once there are more than 5 active participants. People either love or hate
text chat programs. Text-based chat has been in existence since the early
days of the internet, in the forms of:
- “talk”
function on old timeshare computers
- Internet Relay
Chat (IRC) standard
Fast-forward to the
year 2000 and beyond and we see:
- Instant Messaging
(IM) programs from Yahoo, AOL, MSN, ICQ and others; allowing advanced
features such as voice chat and even video
Although these mechanisms
work well, not all users have the software on their systems to use them,
and, with the exception of IRC, a group conversing together must all use
the same software. Furthermore, the wide variety of features on IM programs
may confuse the novice user and the download sizes of these would make people
unlikely to install these just to participate in a single event.
For online events, “chat” software should allow users to talk
to each other, or send questions to a moderator with little more than a
common web browser. It should also allow easy or no registration of users,
be easy to integrate as one window in a web site, and be accompanied by
minimal if any advertising.
Chat software running on web servers can provide this service to users with
web browsers. In some cases, a user is asked to download client software
but this tends to be a small download requiring the user to only answer
“yes” to get it. Other software requires no download at all.Chat
software can be either purchased and loaded on a web server, or purchased
as hosted (ASP) services.
Comparison Chart of Selected Products
| Chat
Product |
Download
Size |
Ads? |
Examples |
| Instant
Messengers |
> 2M |
Y |
Yahoo, AOL,
MSN, ICQ – includes voice, text and video; often a confusing
array of other features |
| Ivisit
– specialized instant messenger |
1M |
N |
Ivisit
– free lightweight Mac & PC application; includes voice,
text and video |
| Web-based
commercial chat (moderate cost) |
< 0.5M |
N |
Chatspace
– an established player with a flexible software-only offering;
text only & not accessible
WebCrossing
– also a well established text-only vendor; offered as both
software and as a hosted solution; in both cases, pricing is usage-based |
| Web-based
consumer chat |
1M |
Y |
Yahoo Chat
– High quality service with both Java & html versions;
voice chat available but only on PCs; 1 advertisement window; occupies
full browser window.
Delphiforums
– similar sounding service to Yahoo Chat; premium service
eliminates ads but all users must subscribe to this
TalkCity –
similar sounding service to Yahoo Chat |
V. Discussion Groups
Discussion groups organize conversations of “postings” (similar
to emails) into “threads”, keeping all messages about a certain
topic together in one place.
Unlike web conferencing and chat, discussion groups generally do not require
the user to download any software, and they tend to work with any browser.
The top commercial discussion groups providers are Webcrossing and Webboard.
Webboard by Akiva appears to offer the only accessibly discussion group
software which meets government 508 standards. The discussion server software
can be purchased directly from Akiva. Akiva provides hosted discussion group
services only for customers with high usage. For smaller numbers of users,
Carlsbad Computer
Works offers hosting for $1/user/month (50 user minimum + $100 setup
fee). This looks like a good way to test the service before investing in
a server. However, if you intend to tightly integrate discussion groups
with an existing website and user list, you will likely need to run your
own webboard server.
Quality, free consumer-oriented discussion groups are hosted by Yahoo Groups.
VI. Web Conferencing Services - Detailed
Comparison Chart
| Company
or Category |
HorizonLive |
WebEx |
Web
conference
.com |
talking-
communities-
online.com |
| Product |
|
Training Center |
|
Chatterbox |
| Summary |
sync web conference
collaboration service. |
Sync web conference
collaboration service. Note: they have divided product into several
services. "training center" is the only one that has VOIP/Teleconference
integration. |
screen sharing,
VOIP, chat and free teleconference. But one slow user can bring conf
to a crawl. |
High quality
VOIP chat, text chat, web tours, application sharing. No teleconference
option. |
| Viewer
Platform requirements; incl admin rights? |
Win, Mac or Unix.
Any ver 4+ browser except Netscape 6.1. Java required. Real Audio
or Quicktime to hear 1-way audio. Hearme plugin needed only for 2-way
audio. Or dialin with telephone to get audio. |
Win, Mac OS9+,
IE5+/NS4.75+. Active-x plugin 1M; have alternate non-activeX plugin |
Win & Mac
OK; Netscape & IE; download viewer (1 to 1.7M); on Win, installs
in browser, for Mac need to save then install. |
PC only: 98,
ME, 2000, IE only; No Macs or Netscape |
| Presenter
Platform Requirements (in addition to those listed above) |
Realencoder,
quicktime encoder OR use separate telephone to dialin to "phone
bridge". Video camera optional. |
|
|
|
Special Needs Pros/Cons |
508 compliant
by 9/2002 |
no plans for
508 compliance |
|
highly accessible |
| cost
|
$1500 per event
with up to 100 attendees & 1 presenter; $15K for server license
for 25 seats/yr - can have multiple sessions; Jennifer asked that
prices not be published |
$150/month per
"permanent" seats, unlimited use (w/nonprofit discount);
if concurrent use exceeds paid seats, additional people can participate,
billed at $6/15min. Teleconference bridge $.05 to $.20/min. |
$40/month unlimited
use with unlimited # participants. Free teleconference up to 30 users. |
$10/user/month
or purchase server software at $500 for 10 concurrent users |
| Archiving/Replay
Later |
Y |
Y |
N |
N |
| Reporting |
|
archive quiz
results; save as csv |
none |
N |
| Audio
(2-way, 1-way or none) |
1-WAY w/Real
audio; 2-way with HearMe |
2-WAY |
2-Way "intercom"
only; best to use their teleconference service |
2-WAY |
| bridge
between telephone audio and internet audio? |
Yes, 1-way streaming
audio can be heard on telephone; HearMe audio cannot be heard on phone |
Yes, Can hear
VOIP audio on telephone and vice versa (full integration); only on
new "training center" product |
N |
N/A |
| bandwidth
use: server-centric or peer-to-peer? |
server-centric |
server-centric |
peer-to-peer;
everyone goes at speed of person with slowest connection! |
server-centric |
| Max #
attendees |
1000 |
1000 |
(2 if presenter
using dialup) |
100? |
| Quality
of Technical Support (to presenter & attendees) |
High |
Medium |
Low |
Low |
| Product
reviews |
Some good reviews |
top reviews from
most sources |
none found anywhere |
none found anywhere |
VII. References
Note: Most references consist of website addresses scattered throughout
the document. The following are additional materials for those doing more
in-depth research. CNET
Review of WebExDec
01 article from PC World
Decision Tool from Genesys
Elearning Resource Web sites
Learning Circuits- good e-learning articles, updated monthly
Great web-based training site links: (it’s a bit outdated, however)
ZDnet Tech Update
IEEE approach to making lectures available online: (scroll down past
first 2 or 3 screenfuls)
Section
508 compliance, including section on web applications.
|
