Building an Online Event

The most important aspects of any online interaction are its purpose and its audience: what is the objective of the interaction, and who will participate. In this way, online interactions are like face-to-face meetings. Recall that in preparation for a face-to-face meeting, the organizer must decide what medium is most appropriate and then have the appropriate tools ready – such as projector, handouts, microphones and sign language/captioning system for the hearing impaired. The presence of some resources are taken for granted, such as whiteboard/blackboard (although the presence of functional chalk and pens can never be taken for granted).

In online interactions, the medium also should be chosen to fit the message and the user community. And then the appropriate tools need to be prepared - such as web conferencing services, web-based discussion groups, and software installation on the presenter’s computer. Even to the experienced online presenter, none of these online interaction tools can be taken for granted, as they are frequently changing, and dependent on difficult to control factors like the audience members’ computer and telephone capabilities.

On the Internet today, companies providing software and services for online interactive events are generally developing three categories of products, aimed at three major purpose/audience categories. These are:

Courses for distance education, mostly for adults in corporate or higher education settings.

Meetings among members of a team or task force, usually within a single company, and sometimes between two or three companies on a common project (e.g., between a company and its suppliers)

Outreach from one individual or group to another group, involving a presentation that seeks to introduce new services or resources. This might be used from a company’s marketing group to its field sales force, or from a company to its customers or potential customers.

I. How to Plan, Design, and Conduct on Online Event

II. Technology Overview

1. Teleconference – Example providers: MCI, AT&T
   · Also called a “conference call”; typically participants are given a phone number and access code enabling them to call in to the teleconference “room” at the designated time; Does not require a computer.


2. Discussion groups/boards – Example providers: Yahoo Egroups, webboard and Webcrossing
   · Allows posting and responding to messages in a forum which can be moderated and organized into “threads”
   · Typically for building conversation over days


3. Live text chat – Example providers: Yahoo, MSN or ICQ instant messengers; Chatspace server software and Webcrossing server software or hosted service
   · Allows multiple participants to type a sentence or so at a time and be viewed by all other participants
   · Technically easy and inexpensive to have a conversation everyone equally able to contribute, but because of that very reason, can be difficult to control and prevent a few people from dominating.


4. Live voice chat – Example providers: Yahoo, MSN or ICQ instant messengers
   · Similar to text chat except that participants can send snippets with their voice, by holding down a “talk” button
   · Like having a conversation with walkie-talkies, but there’s a longer transmission delay.


5. Registration and tracking tools
   · This covers the flow of issues “around” meetings and online classes, such registering users, storing user information and scheduling
   · These are often part of “suites” of tools tied to specific interaction tools


6. Media Creation Tools – Example software: PresentationPro PowerCONVERTER or Real Networks Real Presenter
   · Assist with the creation of content (such as slides with audio) but not with distributing it


7. E-Learning Tools and Services – Example provider: DigitalThink
   · This broad category includes a huge variety of players aimed at creating coursework and “virtual classrooms”, both for corporate and higher education markets.


8. Online Slideshow or Video – Example providers: Presedia, PresentationPro
   · Easy way to create and upload just powerpoint slides synchronized with a speaker’s voice, for later playback
   · Or mail a videotape and have it made available for later online viewing


9. Web Conferencing – Example providers: WebEx, HorizonLive, Chatterbox
   · Incorporates many of the features listed above, such as registration/tracking, teleconference, text and voice chat.
   · Adds live broadcast of virtually any document or application that the presenter can open on his/her computer, such as slides or a web page.


10. Virtual Workplace – Example providers: eRoom, Flypaper
    · Combines most of the tools above with: document sharing, document version control, and document routing.
    · A power tool for a small group working closely to complete a project where efficiency and collaboration by far-flung people is paramount.

III. Participants' Technical Constraints

There are many differences between the various platforms in use by online event participants. Some platform differences are obvious: single phone line user (dialup connection to the internet) compared to someone with a networked (DSL, cable modem or business network) computer and a separate telephone. Others are much more subtle: different versions of the browser software. While we may ask participants to download a small “plug-in” program in order to participate in an event, we cannot expect people to upgrade any major software or get a new type of internet connection.

Many services offer multiple delivery technology (such as delivering voice over a separate telephone while showing slides through the internet connection). At times the presenter may not even be aware how the presentation is being received. However, realistically, the current state of technology demands an awareness of the expected audience platform(s) and designing the presentation appropriately.

In preparing to choose appropriate software or services for an event or series of events, to ensure the greatest chance of success, consider some of the possible technical challenges with regard to participants’ platforms:

Lack of a separate phone line
Most Web conferencing services offer a teleconferencing service in conjunction with their service, so you can dial into that with a separate phone line. They provide you with a telephone number and passcode to enter the conference call. This is the most reliable way to hear the audio portion of a conference, although it is usually billed extra on a per-minute basis.

The use of a separate phone line to hear the voice on a conference, adds cost but virtually eliminates audio “drop outs”. But if this is not available, then there are 2 options for audio delivery through the internet connection:

1. Streaming – Can be synchronous or asynchronous; because a continuous “stream” of data must be sent across the internet to each attendee’s PC, excessive delays on the internet can cause the voice to disappear for a while. Even under normal circumstances, the audio is delayed by 1 to 5 seconds. Many services also allow attendees to send audio to the conference using voice chat. Note that use of streaming audio over a slow internet connection will cause graphical changes on the screen to slow down.


2. Download – Asynchronous only; The PC waits until the entire file is downloaded before playing it. Services such as Presedia download audio one slide at a time. The user will always hear ungarbled audio, but might have to wait several seconds between sound clips.

If your presentation will be live, and some audience members will be listening via streaming audio, you might want to ensure that the slides can generally communicate the ideas, so that any given part of the voice presentation becomes optional. And, to compensate for the delay, the speaker should pause before changing slides.

Lack of a particular version of browser
Many services don’t fully support the very newest or oldest versions of the Netscape or Internet Explorer (IE) browsers. In fact products such as Chatterbox don’t support any version of Netscape.

Lack of Multimedia programs and browser plug-ins
Nobody wants to install a major application like Real Player just so they can see your conference. But some of the web conferencing services require this as an alternative to dialing into a teleconference on a separate phone line.

Slow internet connection
Slow internet connections cause screen images to change slowly and steaming voice to “drop out” from time to time. An internet connection can be slow because it is a dialup connection, or due to “congestion” on the internet. So even if all participants have “high speed” internet connections, at any given moment, they could become slow. This is why dialing into a teleconference is the only way to guarantee that the audio will come through uninterrupted.

Lack of Administrative Rights on the PC
Most of the Web conferencing services require the user to download and install a small program. Many PCs are “locked down” by their issuing IT department to prevent users from installing software. The “on demand” nature of web conferencing may not allow time for an administrator to “unlock” the PC. Participants need to be encouraged to install the software well before the conference date.

Accessibility refers to the ability of a product or service to be used by those with disabilities, such as hearing or visual impairment. The potential exists for online events to actually be more accessible to those with disabilities than in-person events. For example, computers have the ability to read text aloud and to display closed-captioning. However, there is still a lot of progress yet to be made toward this eventuality.

In June 2001, the federal government introduced standards for making computing systems “accessible” for their disabled employees. All products sold to the federal government must meet these standards, called “Section 508”. In brief, these standards state that:

• For the visually impaired: web applications must be compatible with “screen readers” (special programs used to read text aloud) and graphics or animation must have an alternate text explanation. Also, programs should be designed so that use of keystrokes rather than mouse clicks can perform most functions.


• For the hearing impaired: The words of an audio presentation should be displayed as captioning (not required in all cases).

Since the federal government is such a large buyer of computing systems, it is expected that vendors will gradually redesign their products to comply with section 508. For cost reasons, these companies will likely make these compliant products available to all their customers, rather than maintaining 2 separate product lines.

Indeed, since the federal government published the section 508 standard, software and web services vendors have been starting to take notice:

• Skillpath has made nearly all of their 500+ online courses accessible
• Horizon Live says they are adding accessibility features to their Web Conferencing products
• Akiva, maker of Webboard discussion list software and Chatspace text chat have announced that Webboard now meets the section 508 standard.
• Macromedia, maker of underlying software used by many web companies including those that provide web slide shows (Presedia and PresentationPro), announced that text published with any version of Flash can now be read by one of the screen readers – GW Window Eyes version 4.2, provided that the attendee has Flash 6 or higher, Internet Explorere and a PC (not a Mac). This means that developers now have more tools at their disposal to assist them in creating accessible presentation services.
• More information about accessibility being implemented in e-learning: Learning Circuits

Despite this progress, the majority of web services still make little if any mention of accessibility, leaving it up to users to discover just how accessible different websites are.

Making Presentations Accessible
Making presentations accessible involves much more than simply choosing web presentation services that have accessibility features. Careful design of the presentation and judicious use of services are both imperative. Here are some suggestions:

• When visual info is not usable by screen readers, use voice discussion to convey the meaning.
• Have people with disabilities “test” your presentation early on.
• Post your slides as an HTML file in addition to whatever format used by the web service. Powerpoint provides the option to save files in this format, which is easily read by screen readers. If you choose to use Chatterbox, then you will also use the HTML version in your live broadcast, so you only need this one format.
• If possible, post transcript of audio lecture and Q&A
• Note that visually impaired people are most likely using a PC, rather than Mac, because of the greater availability of screen readers, so accessible PC-only products like Chatterbox might be an option.

To learn more, see these 3 web sites: Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), AbleTV, and Learning Circuits.

The presenter (speaker) at a live online event should ideally:

• Use a PC rather than a Mac. Even the services which officially support Macs do not test their products as thoroughly on them. Setup on the Mac can be more complicated, sometimes only working with OS9. And a few features of the service may simply not work on the Mac.
• Use a broadband (high speed) connection to the internet.
• Use a separate phone line for audio.
• Pause frequently, especially right after changing slides (each slide may take a few seconds to load on participants screens).
• Keep the presentation shorter than an equivalent offline event.
• Stop often to ask for feedback – make use of polling features.
• Encourage participants to use a separate phone line (teleconference) for audio (if available) for all “live” presentations; although WebEx and Horizonlive allow people to hear voice through their computer, the voice can “drop out” occasionally, and it slows down the drawing of graphics on participants’ screens.

An excellent source of additional tips is Webseminarian