Any readers of this blog got anything to say about [cheap] video-conferencing?
The Information and Communication Board of the One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church (Scotland branch) was discussing this at our last meeting. I’ve done msn based meetings before now, but wonder whether anyone knows how to do meetings for about a dozen people online.
For example, anyone know whether camfrog works? Anyone a member? Would it be suitable?
Ever tried Skype conferencing? You’d need webcams all round, of course, if you wanted to smile at each other …..
You could ask Edublogger – http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/ – who seems to know everything about this stuff.
I’ve done a lot of meetings on MSN, Yahoo and AOL with several other parties but not all with video capabilities. AOL and Yahoo were easier to use. I know Dad uses Skype for business conferencing but I doubt they use a video connection.
I’ve tried Skype and iChat (AIM) and Skype won for image-quality. But they also limit to 4 participants in a conference call (well, presumably unless someone pays them).
Ah, Mr Ewan Mcintosh, a fellow employee at LT Scotland. Our usual tool of choice is Marratech (www.marratech.com) which can work with a central server or the free version works with a one of the endpoints acting as the server. The advantage of Marratech is the multi-conferencing facility (ie it can do more than end to end) and the ability to share an online whiteboard or to share applications within the conference.
Michael Fuller at TISEC was looking at various ways of doing this last year.
Kennedy
Chris & Edublogger pointed me towards Flash Meeting earlier this month. I haven’t tried it, but it looks promising.
Presumably all this works only as well as the broadband speed? Blogstead is at the end of the line in every sense.
Bishop David
You are right, this is all predicated on having a fast broadband link and a reasonably fast computer attached to it. The presumption is that it is easier to get to one of those from Blogstead (or from wherever people find themselves) than to get to the General Synod Office.
Some further information available at
http://www.vide.net/cookbook/cookbook.en/
and
http://www.ja.net/services/publications/factsheets/index.html
If you are trying to run a VC with 12 participants then I think you have to be a bit careful. My experience is that it becomes a bit cumbersome for a ‘discussion’ type meeting.
Kennedy
Kennedy