The Webinar Blog

Get Those Votes In For Best Webinar Days

Participation in my survey on best webinar times is still lower than I would like. We need lots of data to make a good generalization about public preferences. But I'll tell you this... Participation from the US Eastern time zone is more than double the participation from the Pacific time zone. What's the matter with you in California, Oregon, Washington, etc? Too laid back to take part?

It only takes two minutes or less to complete the short radio-button form. It doesn't even ask for your email address... You won't get on any lists.

The great thing about this survey is that the results could make your life easier! If companies know when people want to attend their webinars, they can schedule them based on your preferences rather than theirs. I'm already seeing a few surprising trends.

C'mon... make your voice heard. Every vote counts. It's an election year -- Start practicing now!

Take the survey online at www.webinarscheduling.com

 

Technorati Tags: webinar,web conferencing,web conference,web seminar,web events,survey

ShowDango Provides Webinar Indexing

Showdango is online with functionality to let visitors search, sort, and click through to upcoming webinars and webcasts. It's still in beta mode, and I usually try to wait on reviews until I know a site is completely stable and ready for prime time, but the site's creator gave me permission to write about it on my blog.

I figured it was a good time to give my impressions, since KillerStartups.com put up a mini review and I added a comment that spurred at least one angry response.

I'm all for the basic functionality offered by showdango (the branding is lowercase only). I have long been an outspoken proponent of the need for a centralized search portal for web seminars. I even created my own version as a side venture a few years ago, but it never blossomed and I let it expire with the hope that others would take up the concept and make a better go of it. Apparently CartoSoft had the same thought process and is trying the same technique of building the website as a "side project" (the comment on KillerStartups mentions this, so I don't think I'm giving away privileged information here).

Functionality is fairly basic at this stage. Event producers can register and then submit upcoming webinars to the listings database. Paid subscriptions are available that give providers a highlighted background and featured status in the listings. Visitors to the site don't have to log in... It works in the same way as most other specialized search engines. You can do a lookup based on keywords or you can choose to see listings in four labeled categories (Arts, Business & Marketing, Science, Technology) or the catch-all of "Other." You can also ask for events that have been posted recently or for events that are coming up within certain time periods (today, the next week, next month, next year).

Events are listed with a title, category, tags, short description text, date/time, and cost. Times are listed in whatever time zone the submitter used and there is no conversion function, so you need to do the math yourself. The title of the event links to whatever landing page the provider specifies... usually a registration page. There are also buttons to add the event as a calendar entry in Google Calendar or Outlook-compatible calendars with an ICAL entry. I am having a problem with version incompatibility on my computer... It won't open the ICAL appointment. This is apparently a known problem with certain implementations of Outlook and ICAL appointments, but I hadn't run across it before in my use of calendar appointments.

I'm a little disappointed by the cosmetics of the site. Hyperlinks lack visual cues to tell you what is clickable among the text items. For instance, it is not immediately apparent that you click on an event title to go to the event's landing page. And there are messages sprinkled throughout the site that say "click here to register" but only the word "here" is hyperlinked, even though it looks the same as the rest of the sentence. You end up moving your cursor around the screen, waiting to see when it changes from arrow to hand. I found the run-on nature of the listings a bit confusing at first -- Events are separated by a blank linefeed, which doesn't provide a lot of quick visual separation.

What got me in trouble in my comment on KillerStartups was my contention that the first thing your eye is drawn to on the site is big black boldface type at the upper left saying "The world's first webinar index." When I first corresponded with showdango's creator a little over a month ago, I pointed out that he was preceded by my attempt (a dead site, so not worth arguing about), EventSpan, Finervista, and Insight24. I have reported on each of those other indexing ventures in this blog. You will find recorded webcasts of mine on Insight24 (which concentrates on recorded content, usually in conjunction with paid services for client promotion and syndication). Finervista is primarily a web-crawler, looking for events automatically. I also do a lot of listings on EventSpan, which has the best set of features for my uses and interests. I mentioned some of them in my comment to show what showdango has to do to compete successfully in the space. For this, I was accused of selling out and writing a blatant sales pitch/PR blurb for EventSpan.

I'm going to veer off the subject of showdango for a moment to do a sidebar disclosure of my business relationship with EventSpan, just because it seems to be necessary and I have zero to hide. EventSpan is owned by Aperio Networks, which also owns Conferencing News and Webinar Wire. I edit and contribute to Webinar Wire. Should Webinar Wire ever turn into a profit center, I will make some money from it for my work. So far, it's a community service project. I sometimes get my stories or upcoming events featured on Conferencing News if they seem to be of value and interest to the conferencing community at large. That's a decision they make with no input from me. I have no association with, control over, or financial interest in EventSpan. I am a satisfied user and that's it.

That said, back to showdango. Just as there are many different generic web search engines, there is space for competing special-interest search engines. Each has to find its own niche and compete for business based on features, usefulness, attractiveness to its user base, and superiority over other offerings. Showdango is still in beta and may develop killer features that raise it above the crowd. But for now, that crowd needs to be acknowledged and I don't mind mentioning implementation comparisons and inaccurate marketing as I see them.

UPDATE, April 9: The fine folks at showdango responded quickly. They have changed the top of page tag line to "A pretty cool little webinar index". The prosecution withdraws its objections. Nice responsiveness and a fun sense of whimsy shown there!

Technorati Tags: webinar,webcast,search engine,webinar index,showdango,EventSpan,Finervista,Insight24,CartoSoft

Webinar Webinar Webinar... Nyah nyah!

I am proud to note a mark of distinction for this blog. It has been picked as an exemplar of the decline and fall of the English language. Not for its content or for the tortured phrasings employed in my posts, but for daring to use the word "webinar" in the title.

Yes, friends and neighbors, it's that time of year again... The attentions of the self-appointed word police have once more been turned to protecting America from the linguistic decay that threatens to destroy our great nation.

As you may have seen in numerous press stories (they eat this stuff up), Lake Superior State University has published its 33rd (!) annual "List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness." Never mind the fact that their criteria and examples have nothing to do with "Queen's English" (which is a difference in pronunciation, not usage or dialect)... apparently that particular misuse doesn't bother the team so much.

No, they felt it necessary to once again include the word "webinar" as useless and silly, perhaps forgetting that they already included it on their 2005 list. Nobody paid attention then either.

I have fought this battle before, as recently as September of 2007. But it gets new life from a community weblog called MetaFilter (apparently the use of "Meta" in front of any- and every- thing you can conceive does not make the list). Right up at the top of the page, the hyperlink attached to "webinar" is this self-same blog. And I even get an asterisk: "One of the requirements for a Banished Word or Phrase is that it has been used as a title for a Blogspot or Typepad blog." Wow... My apologies for not using WordPress. That would make my content much more legitimate. Oh, and by the way... "blog" was banished in 2005. You'd better keep that out of your writing.

Ho hum. Any list of made up words that says "truthiness" and "brunch" are fine, "webcast" gets a passing grade, and "Doh!" or "Eat my shorts" cause no consternation has no legitimacy in my book for calling down the powers that be on "webinar." Just because you don't personally like a coined or commonly used word does not mean I feel any hesitancy whatsoever in applying it where it is convenient, concise, and communicates my meaning. Do you dig, hepcat?

Technorati Tags: webinar,banished words,Lake Superior State University,MetaFilter,language

Adobe Support Frustration

I like Adobe Acrobat Connect. The Professional version has a lot of advantages for enterprise conferencing use. I even appear as a frequent guest speaker on Adobe's public educational webinar series. But fair is fair, and it is time for Adobe to face up to a glaring deficiency in its offering. Technical support for the product is woeful.

Mind you, what is available is pretty good. The online documentation for how to accomplish common tasks is clear and well written. The problem comes when that documentation doesn't satisfy your needs as a user.

Let's start with the main login page for the hosted product. The single "Help" link on that page takes you to a page titled "Macromedia Breeze Support Center." The first paragraph on the page has a link to "the Breeze Support Center."  Huh? The bottom of the page proudly proclaims that it was last updated on 25 July 2003. Maybe they could take a look at updating the company and product name. Following the offered link gets you to the "Acrobat Connect Support Center." There you will find the documentation that is available, with links to other resources. These include an FAQ with all of 6 entries (one of which is "How do I cancel my account?").

A search box at the top of the page lets you look through the online knowledgebase for the product. I did a blank search to see how many entries were available. I got 67 results. Then I noticed there is a selector for which product you want to search under. It has entries for: Acrobat Connect, Breeze, Breeze Meeting, Connect Enterprise Server, Acrobat Connect Professional, and Adobe Connect Events. You'd better be very familiar with Adobe/Breeze naming distinctions to run an advanced search!

Your next resource is a community forum. Unfortunately this contains only 14 entries, so you are unlikely to happen upon a tidbit matching your question.

No problem... Adobe has a page with telephone contact information specifically for "customers using Acrobat Connect in North America." I called it. I was greeted by a dispatcher who asked for my name and customer ID. I said I didn't know my customer ID... how do I look it up? They asked if it was my first time calling support and I said yes.

"Oh, then you need to call Customer Service first and request a customer ID. Then you can talk to support."

So I was transferred to Customer Service. After asking me a few questions, I got assigned a customer ID. Then they transferred me back to Support. Once again I supplied my name and the new customer ID number, along with the name of the product I was calling about.

"What is your product serial number?"

"What? Where do I find a serial number?"

"It is on the CD label of your product."

"I don't have a CD. I'm using a hosted service."

"No CD? Really? Hmmm... (pause, pause, pause) Okay, I am going to transfer you to a technical engineer. Please hold."

And at that point I stayed on the line for 25 minutes, listening to truly awful 70's-era bubbly pop-jazz. I finally couldn't take it anymore and hung up.

This is unacceptable, Adobe. I shudder to think of this scenario in a live event situation where something was going wrong. You need a way to deal quickly with event hosts and participants who are having troubles.

Part of the decision process in selecting a technology vendor involves support. 'Nuff said.

(Reference link for children of the 70's who grew up with the glory days of Saturday Night Live. Lily Tomlin frames things unambiguously for you.)

 

Technorati Tags: Adobe Connect , Adobe support , vendor selection , web conference , web conferencing , webinar , Macromedia Breeze

Mediasite - A Killer App?

The folks at Sonic Foundry sent me an email with a link to a little Halloween silliness they put together in the form of a Mediasite video presentation. The "movie" is designed to reference typical low-budget slasher flicks (think "Texas Chainsaw Massacre").

They are not afraid to show the fake blood and closeups of mock-fatal injuries common to such films. I suppose I'm the wrong audience for this, because I don't watch those kinds of movies in the theaters. That makes me a minority, judging from the incredible grosses (no pun intended, but nicely appropriate) of things like the "Saw" franchise, which exist solely to allow audience members to revel in graphic depictions of fictional characters getting whacked in the most gruesome and painful ways possible. There's no accounting for entertainment tastes. I like musical comedies, so that tells you how hopelessly out of date I am!

But I can't help but wonder about the choice of characterization in Sonic Foundry's homage. I get the concept point... Mediasite eliminates problem areas that plague other technologies. The difficulty for me was that the characters representing the technology limitations seemed very likable and sympathetic. They were average folks you could empathize with. They were lured out to the woods through no fault of their own, and then hunted down and killed off by a menacing, homicidal killer dressed in black and sporting an evil Darth Vader laugh. And he represents the company's own product, Mediasite!

So big points to Sonic Foundry for having some fun and getting in the full spirit of Halloween with all the effort needed to shoot, mike, and edit an outdoor mini film. But next time they might want to think about building a psychological empathy and fondness for their product, rather than making it seem like the worst thing you could ever come across!

Happy Halloween, y'all.

 

Technorati Tags: Halloween , Sonic Foundry , Mediasite , web conferencing , web conference , webcasting , slasher , marketing

Chao Disses Live Meeting 2007

Wow. Quite the rant from David Chao on his Web Conferencing Blog about the new Microsoft Live Meeting 2007 release. Chao works for WebEx, so he obviously has a vested interest in declaring product superiority against the next closest competitor (in overall web conferencing market share).

But he presents some interesting statements about the new Microsoft product version that are worth exploring. The one that really caught my eye up front is his first argument. He says that meeting attendees require a 15MB download before they can view a Live Meeting session. If true, that is simply too much for the current state of conferencing technology. People expect instant response and access to information. I know from my consulting work that meeting organizers are much more aware of this aspect of webinar production nowadays. They ask me all the time to recommend technologies that allow attendees to join sessions with a minimum of time and technical barriers. This wouldn't make Microsoft a favored choice.

I can't confirm or deny any of the specifics in David's blog piece, as I haven't had a chance to work with the new release yet. I'm working through the press hierarchy to get some insights from Microsoft on Live Meeting. I'll let you know how I do.

Technorati Tags: David Chao , WebEx , Microsoft , Live Meeting , webinar , web conferencing , web meeting , web event , web seminar

Microsoft UC And Live Meeting

I watched the Microsoft launch announcement webcast for their Unified Communications offerings this week. My interests (of course) centered on the role of Live Meeting web conferencing in the mix. I was hoping we might hear something about a general availability date for the 2007 release or more specifics on feature implementation. Live Meeting 2007 was announced back in June with an overview of the new features that were coming up. It was promised for "some time this Fall." Now I'm getting itchy to see how they deliver on the promise.

While there are some nice feature demonstration videos on the Live Meeting page, it's not the same as having them available in software to play with.

I was disappointed, but not surprised, to hear the way Bill Gates introduced the Unified Communications philosophy. He came out swinging at the telephone as an archaic communications vehicle and mostly emphasized how Microsoft was out to fundamentally change real time two way communications. A lot of it boiled down to being able to instantly speak to another person no matter where they are (a concept that still makes me cringe a bit).

A long demonstration used a fictitious business scenario to demonstrate the use of all the different communication channels in the UC lineup. Live Meeting was relegated to something of an afterthought, with a rapidly thrown together group meeting used to demonstrate the integration of the conferencing service with the new RoundTable conference room webcam. Apparently the demo also showed the potential pitfalls of using video in a live business context, as the presenter had to sheepishly grin while quickly cutting off the video feed after the prepared scripted scenario was over. We couldn't see what was happening on the webcast, but from his reaction and the audience's laughter, I would guess that the actors in the conference room didn't realize the camera feed was still on and "broke character" after their segment. Let this be a warning to you... Always treat a camera as if it is on and recording.

I'm not going to fight the choice of emphasis by Microsoft in their overall pitch. Most of their UC products are perfectly suited for the kind of one-on-one communications they presented. But I can't help thinking that they are diminishing the power and value of Live Meeting by presenting it as an alternative to an ad-hoc conference call. There are now so many collaborative conferencing products on the market at low-cost or no-cost prices that Microsoft is going to have a hard time building a value justification for their solution with that positioning.

For me, Live Meeting gets its value from being one of the smaller set of conferencing products that are designed to serve the needs of large, structured events produced by high end enterprise customers. It should compete squarely against WebEx Event Center, Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional, Raindance Seminar Edition, and the like. If Live Meeting backs itself into competing against Yugma, Persony, and other quick 'n cheap solutions, it is doomed.

A full-featured webinar event solution includes features for registration, attendee management, reporting, automated invitations and reminders, viewer customization, feedback controls, integrated recording, audio options, polling and surveys, and more. It is useful for lead generation, public demonstrations, training, and outbound communications. Live Meeting is up to the challenge. I hope Microsoft realizes the strength and differentiation factors that matter for a standalone webinar product and hit the right notes when Live Meeting 2007 hits the street. Because if they continue to promote it the way I saw in the Unified Communications overview, they should strip it down and give it away for free with the purchase of the other items in the suite.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft , Unified Communications , Live Meeting , webinar , webcasting , web seminar , web event

Sometimes You Have To Do It Live

There are times when I prefer a live event to a webinar. Here's a case in point:

Video taken from me under-utilizing the capabilities of an Ariel Atom 2 roadster at the Virginia International Raceway, just north of the Virginia/North Carolina border last month.

It was a fun day.

Whither Goeth Oracle With Web Conferencing?

An article by Paul Krill in InfoWorld caught my eye. It covers a web conference given by Oracle yesterday in which company representatives made lots of references to enterprise collaboration under the term Enterprise 2.0 (following on from the current trend of overusing the phrase "Web 2.0").

The company was promoting its new Oracle WebCenter product (or platform if you prefer). WebCenter is supposed to be a way for developers to combine and integrate enterprise applications and Web-aware services "including business applications, enterprise content, business intelligence, enterprise search, communication and collaboration services, and Web 2.0-centric applications." (Emphasis is mine)

When a company the size and nature of Oracle starts emphasizing the word "collaboration" in their public and press announcements, there is likely to be an announcement forthcoming that is of interest to this blog. With IBM, Cisco, and Microsoft all making major public business statements in this arena (accompanied by product announcements and/or web conferencing acquisitions), it is only natural to expect Oracle to fill out the field with a competitive position.

I'm not an Oracle user, so I don't have experience with their product offerings in the conferencing and collaboration space. I decided to do a little searching on the Web and their corporate site and found that Oracle has had communications products on offer for its customers for some time now. The website currently labels the products "Oracle Real-Time Collaboration 10g" and there are a few documents available for review or download. All the documents are dated August 2005 and I found outdated hyperlinks in them that no longer go anywhere.

I looked up some tutorials and user guides for Oracle's web conferencing product on enterprise and educational sites (companies often post educational materials for their employees on how to use the software they have bought). I don't know how old the materials are that I found, but they included some rather severe restrictions on use of the conferencing software.

Of course the hosting company must have the Oracle application server and database installed as a prerequisite. But it looks like the web conferencing software is very Microsoft dependent. Functions such as text chat are not available on Netscape browsers... Only Internet Explorer is supported. A host can share Microsoft documents by converting them to HTML pages -- only supported on a Windows machine with Microsoft Office installed. (Again, these requirements may well be obsolete... I can't tell from the current information on the Oracle website).

I thought it was a little strange that there wasn't any more recent information or announcements about web conferencing or collaboration on the Oracle site. I took a look at an Oracle collaboration user forum to see if it was getting any customer activity and saw that the most recent message seemed to reflect my own curiosity, with a fascinating answer:

September 5, 2007: "Anybody concerned over the lack of information on the Oracle Website regarding Collaboration Suite. It seems to be disappearing?"

October 3, 2007: "No it is not. However Oracle is just integration [sic] some new products (eg Stellent) into the new Collaboration Suite called Beehive (internal codename). They are using this internally now for a couple of weeks. I guess that there will be more news soon."

Hmmm... A rumored new internal release (with a cute codename, no less!) and presentations playing up Oracle's stand on enterprise collaboration. The crystal ball says to stand by for more announcements from the company to keep them in the ring with the other major players in the enterprise platform world.

 

Technorati Tags: Paul Krill , Enterprise 2.0 , Oracle , WebCenter , Collaboration Suite , Collaboration 10g , web conferencing

The Problem With Streaming Webinar Audio

Here's where I make a number of vendors angry.

I am seeing a growing trend in the exclusive use of computer-based audio for webinars. I'm not a fan. Let me be perfectly clear what I'm opposed to, however... I have nothing against offering streamed audio (aka: computer audio or VoIP). I think it's a fantastic option for your audience and I always prefer giving my listeners a choice of hearing their presenters via telephone or computer. In recent webinars where the audience had such options, I have seen anywhere up to 75-85% choosing to listen over their computers.

But if I am forced to make an either/or choice of one audio delivery method, the phone wins every time. Computer-delivered audio can work very well. The majority of your audience may have a perfectly acceptable experience. But over the course of many, many webinars using a variety of web conferencing technologies, I have never hosted or delivered a webinar with streamed audio where at least a few audience members didn't complain about the sound quality. It's inevitable, given enough people listening.

Some audience members have slower computers, or they are running applications that conflict with the audio reception and playback. Internet connections get busy and slow down. Data packets get lost and have to be retransmitted and reassembled. Some people have terrible audio cards and speakers (many rely on the cheap internal speakers built into their laptops). There are too many potential problem areas to ensure that your entire audience will receive a quality, uninterrupted broadcast.

As a technical moderator, there isn't much you can do when someone writes in that they can't hear the audio cleanly or at all. Diagnosing and troubleshooting an audio reception problem is impossible when you are working a full webinar audience. That's why I love having the fallback of "Why don't you just dial in to the telephone conference line." It's quick and easy.

Some vendors force the presenters to deliver their audio via a computer-connected microphone. This always makes me shiver when I see the requirement. I know what's coming... cheap, low quality computer headsets being pressed into action (or worse: stand-up desk microphones). Attempts to configure audio properties by people who aren't used to dealing with such things. Technical troubleshooting sessions examining issues of compatibility with operating systems and input devices. Ugh. When I am hosting a panel of guest speakers, letting them use their comfortable old telephones gives me one less item to deal with.

There are several benefits to using streaming audio, and I appreciate them. The cost can be much lower than providing a telephone conference line, especially if you have an international audience. Participants away from a convenient phone line can still listen in. It does away with an additional setup item for you (scheduling the phone conference line) and eliminates an additional set of instructions for your audience on how to connect with the phone conference. Those are all good things.

Streaming audio is also the best way to work with an embedded video clip as part of your presentation. With a phone conference, you can never be sure when your entire audience has finished seeing the video playback and you can start talking again. Some will be done early and listening to silence, while others are angry that you have begun talking over the end of their video. When you deliver your audio over the same integrated data stream as your video, it all gets buffered together to present a smooth flow to your audience. Sure, they might be anywhere from half a second to ten seconds behind you, but at least they get all the content in the right order in a steady stream delivered at the rate their machine can deal with it.

Unfortunately that same buffering delay factor can cause problems in interactivity with your audience. If you issue a poll or invite audience responses via feedback panels or typed chat, you want to react in real time to their inputs. If you have to wait for ten seconds after you have asked them to participate in order for them to hear your request and take action, it creates an uncomfortable dead spot. You can talk through the waiting period, but it tends to slow things down and drags out the very parts of the webinar that should be the most stimulating for your audience.

As with everything else in the webinar world, there are tradeoffs in the way each vendor implements their technology and your priorities will drive your selection. Hopefully this note has given you some pointers that will help you make an informed decision that is right for you and your audiences.

Technorati Tags: webinar , web conference , web conferencing , VoIP , audio conferencing , webcasting , webcast , streaming audio