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.
