Sorry for the delay since my last post, but I moved to a new computer, new operating system, new version of Microsoft Office, new disk drives, new monitor, and new computer furniture. Oy. Everything seems to be up and running again, so let’s see what’s been happening in the web conferencing world lately.
1) Adobe released the first service pack for their newish Adobe Connect 8. Enhancements include: Seeing how many hosts, presenters, participants you have at a glance; A new graphical layout chooser; An option to make questions visible for presenters only; Configuring applications that should never be shown in a screen share; Higher capacity breakout rooms; H.264 video at larger display resolutions; More control over meeting audio from the host’s console; and some usability changes.
Strangely enough, my hosted account with Adobe Connect has still not been updated from the old version 7. I figured they would want to move all their hosted customers to the most current version if only to simplify their own technical support operations. In all honesty, I’m not bothered. I like version 7 more than version 8.
2) Another webinar directory service has joined the throng. FindaSeminar.com gets points for a cute name. The site is primarily focused on helping people find local in-room training seminars based on location, date, and topic, but the directory does include online training as well. I found it challenging to find webinars until I used “webinar” as a keyword in my search criteria. This also brought up Audio Conferences.
3) PixelGigs launched SmartSuite and SmartSuite Plus, which seem to include quite a few online services in a bundled package. Of interest to us is the included “PixelMeeting” web conferencing application. I have not had a chance to try it out, so I’m just reading off their online description. $49/month gets you a 100-person meeting capacity and $99/month gets you a capacity of 1,250 participants per meeting. It includes chat, desktop and application sharing, video, VoIP, recording, and other features. If it works and is reliable, this might fill the niche for low cost, high capacity webinar software created by the demise of Dimdim and the jump in pricing for GoToWebinar. If you try it, please write and share your opinions/experiences.
4) Web Conferencing press release of the week honors go to this beauty: http://bit.ly/fgqv5h
It is a classic example of automated translation services allowed to run wild without human supervision or double-checking. Improper subject-verb agreement, duplicated words, incorrect choice of synonyms, sentences that don’t finish… They are all in there. Read and enjoy!
Thanks for staying with me during the switchover. I should be back now to the usual regularly updated stream of webinar news, reviews, and best practices.
