The Webinar Blog

Webex Recordings Are Garbage

If you would be so kind, please watch the first 30 seconds of this recording made during a webinar running on the Webex Events platform. The content is not important. I am just using it to point out several specifics in how Webex ensures that recordings are useless for professional business use.

https://profit-loss.webex.com/profit-loss/lsr.php?RCID=e46a44b756418a0ae4a525c2df861579

Item 1: The introductory pause window. Click on the link and this is the first thing you see:

Now that statement happens to be a flat-out lie. Content was being shared at the time I hit the "record" button. Live attendees did not see this screen. It's a special gift to viewers of the recording, and it sits there until they happen to click the play arrow at the bottom of the viewing window. This creates confusion at best, and panic at worst. I regularly receive emails from viewers telling me that something is wrong and the recording is empty. They don't even think to press play… All they see is a big, bold message saying there is no content.

 

Item 2: Press the play button and you are rewarded with the actual content that was recorded. And the first thing you see is our PowerPoint title slide with an inexplicable rectangle in the upper right corner with "PE" in a circle:

What's happening there? Well, the webinar options were set to allow webcam video. I was acting as technical facilitator and didn't want to be on video, so I turned my camera option off in Webex. Fine, it doesn't show me. But it still leaves the blank rectangle up where my video would be, if I were showing video. The PE is an artifact created by our Webex host account being listed under the company name of "Profit & Loss Events." Webex picks up the first and last initial and shows it… Helping nobody. Why does Webex show a placeholder video rectangle for panelists who elect to turn off their webcam? Nobody knows, but it uses up valuable space and confuses attendees during live web events as well.

 

Item 3: The first speaker begins talking and we see his webcam video:

Pretty tiny. Can I make it a little bigger to see him better? Nope. I can expand the video to fill the entire screen and overlay all of the slide content, but I can't resize the video window. It's also overlaying our company logo. That's a pity… Maybe I can move it? Nope. It's fixed there, and you better hope you didn't have any important content in that area.

 

Item 4: In the live event, attendees have an option for how they see webcam windows. In the recording, it only shows the active speaker, using an automated algorithm to switch which camera feed is shown. I can live with that, except that the visual switch-over lags the change in audio by 2 or 3 seconds. In an interactive discussion, this means the webcam shows the person who's listening about as often as it shows the person who's speaking. Very disconcerting to watch.

 

Item 5: I figured, heck. I'll just edit the video to trim that first second or two of the "No Content" message. I know Webex has a rudimentary recording editor built into the product. It should be sufficient for this simple task. I look up the help page discussing how to trim a recording. It is dated March 11, 2020 and says "This feature is available for meetings and events that you hosted and recorded in the cloud in MP4 format." Perfect! We record in MP4 format to the cloud Webex server.

Except… none of the controls it mentions are available. I try and try again, but I'm unable to bring up the playback range editor. I contact Webex technical support and they tell me that I cannot edit MP4 recordings online. There is a conflicting help page that says this, but I didn't happen to see that one first. And even if I did see it, it has an older date than the other page, so I would logically assume it had been superseded. Nope.

 

Item 6: Okay, I'm not beat yet. I can download the MP4 recording file and edit it in my own video editor. That's what the older page tells me to do after all. But wait! When I download the recording, it does not contain the presenter webcams. What the heck? It took me quite a bit of digging to find that including webcam video in downloaded recordings requires a request to your Cisco Webex "Customer Success Manager" to change a default account option. I tried several avenues to find out who filled this mysterious role for our account and someone at Cisco finally said to just contact general support. So I did. They said they would be happy to flip that option for us. It would take 48-72 hours to become effective and would only apply to new recordings made from that point forward. Existing recordings showing webcam feeds in the online player cannot be downloaded with the video content after the fact.

So the default behavior is for the downloaded content to not match the content seen online. Changing the default option to include the content we recorded takes a special support request rather than being something the account admin can set. It takes two or three days before that simple setting change can be activated. And even though the video is present in the online recording, it can't be resaved in a new download.

 

Add 'em up. These are things I might - just might - have tolerated a decade ago. In today's marketplace, they are not just non-competitive, they are downright insulting to Cisco's client base. We are operating in video-centric times, and having a solid on-demand version of your web events is a necessity. That on-demand version needs to represent what live viewers saw. Webex recordings fall far short of the mark.

 

Technorati Tags: Webex,Webex Events,web event,online event,webinar,web seminar,webcasting,webcast,Cisco Webex

Your Webinar Promotions Are Breaking The Law

Nobody ever enforces this, but you could be liable for penalties of up to $43,280 PER INDIVIDUAL EMAIL IN VIOLATION! Do I have your attention? I think I do.

Before we dig into the details, I have to give you the usual caveats:

I am not a lawyer. I probably have no idea what I'm talking about. You shouldn't take ANY legal advice from me. What I write is my own non-professional interpretation of United States laws. As such, the discussion relates ONLY to firms and transactions that can be prosecuted under United States federal statutes.

Okay, let's go. Your assignment is to read the following web page:

• https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business

Most of the items and requirements for sending commercial email are fairly common sense and I think we are all aware of them by now… Don't be misleading, be truthful and clear about who is sending the message, include the ability for recipients to opt-out or unsubscribe. Fine.

But let's focus on item #4:

Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.

Whoa. I only became aware of this clause because the BigMarker webinar platform made me include that information in their email templates. I couldn't schedule an email without filling in physical address data. What a pain. Then I looked up the statute. They're right!

But on further reading, it turns out there is a twist. You need to go through the Q&A sections further down the page.

Invitations and promotional emails are almost certainly covered by this clause. They are considered commercial communications designed to "advertise or promote a commercial product or service, including content on a website operated for a commercial purpose." It doesn't matter that you are sending such invitations to existing clients or people who have opted in for emails from you. Each promotional email letting people know about a new webinar must still comply. This is where you could potentially be held liable for not including your physical address. Are you shocked? I was!

But how about confirmation, reminder, and follow up emails sent to registrants of a webinar? BigMarker still requires me to add physical address information on those, but I think they are wrong. These emails fall into a category known as "transactional or relationship." They "facilitate or confirm a commercial transaction that the recipient already has agreed to."

In transactional or relationship emails, physical address information is not required. They just need to be truthful and not misleading.

Why does BigMarker care what you do in your emails? It's your problem, your exposure. Wait a minute…

"More than one person may be held responsible for violations. For example, both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that originated the message may be legally responsible."

Are you a webinar software vendor? Do you send the emails that your customers schedule in your system? Do you allow webinar invitations to be sent through your automated mailing processes? Hmmm… Maybe your product management and engineering teams should have a chat with your legal department about this.

 

Technorati Tags: webinar,web seminar,CAN SPAM,CAN-SPAM,email,marketing,web conference,web conferencing,webcasting,webcast

Webex Events And The Case Of The Mystery Chat

[Author's note: "Webex Events" is a product name. It is the version of the Cisco Webex web conferencing product that is designed for structured, presentation-oriented web events. This distinguishes it from Webex Meetings, which is designed to support peer-level collaborative web sessions. I mention that so you don't think I'm crazy when I use Webex Events as a singular rather than a plural. It leads to insane sentence constructions such as: "Webex Events is the thing you need in order to run a bunch of Webex events."]

With my terminology disclaimer out of the way, let's do a bit of brainstorming. See if you can help me think of a logical and sensible use case for the following design feature in Webex Events. So far, I have drawn a blank.

Webex Events allows typed chat messages, just like most other web conferencing products. As in most such products, participants can select who should see their chat messages. You can select an individual's name, so that they are the only person seeing your private communiqué. You can send a private chat message to the host. Or to the active presenter. Or to all panelists. So far so good.

A host or panelist can send a chat message to all participants. Great for general announcements and important updates. Also good.

Attendees (audience members without speaker/presenter privileges) can send a chat message to "All attendees." Everybody else in the audience can see what they type. Okay, that's a nice way to foster group discussions and community building.

But guess who can't see those chat messages? The host, presenter, and other panelists. They are not part of the "All attendees" group level. They have no idea what is going on in the audience. The attendees are chatting away with each other. Maybe asking for help. Maybe griping. Maybe making valuable suggestions. The presenters are completely out of the loop.

Oh well… at least the host can grab a report of chat messages typed in during the session to review later. Nope. Webex carefully respects security and privacy considerations. The host or panelist saving a chat log while in the session gets a text file containing only those chat messages they had authority to see in the event. So the "All attendees" chats are not included.

But that's fine… Webex also has an "In-Event Activity" report that an administrator can run after a webinar concludes. It contains data records for questions and chat messages that were typed in by each participant. Except (you know what's coming) it doesn't contain any chats that were sent to "All attendees."

So back to our thought experiment. What is the use case for granting audience members the ability to hold public discussions that are invisible to any of the presentation, hosting, or administrative team conducting the event? Other than as a means to foment rebellion against the evil overlords running the show, I am at a loss.

If you find yourself ready to type a comment suggesting that I just need to check the attendee privileges option that lets participants send chat messages to Everyone, uh uh… sorry. That option only exists in Webex Meetings, not in Webex Events.

I have confirmed this behavior with Webex technical support. I quote their response:

"The behavior is by design. The host cannot save messages delivered between attendees, but attendees can save that chat."

So there you have it. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to explain why this implementation is a good thing. And why there is no alternative configuration that allows attendees and panelists to engage in the same group discussion. And why the hosting company should not be able to see what was typed in public chat during their event.

It's okay. I have time. I'll wait.

Technorati Tags: Cisco Webex,Webex Events,webinar,web seminar,web conferencing,web conference,web collaboration,online collaboration,web meeting

Webinars Are A-Boomin'

"Hey Ken, are you okay? Is Webinar Success still in business?"

Hoo boy, am I in business. In 15 years as an independent services provider, I have never been in more business. Sleep is now an occasional luxury.

It's funny, because when the COVID-19 implications first started hitting businesses and employees, I thought, "Okay, there's inevitably going to be an increase in webinars now."

And… nothing. I saw zero boost at first. There was probably about a three week period where I wondered how I could be so wrong. And then the tidal wave hit.

With the benefit of hindsight, I can see what happened. The first priority was to get all those employees set up to work from home. Lots of Zoom, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, Skype, and other peer-to-peer meeting technologies to put in place. That's not my business area. Heck, I can't imagine it's anybody's business area. You're pretty much on your own for figuring out how to hold a simple little online meeting. There's no business model for providing services targeted at that space.

The next priority was getting near-term physical events moved to online venues. Big things like conventions, trade shows, annual customer conferences… Event managers at big companies needed help and they needed it FAST. That calls for serious custom-built virtual venue technologies supporting simultaneous presentation tracks, audience management, sponsorship branding and lots of account management with teams of vendor employees to handle customization and administration. Way out of my service area.

But once those got settled in, it left every other type of outreach to manage. Company-wide employee communications from the top brass, educational seminars, public communications, association meetings, sales and marketing communications. Anything where you are in primarily a presentation-oriented communications mode, but with audience interaction. Registration, recording, and reporting needed as part of the meeting infrastructure. That's what I've been specializing in for the past 15 years. Looks like I picked the right specialty.

I have a lot of thoughts on what's going on in this industry space. The unanticipated stress testing has highlighted areas that could once be considered minor inconveniences but now are revealed as serious design deficiencies.

I'm going to be adding blog posts as best I can, when I can. But there may be longer gaps between posts than usual. I beg your indulgence and encourage you to stick with me… There's a lot to learn from all this. We'll all get through the panic period and settle into a business mode where web seminars and web events remain more prominent than they ever were before. It's taken 20 years for webinars to become an overnight sensation. I'm looking forward to settling into "the new normal" (cliché alert) and having some time to reflect and analyze the key lessons for technology vendors and users alike. But first, I've got some customer webinars to manage!

I hope you stay healthy, safe, and sane. Hang tough. We can weather this.

All the very best,
--Ken

Technorati Tags: webinar,web seminar,web conference,web conferencing,web meeting,online meeting,web collaboration,online collaboration,webcasting,webcast