Webinar Software Investigation
- We have been trying a variety of different kinds of online meeting software.
- Convoq - We tried Convoq and it was fairly cheap but really did not work well for some people so we abandoned that.
- Webex - We have been testing Webex and the price is $300 per month. (If the account is set-up via Stanford, either through Carnegie (TAIR) or the Genetics Department (SGD), the monthly fee is $38.50. -[tzb 10.13.06]) The application sharing is good, but VoIP is problematic. We have the choice to use skype and have only four locations able to dial in, or to use the built in Webex VoIP capability. The built in version is not great. It only allows two people to speak at once and the microphone has to be passed around. We tried this and it interrupts the flow of conversation very badly. Also the sound quality is not nearly as good as skype. In addition to this there are further call charges for the built in VoIP and these are applied per minute per person.
Further news - Erika Feltrin says that she has heard there are ways to get more people on a skype call. She is looking into it.
Voice options from WebEx: 1. VoIP : 2 cents/min/location 2. 800 number: 20 cents/min/location 3. 650 number (local to Stanford): 5 cents/min/location (long distance charges from all locations are separate)
Jennifer: I just found this on the skype web page:
With Skype, you and 4 other people can take part in a conference call. If you use an Intel Core 2 Duo processor then a total of 10 people, including you, can join your conference call.
I wonder how many people have such a machine? My laptop is Intel but not core duo. It is likely that we will get new machines in the office soon, and perhaps we could get intel core duo ones?
- Next we are going to try megameeting or Premierglobalservices (pgs):
http://www.premiereglobal.com/webconferencingresources/grey/?
- I have started a trial account on pgs. Jennifer 02:29, 13 October 2006 (PDT)
- I found this comparsion chart for the various options: