Web Conferencing

My group chose to use Vyew because it is totally free and doesn't need to be downloaded to a computer to work.

We conducted our "web conference" on Thursday, May 26, and had multiple difficulties with the program, although we were able to, after 90 minutes, get everything accomplished that we needed to. I do believe, as my other group members have said as well, that we could have gotten this done in much less time if we had been using a different program.

Some of the difficulties we encountered started right from the beginning. My first problem was that it required a Flash Player update, which didn't work the first few times I tried it. This program also does not have a recorder built in, so I needed to download a trial version of Camtasia studio before in order to get it to record. Thankfully, because I hadn't used Camtasia before, the recording tutorial it provided was brief and simple to understand. So, after I got all the prerequisite technology in order, I was finally able to log into the room that one of the other members set up.

Once we got into the room, for me, it was fairly easy to turn on my webcam and see that feed coming into the room. It was also easy to see who was currently in the room, and we all figured out pretty quickly how to chat to help each other get going. Once we decided on a "chat protocol" (we needed to do this because if we all had our speaker/audio on permanently, there were many echoes and delays in the audio) there were a few problems like one person's webcam wasn't compatible, another person's mic/audio wasn't working properly, and another person had internet connection difficulties. I didn't seem to have any of these problems, and I have to wonder if it was because I was using a laptop with a webcam/mic/speakers all built into one? So, because of these difficulties, we had to do a lot of back tracking and catching one another up with the info, and typing into the chat room.

After my good experiences with Skype, and because I know so many people use it, I think that it would be hard for me to continue with Vyew after having so many problems. At least we have some of it figured out for now. Now all I have to do is figure out how to compress that 90 minute video!! :)