ONE OF THE TOP THREE pieces of tasty technology for me in 2008 connects my DV webcam to my browser and into a full-duplex online meeting environment powered by Online Meeting Rooms. This Flash-powered technology works a charm in my browser and its ease of use ensures even low-tech viewers can easily hook into video sessions without any sort of technical assistance. All you need is a browser and a broadband connection and you're off. Your browser takes care of the rest. We have used Online Meeting Rooms hard (check out the screenshots) during 2008 and it consistently delivered top results. In the photo at left, we powered a session during the visit of Jeffrey Kaye to Limerick OpenCoffee when he visited Ireland in search of the employment impact from the closure of Dell in Limerick. That session used hotel wifi to power the online meeting. We've wired our browser into a normal ethernet connection and it works robustly. We've also used Online Meeting Rooms while hooked onto O2-3G in Ireland--from pubs, art galleries and outside farms on assignment with Tipperary Institute. You get Online Meeting Rooms by paying an annual subscription fee, based on the number of seats you need and the kind of service you expect (it does more than merely connect faces, voices and conversations but you can read all about those functions yourself). We're resubscribing for another year and regular readers will see segments of some of our educational material in video clips archived in other channels. In an era of fiscal austerity where travel budgets are curtailed, having a viable virtual meeting presence becomes an important strategic requirement.
Screenshots of our use of Online Meeting Rooms.
Previously -- "Fourth Most Valuable Tech Item"
