Conference calling is so 19th Century

And we still use it a lot.  A recent blog post by Sara Kessler in Mashable outlined four conference calling applications.  For a simple way to get others together a phone call can't be beat.

Spoiler Alert:  Rant ahead

My issue is that with all the ways to collaborate and share information across the Internet many are stuck with 19th century technology.  We should be doing better. Too often conference calls are nothing more than one person telling many and calling it collaboration.  Its like the party line phone system used through mid-20th century.

Yes, I know that when a certain number are on the call there are too many voices to be individually heard and its just yelling.  When that might    

happen why not use an IM chat feature available with several applications (Voxli).  Then you can provide a written comment without interrupting.*   And to go further we should be using more video to view the speaker(s) and/or the audience using apps like VoiceThread, Vokle, Slideshare(Zipcast), or Livestream.

Spoiler Alert:  Solutions

I am a big fan of discovering and utilizing collaborative tools on the web.  Especially ones offering free/low-cost services suitable for small groups.  There are many excellent large-scale enterprise systems that do it all...for a price.  For those interested in smaller web-based audio and/or video collaborative communication tools here is what I have collected so far, click here.

Let me know if you have better ones to suggest.   

"And how can we do that, Doug."  "Thanks for asking, he said."    You can schedule a conversation with me using the apps mentioned in this blog.  But you won't*, you will just send an email and avoid a conversation.

Or click on tungle.me/dougcaldwell

*Pet peeves

Watching/listening to on-line webinar of slideware and NOT having the chat feature enabled.  And wasting time arranging meetings as described in this blog.    

Posted via email from Just Another Blog