Streaming Media - December 2007/January 2008 - (Page 28) presentation, typically, but not limited to, a PowerPoint presentation. Even those that allow full-desktop presentation mode, such as GoToMeeting, are primarily designed to showcase the presenter, with collaboration limited to asking a question by phone or by “raising a hand” in a rudimentary chat window. Variations on this tool abound, with software-as-a-service models providing recording of the event for playback in an on-demand fashion, complete with audio, in much the same way that PowerPoint with self-contained audio was popular a few years back. Brainshark, a Boston-based company, offers one such example of this type of tool, allowing presenters to record live, but also to go back and change out single slides (and the audio that accompanies them) to keep an on-demand presentation WebEx is arguably the most popluar online collaboration solution, and acquisition by Cisco should increase the fresh or timely. role video plays. Other well-known applications in this category are WebEx and Placeware, which have recently been acquired at fairly sizeable valuations (NetMeeting) product many years ago when WebEx (by Cisco and Microsoft, respectively). A recent was just getting started, and see how that worked out (it presentation at Demo 2007, an industry confab was dropped).” showcasing new technologies, created a bit of a stir when DD Ganguly, CEO of the open source startup Desktop or Application Sharing DimDim, opened by saying “WebEx is history,” as he Digging a little deeper into the toolbox, one finds presented his vision for a free and open source web another tool that allows for more control and collaboration. meeting service that includes two-way audio and video Dubbed desktop sharing or application sharing, as features for holding collaborative meetings. opposed to desktop presentations, this tool allows the One challenge that companies like DimDim are trying viewer to move into the driver’s seat and take control of to overcome is the cross-platform issue, with some the presentation (or the presenter’s computer) for more companies going to a Java client model, others building experiential learning or hands-on troubleshooting. out equal applications for Macintosh and Windows (but This tool is often built into today’s operating systems, ignoring Linux), and still others going for a “playerless” as a direct descendant of the T.120 standard, with bettersolution that uses a very thin client. A few (including known examples such as Apple’s Remote Desktop. Like several that are flying under the radar but should be the old neT.120 Conference Server, today’s applicationlaunching by the time this article goes to press) are sharing tools often require a small server application to using Adobe’s Flash ActionScript 3 or Flex programming run on the host’s machine. language to accomplish similar results using the Many of these tools also derive their heritage from ubiquitous Flash player, but these are somewhat limited Virtual Network Computing (VNC), and several have in the video and audio space until Adobe releases a VNC in the name, such as RealVNC, TightVNC, or VoIP module. Chicken of the VNC. VNC started as a way to monitor Not everyone out there believes that free applications multiple machines within a data server farm, but the are a threat to the enterprise business model put forward robustness and ability to traverse firewalls and do by WebEx and others. decent Network Address Translation (NAT) have made “The cost of bare-bones web conferencing has been VNC-based products a force to be reckoned with. VNC dropping like a rock for some time with seemingly is primarily open source, with the various VNC products hundreds of new players entering the market,” said Joe using a VNC core and adding a “secret sauce” to the Gustafson, CEO and founder of Brainshark, in a recent product to allow it to be resold. Commercial products blog post. “Maybe there is a market for free web using Citrix, originally designed for thin-client or network conferencing in some very small accounts (is it really a computing, are also available. market if it’s free?), but free works well with consumers— Two sidenotes should be made here: First, remote not businesses.” desktop access is not necessarily collaborative computing, Gustafson continued his comments by mentioning the as it can be one person accessing his or her own computer specter of Microsoft’s free web tool from the DataBeam remotely; the tools can, however, also be used for days, noting they “had a free web-conferencing collaboration between someone sitting at the remote 28 STREAMING MEDIA December 2007/January 2008 let’s work together
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