Evan, There are a couple of open source alternatives for web conferencing, although both have to be installed on your own server and both are in an alpha version, but have heard that they are both currently usable.
The first is Dimdim at: http://www.dimdim.com/ The other is 1videoConference at: http://1videoconference.com/ Another web-based product that the developers 'hope' to keep free is at: http://vyew.com/ My guess is that Horizon Wimba and industry leader WebEx would be too expensive. Although I do know that they use WebEx in the Church Office Building- I think it is primarily for internal training. Perhaps you could find someone there to talk to about the possibility of using that system? The other affordable alternative that I would recommend is iVocalize available at: http://www.ivocalize.com/ or alternatively with support at http://www.talkingcommunities.com/ Lastly, depending on your needs, you may be able to put together a combination of a few products such as http://slideshare.net/ (sharing PowerPoint), http://www.sightspeed.com (voice/video conferenceing) or http://www.jybe.com/ (co-browsing+) to supplement or replace your phone calls. Lastly, here is a pretty comprehensive list of other screen sharing tools: http://www.kolabora.com/news/2006/10/05/screen_sharing_tools_and_technology.htm Good luck- Christopher Phillips On 11/13/06, Evan Stoddard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hello, all. I'm new to this list, and this kind of thing isn't really natural to me, but my friend Charles Fry in my ward recommended that I subscribe and ask for your advice on a problem I'm trying to solve. Earlier this year I was called by the presidency of the Seventy to serve as regional welfare specialist for the Pittsburgh PA Welfare Region, which consists of the three stakes and one mission district that take in all of western Pennsylvania and portions of western NY, eastern OH, and the WV panhandle. It's a big territory, with a very low density of members of the Church. (PA has the lowest density of Mormons of any state in the US, and western PA's density is lower than the state's average.) I've been struggling with how to deliver effective training in welfare principles, policies and procedures to priesthood and Relief Society leaders in the region. Of course, I can do some face-to-face training, say twice a year to each of the stakes/district, but realistically that's probably the limit. This fall I've delivered three classes (10 sessions) by telephone conference call to about 140 participants. I've had up to 20-25 people in a single session. These telephone conference classes have worked (surprisingly) well, and I've gotten good responses on the evaluation forms I've asked people to complete after the classes. But I'd like to move up a notch and would like to explore delivering synchronous Web-based training over the Web. I'd like people to be able to view materials that we are discussing, go with me to Web sites, for example www.providentliving.org, see photos, read materials together, etc. I want to maintain the ability to talk with one another, which has been the best part of the conference calls—the sharing of ideas and experiences. I'm writing to ask if anyone involved in Church instruction is familiar with doing this kind of thing. I work at Duquesne University, which is beginning to use a product called Horizon Wimba, which may well be the best tool for doing the kind of thing I have in mind. But I thought before I contact that company to explore what they can do I thought I'd put the problem out there to a bunch of sympathetic and knowledgeable people to ask: 1. Is there a precedent for this model in Church training that anyone knows of? 2. If you were going to attempt something like this, where would you start? 3. Are there other products comparable to Horizon Wimba that I should explore? 4. How difficult and how expensive is an approach like this going to be? 5. What kind of skills should I be looking for to help me pilot an approach like this? Any other advice you have would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance for your consideration. Best wishes, Evan Stoddard Pittsburgh, PA_______________________________________________ Ldsoss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss
_______________________________________________ Ldsoss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss
