a Mini-Guide
by Robin Good

When you are searching for information, reviews and tips about Web conferencing or real-time collaboration tools you there a few great online resources that you can reliably refer to.

While preparing my Official Guide to SOHO Web Conferencing and Live Presentations Tools I had myself to search and identify my own sources of valuable insider information, where I would have learned, found out, and discovered as much as possible about the industry and companies I would have been studying for a long while.

Here are four online resources that provide good up-to-date information, valuable services, products and tools to supporting your online conferencing and live presentation needs.

Each one is specialized in providing a different kind of information, so they nicely complement each other forming a quadrilateral fortress of unique and hard-to-find content to this fast growing need.

 

a) Think of it
http://www.thinkofit.com

Headed by who is probably the world's foremost authority on conferencing and collaboration software, David R. Woolley, president of Thinkofit, has been a pioneer in online conferencing for over 25 years. In 1973 Dr. Woolley created PLATO Notes, one of the world's first conferencing systems and the direct progenitor of Lotus Notes, DEC Notes, and many collaboration systems. While providing of a window of opportunity to his uniquely qualified consulting services Dr Woolley provides an outstanding resource of Web conferencing tools, systems and vendors unmatched by others.

Thinkofit is the reference unbiased reference resource to look to when searching for Web conferencing vendors and technologies.

Probably the most valuable section on the whole Thinkofit Web site is what you find at:
http://www.thinkofit.com/webconf/ index.htm
Here you find a well organized gateway to a set of nine separate lists covering all conferencing and forum providers, books, events and other resources available out there.

The richest section is the one devoted to Real-time Web conferencing tools at:
http://www.thinkofit.com/webconf/ realtime.htm

Dr Woolley dutifully reports about new tools and technologies released with a frequency of three or four new technologies every month!
(http://www.thinkofit.com/webconf/ realtime.htm#new). Though there is not normally more than a paragraph of description for each tool included, it nonetheless provides for the most exhaustive and up-to-date reference for this technology around.

As all of the above great amount of information is completely free, Thinkofit provides also a number of professional consultancy services to help organizations identify, select and implement effective Web conferencing or real-time collaboration solutions.

 

b) ConferZone
http://www.conferzone.com

ConferZone is an online e-conferencing resource that tracks the latest technology and trends in the marketplace. ConferZone provides comprehensive, objective content so businesses can make educated and sound decisions when purchasing e-conferencing services or products.

ConferZone.com is a online reference covering Web conferencing, video conferencing, audio conferencing and collaborative conferencing. At ConferZone you can find lots of useful information and resources including:

a) a good free white papers section at:
http://www.conferzone.com/ resource/wp.html

b) up-to-date industry news at:
http://www.conferzone.com/ resource/articlemain.html

c) e-conferencing events
http://www.conferzone.com/ resource/events.html

d) free monthly newsletter
http://www.conferzone.com/ services/conferzine.html

e) and a very useful directory of e-conferencing vendors:
http://www.conferzone.com/ vendor/index.html

ConferZone provides also a unique online service called ConferGuide. ConferGuide is a searchable online database of more than 40 Web conferencing vendors now accessible 24x7x365. For USD $ 49 you get one month access to an exhaustive directory of e-conferencing vendors and suppliers, providing all basic information you may need for each company.

Now in its third edition ConferZone is proud to offer its third annual ConferGuide 2003, an online guide to Web conferencing companies. ConferZone publishes the online guide to help business and meeting professionals streamline their research processes, while saving valuable company time and resources. Additionally, the guide assists them in making informed decisions when implementing e-conferencing solutions.

ConferGuide 2003 features:
* An introduction to Web conferencing
* Current product and pricing information from more than 40 Web conferencing vendors
* A glossary of industry terms

The guide can be purchased in one-month or six-month access increments at $49 and $99, respectively. The guide can be accessed and searched an unlimited number of times during the subscription period. ConferGuide 2003 can be purchased at http://www.conferzone.com, under the "Publications" section at: http://www.conferzone.com/ services/conferguide.html

If you are a Web conferencing vendor and are not currently included in the ConferGuide 2003, please contact ConferZone at conferguide@conferzone.com

Founded in 2000, ConferZone is headquartered in Denver, Colorado and is directed by Stephanie Franks.

 

c) Web Seminarian
http://www.webseminarian.com/

It is the ONLY Web site and e-mail newsletter focused solely on Web conferencing. All others include video conferencing, asynchronous conferencing, and other topics.

* It has a nice and practical section on Tips helping new and experienced professionals become proficient users of Web conferencing technologies quickly. Please check it out at:
http://www.webseminarian.com/ tips/index.html

* Web Seminarian provides a section on Corporate Customer Stories that provides insight on how other companies have solved their training, communication and conferencing goals through the use of Web conferencing technologies.
http://www.webseminarian.com/ stories/index.html

* It contains reviews of many Web conferencing platforms. It covers WebEx, Avacaster, Genesys, Egenda, Sonexis, HorizonLive, Pixion, Placeware, MShow, Viavid, Raindance and several other ones. Check them out at:
http://www.webseminarian.com/ reviews/index.html

* It provides up-to-date news from the industry and commentary on major industry events and issues. Please see:
http://www.webseminarian.com/ news/index.html

* It has articles on key topics, such as recent research and the Microsoft acquisition of PlaceWare.

* It has a companion newsletter that you can freely subscribe to at: http://www.webseminarian.com/

* It also accepts contributions and articles from readers.

Web Seminarian has a sister company called Obidicut which identifies specific ways your company can enhance revenue, marketing, control costs and improve customer satisfaction through Web conferencing. For more information please see:
http://www.obidicut.net/

 

d) e-Learning Centre
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/ eclipse/index.html

Efficiently coordinated and managed by Jane Knight the E-Learning Centre is one of the very best resources for online tools and resources valuable to the distant communicator and online trainer. The main focus is on adult e-learning, i.e. e-learning in the workplace, in Higher Education and in continuing professional development.

The E-Learning Centre provides a freely accessible and well organized database catalog of all e-Learning related tools and technologies organized in many useful categories.

For each tool or technology a good description, features and main characteristics are provided along with Web links and direct contact information.

Particularly useful is the section on Products and Services accessible at:
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/ eclipse/vendors/index.html

Among other valuable sections and resources you can find on this site I would highlight:

1) Library: This section contains a very large number of pages with links to many different articles, white papers, research reports, journal articles, resource collections, books, etc
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/ eclipse/Resources/index.html

2) Showcase: Here you can find very useful links to examples of interesting online courses, learning materials and other e-learning solutions for university, school, corporate and general learners.
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/ eclipse/showcase/index.html

3) Events: A month-by-month listing of e-learning conferences plus links to workshops, courses and seminars in the area of e-learning.
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/ eclipse/conferences/index.html

4) Centres: In this section you can find a number of specialist "Centres" that aggregate related resources from across the e-Learning Centre website.
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/ eclipse/Centres/index.html

5) eCLIPSE: This section is the e-Learning Centre's e-Learning Intelligence Service: People, Systems and Environments. This section provides links only to content produced by the e-Learning Centre.
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/ eclipse/Highlights/index.html

6) The E-Learning Centre also offers a unique E-Learning Directory 2003 covering 150 suppliers of eLearning products and services operating in 25 different European countries. The directory is indexed by region, vendor category and industry classification. This is a high-quality, bound, A4-size document and updates and new entries are available online for free. The cost of the directory is € 99.
http://www.elearning-directory.com/

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