As real-time collaboration and web conferencing applications increase in number and scope, the original divide between those who could run and afford such advanced communication solutions is thinning by the hour.

Photo credit: Andres Rodriguez

You don't need anymore to be an international organization to reap the benefits of quality videoconferencing or to meet your geographically distributed team to discuss and brainstorm your next term goals. All of these activities can now be easily, and more importantly, inexpensively done by most any individual around the world with some Internet connectivity above the 56K dial-up level.

As a matter of fact, there are now so many web conferencing, video conferencing and online collaboration solutions, that has become very difficult for most everyone to be able to choose what is most appropriate without missing out on some great alternatives.

Yes, as you have already understood, there is an interesting opportunity to provide a valuable information guide on this front, just like I have done in the past with my original Official Guide to Best Web Conferencing and Live Presentation Tools. Now that guide is obsolete and ridiculously small, compared to what would be needed. In fact, given the appropriate partner and support I would be very eager to launch a new, vastly improved and comprehensive guide to ALL web conferencing and real-time collaboration tools. Web-based and fully interactive, it should allow anyone to search and filter real-time and asynchronous communication systems via their preferred traits: VoIP, cost, number of concurrent users supported, video support, etc.

The ability to compare different tools across selectable criteria is in my opinion a must, and the option to see a few interface shots as well as the one of accessing an extended trial could be the premium points that could be offered as monetization components of this possible live online guide.

If you are a web conferencing or real-time collaboration company, or a software/service company providing the tools to build such a live guide, please talk to me about this possibility as I see great business opportunities behind it.

If instead you, just like me, are someone who needs to find out about some of the new real-time collaboration tools and to be guided in selecting among the many web conferencing systems out there, here is some valuable information that I and executive editor Livia Iacolare have put together for you.

Find out, learn and compare the most interesting and cost-effective web conferencing systems the focus today is on all those real-time collaboration and communication tools that need not to break your wallet to provide you with the ability to talk and interact with your selected team-mates.

Here is where to look:

Here is a nice and accessible report that I have just finished preparing for Kolabora.com, that focuses on truly cost-effective web conferencing tools and services that provide the end user with the minimum ability to talk, present and demonstrate to an online audience (anything bigger than a group of 5-6 individuals).

While selecting the tools to showcase in it, we intentionally avoided including all those high-quality web conferencing systems that are generally aimed specifically at enterprises (such as Webex, Centra, Cisco, Livemeeting, Genesis, Readytalk, and others).

What we wanted was to provide a starting list of services that can represent valid and low-cost alternatives to those highly expensive web conferencing solutions. Inevitably we may have left some tools or new web services out, but this is where your know-how and tips can come in more handy than our basic research job. Feel free to add all the extra info and references to other tools you feel should have been listed here, as we will keep updating and expanding this reference list in the coming months.

To start: here is a starting comparison chart and a continuously updated news radar:

Web Conferencing Tools - Comparison Chart

Click here if you want to open the chart in a new web page.

Web Conferencing News Radar

If you want to read in more detail what each tool has to offer check out:
Web Conferencing Tools And Technology: A Mini-Guide
June, 22nd 2007

Want more conferencing tools?

Photo credit: Andres Rodriguez

• If you want to explore more collaboration tools and resources:

  Online Collaboration Tools: Cost-Effective Solutions For Online Teachers
  April 22nd, 2007





• If your interest is instead specifically for live web presentations, here you will probably find what you are looking for:
  Web Presentations And Online Slideshow Creation Tools: A Mini-Guide
  April 15th, 2007





• If you want to remotely access your own computers or if you need to provide remote support to someone else on your team, these two mini-guides provide all you need to know to find a tool that may suit your needs.

  It is important, however, to differentiate remote PC access tools from remote PC control tools: the former allow you to remotely access your computer independently, without needing another person to be present at the other end; the latter are conceived to provide PC support and troubleshooting at-a-distance and this is why these tools require the presence of a user to authorize access to the remote computer.

  With remote PC access tools, you can do both basic activities such as remote launching of applications you may not have installed on your portable laptop, or transferring and synchronizing files across your computers, or checking and sending emails while using the mail system available only inside your company.

  Remote PC support tools instead share many of the traits that characterize web conferencing systems: they allow users to perform screen sharing and view the desktops of other users, take control over them and they enable the participants to interact via text chat or audio (sometimes also providing support for video conferencing).

  Remote PC support tools also differentiate themselves from remote PC access tools in the fact that they do not require another user to be on the remotely accessed computer, enabling the user to utilize her PC at a distance in a completely autonomous way.

  Remote PC Access Tools: A Mini-Guide
  March 18th, 2007

  Remote PC Support Tools: A Mini-Guide
  June 17th, 2007





• If you want to find out what it takes to use new media technologies while working effectively from a distance, please see:
  Business Telecommuting - What You Need To Know If You Want To Work At Home Online
  May 18th, 2007