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Table of Contents » Facilities, Functionalities and Terminology » Desktop / Application Sharing
Facilities, Functionalities and Terminology
Desktop / Application Sharing
Application sharing is a typical Web conferencing function that allows the presenter to "show" live any application running on her computer to all of the meeting participants. Application sharing is a bandwidth-intensive Web conferencing facility as it requires the transmission of lots of data (the whole screen of the presenter and any changes taking place inside). It is CPU-intensive as well, as it requires use of your computing power to compress/decompress on the fly the flow of image data sent out by the presenter/moderator.
In this respect the ability to control the method of compression, and the ability to set the number of colors being broadcast out during an application sharing session can significantly affect the performance of the session. According to the same line of reasoning it is also more effective to app share an 800*600 screen than a 1024*768 one. In other words as the amount of image data takes time and taxes computer performance it is best to application share programs being run at a screen resolution of 800*600 resolution so that a) the application will be fully viewable by all people working at 800*600 or higher resolution b) the amount of data to be sent and received is much less and performance increases.
Application sharing is generally achieved in one of two possible ways. By either selecting the application that one wants to be shared from a menu listing of all the applications already open on a computer, or by use of a Viewport, which is a movable empty window providing an intuitive way of "framing" the content or application to be shared with the meeting participants.
Application sharing is an essential tool for showcasing software tools, applications, online services and other computer related technology. While it can also be used for presentations and Web touring this is not its most efficient.
• Application selection via Viewport
The selection of the application to be "shared" takes place through a movable window. Whatever is included in the Viewport is "seen" by all of the Web conference participants. This is much more handy and intuitive than selecting applications to be "shared" through a menu.
• Application selection via menu
The selection of the application to be "shared" takes place through a menu list. Only open applications are listed inside the menu.
• Hand-out control
The hand-out control feature allows the presenter/moderator to authorize participants to share selected applications. It appears of critical importance that when such a function is available, the moderator has also the ability to take back control without having to receive it back from the selected user.
Handout control also allows the presenter to pass responsibility for annotation and marking to selected participants or to allow a number of students to deliver in turn their presentations.
• Co-editing
Co-editing is a powerful feature that allows the presenter/moderator to request or grant access to other participants to work with the shared application and collaboratively edit a shared document.
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Facilities