Reprinted Articles

Tired of flying to meetings because email and phone calls weren’t enough? Some of those meetings still need you there, but many can be replaced by webcam conferencing. Time to give webcam conferencing a try.

Webcam technology has really improved the last few years. You can get a very acceptable webcam for family use priced less than $40. If you’re replacing business meetings you might want to pay more attention to brands and reviews (I like Logitech models), but can easily buy a decent webcam for $40-$60.

Whatever you decide on, it should be a USB webcam. You’ll plug it into your PC, run a quick installation, and you’re ready to go! (See link in this article’s resource box for webcam brands/prices.)

Personal Use:

Now that you have your webcam, how do you start with webcam conferencing? Easy. Try it out with your instant messaging software. AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and Windows Live Messenger all work with webcams. Ask one of your friends to chat with you so you can sit down and practice.

Professional Useage:

Of course, if you’re planning to use webcam conferencing for business meetings, you obviously won’t be holding those over instant messaging. Most webinar vendors (Webex, NetMeeting, etc) support video streaming.

You’ll definitely want to practice the integration with your web conference software. Figure out how to turn the video streaming on and off, how to adjust the resolution and speed, just for starters. By the way, if you don’t already have a web conference vendor there’s a great 14-day free trial available to let you practice. See this article’s resource box for a link.

Points to Remember:

Slow down! (Your speech, that is.) Webcam conferencing usually doesn’t quite keep up with natural human speech. You don’t need to talk like you’re in quicksand, just remember to talk a half-beat slower than normal. This is a common recommendation for presenters anyway — it’s good to get in the habit.

In case you didn’t notice in the earlier paragraphs, I recommend you practice a little. Give yourself 15 minutes to learn the features of your particular webcam. Some will even enhance the image (want less wrinkles?) if you like. Regardless, you’ll want to understand what you’ve bought.

Enjoy! You’re part of the video-streaming world now.

Last 5 posts by Tyler Vaughn

• Top 4 Icebreakers for Successful Online Meetings - May 1st, 2008
• How to run a meeting online: A beginner's guide - April 29th, 2008
• Choosing Web Conference Software: A How-to Guide - April 27th, 2008

Tags: Technology