Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 11:13:12 -0400 From: richard seltzer Subject: Chat reminder: HorizonLive at ASU -- another experiment in voice for distance education, Thursday, June 14 BUSINESS ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB -- Where "word of keystroke" begins Please join us for chat this Thursday, June 14, noon to 1 PM Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4). We're going to continue our series of experiments with voice applications over the Internet -- this time using and focusing on HorizonLive: a full-blown distance education platform that includes voice chat. Steve Salik at Arizona State University has volunteered to let us use his HorizonLive server. That means that instead of getting a demo by sales people, we'll have an opportunity to learn what this platform is like in a real distance ed environment. We're hoping to learn not just what the software is capable of, but also how best to make use of it in the classroom. Steve explains: "HorizonLive provides software that allows you to collaborate, interact and learn online. How is this accomplished? Easily and conveniently - all you need is Internet access and the ability to communicate to your audience the time and Web address of your live presentation. Once the participants have convened online, HorizonLive 2.0 enables the presenter to show still or video-based text and visual content, project their voice, demonstrate live applications (software programs) and use a whiteboard. How is this possible? Our software is 100% Web-ready - it does not require plug-ins or downloads and can be accessed via any Mac, Unix or Windows platform. Whether you're running a new product rollout session for sales, turning classroom training or instruction into live online training or holding a presentation across your supply chain, HorizonLive 2.0 makes live interactive knowledge transfer simple and effective. Furthermore, your presentations also become re-playable - your live sessions are concurrently archived for on-demand viewing and reference. "Prior to attending, people should run through the HorizonLive Wizard to make sure that their browser is up to the task, this can be done at: http://live.horizonlive.com/wizard/launcher.cgi To login to the session use this URL: http://asu.horizonlive.com/launcher.cgi?channel=FoxOnline The URL is CASE SENSITIVE so make sure people know that. Once there, they just have to enter their name in the first text box, and click on Log In. Feel free to call if you have nay questions. shsalik@asu.edu (480)727-7541." In our previous experiments with other voice chat apps and distance ed platforms, it has become clear that while the needs of distance education and business collaboration/events/training sometimes overlap, their goals are quite different, and hence the business models and pricing should also be different. Unfortunately, the vendors often don't make that distinction, and hence while their capabilities may be great, the packages they offer may simply not make sense for distance education. This is my take on what's different. (Feedback welcome): 1) Unlike businesses, colleges may want to use the platform as part of their offerings, not as the whole thing. 2) Colleges will want to handle their own registration, etc. 3) Pricing should be not by the event or the "seat" or minutes per user, but rather on a flat-rate basis by quarter and semester and year. If the meter is ticking, course designers, teachers, and students won't take full advantage of the capabilities.) With a flat rate, they will experiment with new uses, leading to greater interaction among students and between students and instructors. The more interaction the better. 4) The customer should be able to pick the maximum number of participants and later adjust that number based on actual usage, not be stuck with a pre-determined number. 5) The platform should include text chat, voice chat, ability to use either and both voice over IP and telephone, co-browsing, and white board/presentation space. It should also make it easy to archive and replay the entire experience. 6) The platform should not include capabilities which are expensive, resource intensive, and not really necessary for the classroom experience. That includes private voice chat, webcom, and application sharing -- capabilities that increase costs and also increase the risk of user connection problems. 7) Ideally, the text chat portion should include threading of discussions and automatic archiving. (Check the chat sessions that I've held at SiteScape -- by way of my chat transcript page www.samizdat.com/chat.html) 8) Macintosh support. Macs are far more important in education than in business. These chat sessions take place Thursdays 12 noon-1 PM (US Eastern Daylight Time = GMT -4). Complete, edited transcripts of past sessions are available at http://www.samizdat.com/chat.html You can also see our upcoming schedule of topics there. Please send email with your follow-on questions and comments, suggestions for other voice chat apps for us to experiment with and for other future topics, and requests to receive email reminders about upcoming sessions. Best wishes. Richard Richard Seltzer, seltzer@samizdat.com, www.samizdat.com Internet marketing consultant www.samizdat.com/consult.html Ebook at Mighty Words -- Take Charge of Your Web Site Coming soon from Wiley -- Web Business Bootcamp Online discussion http://webworkzone.com/bootcamp Audio of three Internet business speeches www.samizdat.com/internet 617-469-2269