How can these organizations consider having some true real-time collaboration tools when the costs for WebEx or Microsoft Live Meeting are so prohibitive?
Are these tools just reserved for top management interaction inside these humanitarian orgs? Gillian Kerr: I wish. These tools aren’t reserved for top management yet, because in most cases, top management hasn’t thought of using them. I’m finding it very difficult to encourage nonprofits to use Web conferencing tools; they are still hard to use and often unreliable unless you choose the most expensive ones. I’m looking forward to seeing what Microsoft does with Live Meeting, because Microsoft tends to transform market segments once it decides to enter them seriously. That may open up the market for cheaper alternatives once people are more comfortable with the whole concept. In the short term, there are several inexpensive alternatives, including Glance, which I’m using these days. Your list of SOHO Web conferencing tools is the best way for people to review the options (and I’m not just being nice). But I would also include teleconferencing under real-time distance collaboration tools
