Collaborate on projects in Internet meetings

Zatni Arbi, Columnist, Jakarta, zatni@cbn.net.id

A 24-hour broadband connection to the Internet is definitely a boon for home workers. For one thing, there is no meter running, so we can calmly work on things that take hours to finish. With a dial-up connection, this can be done, too, of course, but there is always an urge to get offline immediately because the longer we stay online the more we will have to pay -- both to the ISP and the telephone operator.

One of the things that can be done if we have always-on access to the Internet is to work together with one or more people persons on a project. If you have a multimedia PC, complete with a Webcam, you can also hold video conferences to facilitate your communication.

Paid or Free Services?

I grew more interested in finding ways to hold a meeting over the Web when I was in charge of coordinating a research project. One of my team members happened to be in Vancouver, Canada. Besides, I have become so inundated with other work that having a "real-world" meeting increasingly seems to be an time-consuming activity. An online meeting, where everyone can participate and contribute without having to brave the traffic of Jakarta, is an alternative that we all should pursue.

I was quite surprised to discover that there are several paid services that allow people to collaborate online. The fees they charge still vary, as this is obviously a new type of Internet service. Needless to say, after the 9-11 tragedy a lot of people chose to video conference rather than fly to meetings, and this situation might have been one of the impetuses of the Internet- based meeting solutions offered by these companies.

Some of the paid services are Webex (www.webex.com), Obidicut (www.obidicut.com) and eBLVD (www.eblvd.com).

Webex offers a free trial service if you want to get a taste of Internet meetings. It also offers a pay-per-use service for people who need to hold Internet meetings quickly.

One of the free services is Microsoft NetMeeting. I explored this one and thought it had all the basic tools for a fairly effective meeting. As more and more free Web services become commercial services, though, we may expect that even Microsoft will eventually charge us for this service.

A Hands-On Trial

I used both my wife's HP Pavilion and my own PC to learn how NetMeeting worked. I downloaded Microsoft NetMeeting applications on both computers, which were connected to the Internet.

I initiated a NetMeeting session from my wife's PC. The reason was that it still runs on Windows Me (I still have not saved enough money to buy the upgrade version of Windows XP for it). I figured initiating the NetMeeting from an older OS would create less hassle, as Windows XP has sometimes told me to upgrade the other computer to XP before I can use certain home network features.

Then I clicked on NetMeeting's "Find Someone in a Directory" button, and my wife's computer then accessed Microsoft's Internet Directory. After a few seconds, it showed my name as one of my wife's contacts. I clicked on my name and moved over to my own PC. There, the NetMeeting was loaded. It told me that my wife was inviting me to have an online meeting with her. I accepted the invitation, and the two computers were connected via the Web.

I then moved back and forth between my wife's and my PC, typing the questions and answers as if there were two people chatting over the Web.

By the way, a Benq pocket digital camera was also attached to my wife's Pavilion, and the video was shown on the NetMeeting panel on my PC. If my wife were there to assist me in this experiment, we would have had a real audio-video conference.

The essential part of the NetMeeting is the Whiteboard, which is also a common feature offered by all the paid services. Using the whiteboard, which in the Microsoft NetMeeting looks exactly like the Paint applet, I created a diagram to illustrate the assumption of the research I was involved in. As I added the boxes, circles, text and lines on my PC, the same elements of the diagrams also appeared on my wife's PC. Conversely, if I made some modifications to the diagram using my wife's PC, the modifications appeared on my PC. The update was instantaneous.

During the online meeting, I was also able to send files back and forth. All I needed to do was click on the Transfer Files button. We can actually send multiple files at once. NetMeeting on Windows XP-based PCs also allows application sharing. This was not possible during my test, though, as one of the PCs was not on XP.

Various Possibilities

Microsoft NetMeeting is not always available. Sometimes I get a warning that it will be shut down for maintenance. I guess it is the continuous availability of the online meeting services that we pay for if we subscribe to paid services such as Webex and Obidicut.

Other things that these commercial services offer include more tools such as scheduling and calendaring, message boxes and online storage space for your team's work. Some more advanced services also offer 128-bit encryption for security.

Meeting on the Internet may not be as crucial as it was in the period immediately following 9-11, as people return to the skies, but the possibilities are still compelling. Seminars (one-to-many conferencing), sales presentations, collaboration and, certainly, joint research activities are good candidates for this type of Web service. E-Learning, which allows people to enrich their lives through remote education, is another.

By the way, as we are getting closer to 2004, when the next general election here will be held, and we could avoid a lot of loss -- lives and property -- if political party leaders would campaign through Internet conferencing. At the same time, it would educate more people -- including the country's power elite -- about all the marvelous things the Internet can do.