Online collaboration for nonprofit organizations and groups.

Collaborative Communications

Our main discussion topic here will be to highlight the ability to hold virtual online meetings. We'll look at a few services and programs that are common.

Let's keep in mind that our subject focuses on meetings. These meetings will typically start at around a half dozen people. So keep this in mind as we start off with these advanced communication systems.

Voice Communications Programs

Voice communications are becoming more commonplace with companies like Yahoo and AOL.

Even though free voice communications products are available, they require large downloads and tend to dominate a computer's resources. This makes it difficult to have other applications open at the same time and may cause frequent freeze-ups.

Some of these free voice and text chat programs do not work through most common firewall settings and require you to use a room inside their own site.

The community rooms are generally overcrowded and plagued with spam and adult-content messages which is why I will not personally advocate any nonprofit organization or group to use them. It would be better to stick with paying long distance charges and keep your activities private than to expose yourself to these open forums.

Then there are the pesky banners that take up valuable screen space. One company after another is going bankrupt because free advertising-supported model cannot be sustained.

Teleconferencing

NetMeeting 3.0 from Microsoft is a great program if you want to add video conferencing capabilities. Before you jump on the NetMeeting bandwagon make sure that your group users have the minimum requirements.

* At least a 90 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor

* A minimum of 16 megabytes (MB) of RAM for Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me

* Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.01 or later

* 24 megabytes (MB) of RAM for Microsoft Windows NT version 4.0 (Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3 or later is required to enable sharing programs on Windows NT.)

* 4 MB of free hard disk space (an additional 10 MB is needed during installation only to accommodate the initial setup files).

Sound card with microphone and speakers (required for audio support).

* 28,800 bps or faster modem, integrated services digital network (ISDN), or local area network (LAN) connection (a fast Internet connection works best).

NetMeeting allows you to share files, text chat, and send a file, but does not allow whiteboarding, moderated chat or the ability to talk to individuals privately while in a meeting.

Keep in mind the need for speed, but for optimal purposes you should have close to the same internet modem speed.

I bought a webcam from GE called EasyCam Pro and found that it requires a minimum of 266 Mhz processor and at least 32 Mb RAM. So keep this in mind when you begin to set up a video teleconference.

Collaborative Rooms

My preference for Internet Meetings is what I call a Collaborative Room Setting. This particular setting allows for groups of 3 or more to talk or listen to a moderator share his or her vision (you still have text capabilities).

This setting allows for unlimited computer-to-computer use so that people can talk to each other, send text-messages, and see the same website or particular presentation on their screens while participants meet. It can be used for private communication or with large groups of participants.

Some features of collaborative rooms include:

* Participants can view the same screen in a "follow-me" mode

* Presentation pages, slides, or flash demo's can be placed on the internet where committee members and guests can watch while a moderator narrates and responds to questions

* Sketches, spreadsheets, word documents, financial reports, or any other application on your computer can be shared.

* Choose from Moderated-Only meetings where only the moderator can change elements and he/she grants control of the meeting to another user or Peer-to-Peer meetings where everyone can make modifications.

* White-board presentations can be conducted with a collaborative style.

In your virtual meetings you'll want the ability to go over charts, diagrams and financial statements and share these with the group.

It's for this reason that collaborative technologies offer the best means for holding virtual committee or board meetings online. You can always add video conferencing later if your group does not have the collective ability to meet this way at present.

VoIP And Beyond -- Real Collaboration

I looked at several services that should assist your group to get together without any hitches. These services are hosted on these company's own secure server which allows you to keep your resources free on your own computer. Although not free, they are very affordable in nature.

Flash Talk

Flash Talk is an easy and cost effective way to talk over the Internet with co-workers, friends or family-members, across the street or around the world, without any per minute or per call charges.

Flash Talk allows you to talk one on one, or set up a conference call with up to 1,000 co-workers, team members, customers, or business prospects.

FlashTalk can also lower your communication costs while enhancing your ability to communicate.

Voice calling can be done PC to PC across the street or even around the world with Online Conference Calling. It's good over low-speed dial-up or high-speed broadband connections.

Flash Talk allows up to 1,000 participants at one time. You can also review a common PowerPoint presentation or tour the web while making a presentation. The FlashTalk Enabled Web Sites allows connecting visitors with the company or to one another.

Adobe Macromedia Breeze Live

Hold meetings instantly with anyone, anywhere, at anytime with your free trial of Breeze Live.

Here are some of the features:

* Text Chat, Voice, Voice & Video (webcam enabled) Chat

* Send & Receive Files / PowerPoint presentations

* Show video, multimedia files, or any application on your desktop.

* Plain Text Chat (private or public)

* Design the layout of your meeting and save this configuration for future meetings.

* Host your very own events & shows

* Browse The Web Inside of Breeze Live

* Unlimited Access 24/7/365

* Quickly and easily invite your participants as well as record your meetings for future viewing.

* Works through Macromedia Flash.

* If currently using Macromedia Flash Player, no software download or plug-in installation is required.

eZ Meeting

eZ Meeting offers interactive, real-time Online Meetings & Web Conferencing for small groups of people. This program is great for small committee meetings. You still have to use the phone, email or instant messaging, but offers an easy way to share ideas and files.

Place any document right in front of the person you’re speaking with on the phone, immediately — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, 3D Models, CAD and Digital Photos. Online. Realtime. That’s the power of eZ. Regardless of the distance that separates your team, eZ delivers an interactive, simple, visual communication solution.

Google Docs

Google Docs - Create and share your work online. Collaborate on presentations. Create, edit and upload quickly. Import your existing documents, spreadsheets and presentations, or create new ones from scratch. Access and edit from anywhere All you need is a Web browser. Your documents, spreadsheets and presentations are stored securely online. Share changes in real-time. Invite people to your documents and make changes together, at the same time. It's free.

Microsoft's Live Meeting

Live Meeting is Microsoft's newest online system that allows for meeting with supporters, employees, clients, and customers in real time with groups of 2 or more than 2,000. You must have a phone and a computer with an Internet connection.

Live Meeting allows you to conduct real time virtual presentations, enhanced with annotations, web slides, instant polling, electronic whiteboards, and application sharing.. You can send invitations and allow for secure access.

You can also add a full featured audio that allows full controls, including mute lines, lock conference, roll call, dial out, sub-conference, terminate conference and more. This is for up to 75 participants on a reservationless basis and up to 300 with a reservation.

All of this for a fairly high price of about 35 cents per minute per participant, per minute for pay-for-use or for $375 per month for 5 seats. Although of good quality, for many small organizations, this program is to expensive.

iVolcalize

iVocalize is the lowest costing of online voice conferencing rooms.

iVocalize combines voice conferencing, text chat, web browsing, and web presentation creation into one small, dynamic, package

Some of the iVocalize features include:

* Real-time, crystal-clear voice conferencing

* Text chat

* Synchronized web browsing

* Easy, three-step, presentation recording and much more!

iVocalize also has room rentals and server sales. You can own a 5-person iVocalize server for as little as $50.00. Check out the iVocalize concept here.

Twitter

Twitter has taken off like wildfire as a way to communicate small blurbs to others. You can send text messages of less than 140 words only. However, new iPhone apps allow you to add pictures and voice messages to each Twitter.

We've also found a way to build a list with Twitter and place your voice messages using TweetMic.

There is an incredibly informative instructional video shown here from the Spider Web Marketing system.

One cool feature of Twitter allows you to post your comments through MySpace, your blog and on your own website. See ours to the right. This will allow you to post immediate comments that pertain to your nonprofit group.

Fundraising with Twitter will only bring you closer to your supporters, donors and even more outside of your membership base. If you want to follow any of our Twitter discussions, just click on the "Follow" button seen.

In Conclusion

There is a vast array of communication tools at your disposal. My preference for meetings is in the following order:

1. Instant Messengers

2. Voice Chat

3. Text Chat

4. File Sharing

5. Teleconferencing and VoIP

6. Collaborative Rooms with chat capabilities, follow-me features, file sharing, and whiteboarding.

I also appreciate those that are offered as an ASP rather that using up more resources on my computer. Go with the Collaborative room for the ultimate in Virtual Online Meetings for your nonprofit group, organization, ministry, club or association.

Online Committee And Board Meetings -- Online Meetings Part 1