RadioJames » Work

Unyte: A free skype enabled desktop sharing tool

Administrator — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 20:49:56 +0000

I had planned on doing a post on Verosee, but came across another free skype enabled app or plugin mentioned on skype journal that has really impressed me. It’s called Unyte, and it’s developed by Web Dialogs – a company that offers web conferencing solutions in tow with WebEx, Live Meeting and Breeze.

About:
Unyte is a skype enabled plugin that allows anyone to share their computer screen, or open application, with up to four guests. What makes it unique is that guests don’t have to install it, nor download any plugin to participate. Infact, they don’t even have to have skype installed. You just send guest(s) a URL and password (these are automatically generated). They use these to initiate the session via a secure website, provided by WebDialogs.

Why I was drawn to it:
When I first read about it, two services at work came to mind immediately that might benefit from it; The online writing owl (OWL), and The Math Online Tutoring Help (MOTH). These online tutoring services are currently asynchronous, but this may partly be as a result of there not being aware of free synchronous solutions that can augment the current model; a scheduled time where online students can meet with a tutor “live” to get help. The fact that it’s free and that participants just need Explorer, Firefox, and Safari and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) makes it open to almost everyone.

Other features that makes it cool is that the “presenter” can yield control of their desktop, or application to guests so that they can interact with what’s being shared. In this way it could be used by students as a way to collaboratively edit Word documents or build group presentations. Since it ties into skype the process is further enabled by being able to send files during the share. In a team work scenario, one student could send an image using file sharing that gets placed into a PowerPoint. At the same time, the PowerPoint could be edited by a third person in real-time. The final file could then be emailed to the team member who couldn’t join because they were at work whose responsible for performing final edits and posting to the course website.

For a good overview look at the help pages:

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Skype + Kodak = Kodak Photo Voice

Administrator — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 05:46:00 +0000

I was perusing a Flash Com user list earlier and came across an interesting mention by Brian Lesser about something that launched today called Kodak Photo Voice. What it is, is a Skype plugin that allows two people to talk with one another while sharing photo slideshow. Kodak is promoting it as a way for friends and families to share experiences, but it could also be used for giving online presntations via Skype, first by outputting Power Point fslides to .jpg and then using them as the source to build the slideshow.

One of the big drawbacks is that for now you can only share slideshows with one other person. I’m hoping that in future versions this will change so that it takes full advantage of the Skype conference call feature. This would make it possible for students in online courses to deliver presentations within small groups (up to five), which is something that would be very useful in a lot of the courses I support. .Another thing to mention is that Photo Voice is tied to the Kodak Easy Share service. This means that you have to sign up for a free account (no surprise there). The good news is that the sign up is fairly painless (it’s built directly within the app) and you don’t have to load your images to the online “Easy Share Gallery.” Instead you can share images that are stored on your hard drive which I think is pretty cool since I don’t have any desire to store images on the Kodak site.Other drawbacks? You guessed it, as is the case with almost every skype plugin, it’s only available to Windows users. This didn’t suprise me too much, but it means that you cannot share your images with mac users…

To continue with Skype, tomorrow I’ll discuss my experience using Verosee (beta) which is a skype-centric collaboration app that allows for fileVersioning, offlineSynch and DesktopSharing.

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Coming out of a coma that I labeled a project

Administrator — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 06:50:19 +0000

I have been a recluse for the last four months, so you can expect that this will be a ramble. Besides spending my time at and away from work, finishing up a whole series of small web-based communication applications that I will (finally) begin to pilot in some online courses, the only other thing I’ve been doing is reading; books-blogs and journals, and these activities, though welcomed by my wife, in that I would otherwise be interrupting her studies, are, after a time, just way too insular.

So yes, I can say that I am done with my communicator app, but as a result have felt the emptiness that always follows completing a big project. Not emptiness in an emotional sense, but in the sense that I feel the lull that makes itself known when you look at your computer screen and realize that you’re organizing folders, backing up data and otherwise performing the restless movements of looking for something interesting to do. On the other hand, I know that this is just the feeling of decompression, and when I pull back from the screen and decide for once to eat at the lunch table, or across the street in the park instead of at my desk, that I’ll appreciate being out of my self made loop, if only for a short time.

example of the web app I’ve been working on. It can be added to an instructor’s course allowing the instructor and/or students to post audio and video clips using a webcam or headset mic. the player (not shown) can be embedded into a discussion or as an adjunct to a lesson etc,.

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