Over the last ten years, distance education has become really popular. Students acknowledge the fact that they do need to learn more but this is possible only with the help of properly set-up distributed educational networks. Colleges acknowledge the fact that most students have already finished studying and find it difficult to learn anything more after graduation unless they are a special breed. But using rapidly deployed web conferencing software can make this process as easy as possible. Newer technology can teach webinar participants to work with telephones, computer sound, slide sharing and even video streaming. Virtual world platforms are possible where the largest number of students from all over the world can learn together. The most apt web conferencing software can also set up virtual gotomeeting classrooms, a lobby, an auditorium, exhibits, and conference rooms where you can learn much more – see this interesting PDF report from the Case Globe Project for further information.

Interactions with webinars allow students to learn more in an interactive setting where they can establish mutually beneficially relationships.  But usually good web online meeting software can ensure that everyone benefits: the vendor or the web conferencing software (principally Gotomeeting), the college that is using the web conferencing software and even the student.

Studies and Research

The web conferencing world has been booming over the last ten years. Most educational organizations and companies have realized that using the best web conferencing software can actually help them cut costs. But how does this process actually work out.  Hardware Resources, an internet marketing research body, recently researched the actual booming market of the web conferencing software world and a few interesting facts have popped up. The study covered emerging markets, the current trends in the web conferencing world and the actual savings that could be done with the use of web conferencing. How much of the new demand is down to educational organizations?

Methodology

Over 400 organizations are evaluated for their web conferencing software uses. The companies and organizations were evaluated for their exact web conferencing software usage and exactly how much of a benefit they experienced with the software.  Companies were provided with questionnaires, and other personalized interviews to assess their exact benefits and losses. Vendors were also provided with the same process.

Results

• Over 60% of the companies agreed that they could do with a better service record for their web conferencing software.
• More than 30% of the company workers agreed that they required more training with the web conferencing software. More than 56% of the staff had to use the web conferencing but they did not do so as they were more used to the use of telephones and social medical networking processes.
• Over 59% of the trainers who used the web conferencing software agreed that it did work for them to get their message across to their students.
• Students who were working with the company as interns stated that more than 40% of the staff was accessible via web conferencing software but additional support was necessary to make sure that every one knew how to use web conferencing.
• Support was necessary for all employees who wanted to use the web conferencing software from home. It was also noted that most web conferencing software could not be used at home.

Discussion

The data was evaluated according to set statistically analysis and the results were not surprising. Even though the exact web conferencing market is booming, a few simple facts are pulling it down.

• Companies are pulling out of newer markets like developing countries where web conferencing software should have been used prominently. As a result, the actual markets where web conferencing software should have been used are no longer used.
• Employees who used to travel long distances now prefer to use software like gotomeeting to talk to teams that are located in far flung locations. But the actual travel time has not gone down as several cultures prefer to be wined and dined by visiting executives and this made sure that web conferencing programs could not be used in every location.
• The actual employees who should have used the web conferencing commonly did not as they claimed that they were too busy to do so.

What about Educational Webinars?

Over the last few years, almost every distance education college in the world has realized that just web conferencing software is not enough. But choosing the right web conferencing software for each college and its requirements is not easy. As a result, a large range of options are required with every web conferencing software bur choosing the right one is not easy. According to market statistics, companies and colleges require a large range of options that will allow them to do many different options before they do choose good web conferencing software for their needs.

Current distance education requirements for all colleges

Almost all colleges require web conferencing apps that will get installed on the company server or the college server. The software should also be installed on each individual user’s server to allow them to be able to user the webinar software to get in touch with the professor. There should no downloads that are required for the software to work. Cross browser, email id, forums compatibility is required to ensure that the students who register with the college can use the web conferencing software easily.  Most students will also be able to log on to the web conferencing software and then register themselves on to the associated forum to get access to direct knowledge. Other requirements that are seen by colleges from students include audience participation. The conferencing package should be able to track the attendance of the students who have logged on to the software and who are attending the lectures. Student participation should be possible along with email registrations for special webinars, automatic follow-ups and reminders and payments for the webinars.  Companies can then offer low cost learning to the students as they don’t have to invest in actual venues that will increase the cost of education.

In the vast majority of cases in Jan-May 2010, it was reported by independent investigators that the Web conferencing industry was in a state of highly elastic competition, and this was particularly the case with Gotomeeting by Citrix. Having looked at all the evidence, analysts were convinced that although the use of the famous collaborative web app was on the rise, this was because the people are market penetration and highly effective advertising, and not the result of any particularly strong economic recovery in the Web conferencing software sector.

Slump Easing Off for Web Conferencing

Further to this, the conferencing price index (PDF), which measures the relative success and profit margins of the large software companies, and insignificant increase of 3.6% between September 2009 and March 2010. This will not have a meeting executive jumping for joy, but it does at least mean that they are significantly lower chance of a slump in the near future. A spokesperson from Gotomeeting said that they were feeling optimistic about the future, and that Web conferencing will continue to be an ever expanding industry. An official statement from Gotomeeting outlined that profits were expected to rise throughout 2011 but the extent to which this was expected has not been published.

The news industry in modern times has become increasingly dependent on Internet Web conferencing, and this has plenty to say about Gotomeeting and similar conferencing applications. This was shown in a study that was performed in 2009. In this study the major news media representatives were asked which Web conferencing program they used the most and why. The resounding winner in terms of frequency of use and subscription was Gotomeeting even though there are several educational competitors which offer similar features for a much lower price will stop analysts have argued that the main element in this surprising popularity of the program is the after sales service and specialised support of businesses. When asked about the specific reasons why they chose Gotomeeting, news media industry representatives said that with Gotomeeting they knew that they would have immediate high quality support the moment anything went wrong, and that this piece of mind was well worth the monthly subscription fee.

gotomeeting in the news

Despite what you may have heard, it is almost certainly untrue that Gotomeeting proposes a danger to the wider community. This applies both on and off the Internet. You may be asking the question: why would anyone think that Gotomeeting was in any way dangerous? Of course, the answer is not forthcoming. This is because there is in fact no reason to consider any online meeting application, be it dimdim, live meeting or Gotomeeting, poses any danger to the community at large. This statement is corroborated by the police forces in most western countries, but rumours still persist in Asia, which is staggering considering the absurdity of the accusations levelled at some of these highly beneficial collaborative Web meeting applications. Making sure that rumours like these do not persist is one of the primary aims and objectives of the corporate leadership (powerpoint document) of Gotomeeting, a subsidiary of Citrix. Marketing the educational product well involves complete avoidance of ridiculous rumours, and advertising campaigns reflect this in their sincerity and in their focus on strong, sensible business ideals.

It can often be interesting to consider how different types of networking software are used in different countries across the world, and Gotomeeting is no exception to this. Looking at the usage data from every country, very interesting trends can be revealed. Gotomeeting is the foremost business networking program in use in the USA at the moment, and it holds the vast majority of the market share and the biggest profit margins. In Europe, Gotomeeting is also the primary application of this type in use across the continent, but by a smaller margin. However, its market dominance is growing at a rate of about 5% per year. Given the trend, Gotomeeting will match the level of dominance it enjoys in the USA by 2012.

gotomeeting asia

Looking at Asia, the market is significantly different from that in the West (primarily due to language differences), and as such Gotomeeting does not have the dominant market share that enjoys elsewhere in the world. Given the success of the application from Citrix in the Western world, it would seem like a logical next step for some kind of Japanese and Chinese language support to be included as standard in the program. The difficulties inherent in this process somewhat obvious though. Gotomeeting (user guide here) is a highly integrated and complex program which requires coordination over large networks, and adapting the program wholesale in order to support far Eastern languages as standard would be no small undertaking. Considering the potential costs of this, though, it would seem worthwhile venture which would begin to pay off in the next few years.

Many Americans are living in states that are broke or close to it, and the effect on Gotomeeting education sales and profits have been open to wide debate. The distance from Washington to Main Street is not as great as that from Boston harbour to Westminster, but it is great indeed. Most Americans want to see spending on Gotomeeting upgrades reigned in and corporate taxes cut for software creators such as Citrix. This is of real economic significance. A handful of corporate Democrats are sufficiently responsive to their constituents of version to more deficit spending to have joined the opposing side in the networking debate, voting to kill a business stimulus package. This will have a great many knock on consequences for the proliferation of online meeting applications such as Gotowebinar, and their use across the United States. It assists, research spending will slow, or at least grow at a slower pace. Meanwhile, online meeting software consumers are in no mood to fill the spending gap: incomes in May rose by an average of 0.3% while spending rose by only half that figure, as consumers prepare for the rainy day that seems increasingly inevitable in the field of Gotomeeting related activities.

This leaves cash rich businesses as the source of demand that can propel growth and significantly reduce the ranks of the unemployed in the networking software industry. However, with increasing health care and energy costs, jobcreating companies are hoarding cash rather than setting sail on a sea of doubt surrounding the future trends of Gotomeeting based business. 80% of finance executives responding to a survey by the Association for networking professionals say they expect to hold onto their record high cash piles or even expand them in the next six months, in spite of the fact that the yield on cash held in online meeting accounts and other ultra safe Goto webinar style investments is close to zero. All this adds to the worries of America, and explains why most Americans are happy to have a long weekend with no economic news, a barbecue in the backyard and plenty of sports on television. The business networking software sector, though still growing, is showing signs of cooling off. Throw in the news really close to home and from overseas, and the results are not encouraging. Many Americans live in states that are broke or close to it and know they are in for higher taxes and reduced benefits, which will restrict the effectiveness of their use of Gotomeeting on a corporate level. Even those only casually interested in such events as the G 16 Web conference seminar in June noticed that the feeling of cohesion was not shared by all the participants.