it is time to add video messaging to our planets ´repertoire of
communication methods, we have had television and cinema for many years
now to distribute live and recorded motion picture; the advent of true
broadband (20 Mbps should suffice as a measure worldwide) makes it
possible to stream images at 24 fps over the internet
nice clean hollywood quality video ... two recent movies feature
video conferencing .. 1408 and transformers .. yeah sure we used to
have the " beam me up scotty " variety of what now in retrospect looks
like utter nonsense ...
to me when a brand or a way of doing things makes it into the movies
it is officially the generations choice, the generations attitude and
voice, when video conferencing made it into the two movies 1408 and Transformers it captured perfectly the nature of the emotional quality of human interaction via video;
What value do in-line Instant Messaging and Video Conference and Collaboration Systems like Instant Web Meetings add to an enterprise ?
Instant Web Meetings is different from all other " Video
Conferencing and Collaboration " systems on the market today in that it
is an entirely modular, web based service where a user
can access his / her account from any PC / Mac / Linux machine via a
web browser or as an integrated part of a network, desktop or web based
software / service / system or web - site even ...
ie. IWM (Instant Web Meetings) consists of 3 distinct layers :
- the User Interface that handles authentification and File Exchange,
WhiteBoard, Slide Shows, Quiz, Notes, Remote Dekstop & Application
Access, access to Google Docs and Maps and Payment Gateway
- the SOAP layer that transfers data to and from the Database layer / Datastorage
- the PHP or . NET layer responsible for data manipulation on the User Control Panel level
- the Data layer which can be a web-farm based Oracle DB, a SQL - web
based database or a " fixed " network based SQL - data storage, flat
-files, etc.
all other services that currently offer similar communication
services do so by non-modular design that binds UI to event handling to
data-transfer and storage into one singular non-discrete entity
that is difference number 1,
# 2 is - since the login and login Interface is XML aware IWM can
not only be deployed like a RSS button or a " widget " that displays
information and a login interface - eg. the Google search widget, or
the technorati widget (code expression as seen below)
<a href="http://technorati.com/blogs/onlinevideoconferenceandcollaboration.com/wordpress?sub=tr_embed_t_js"
class="tr_embed_arg_blog">Blog Information
<a href="http://technorati.com/profile/abrahamatul?sub=tr_embed_t_js"
class="tr_embed_arg_username">Profile for abrahamatul
thus a piece of text, in-line in an article, like - click here to speak to the author makes it possible for readers to discuss the article immediately with the author(s),
or a link in the menu bar of the Service section of your website reading Online Help Desk
can not only connect customers, suppliers and OEM directly to your
service staff but unlike any other IM environment makes it possible to
work collaboratively within the security of the browser over a 128 or 256 - bit SSL connection.
you may choose to use such free IMs as SKYPE or Yahoo or MSN IM but
these operate over open internet lines and are thus not secure, your
data can be stolen or worse lost,
the greatest advantage of the IWM method of implementation is that it uses TCP / IP for all connection and transmission processes, TCP / IP , unlike UDP
processes used by most other VOIP or collaboration and video -
conferencing services / softwares, is a reliable transmission protocol
that ensure data integrity and delivery,
TCP does suffer from the inherent latency of open internet traffic
but it ensures that the data / voice / video will not be lost in
transmission because it is a state-aware / connection aware protocol
that requires sender and receiver to confirm dispatch and receipt
UDP is faster because it has no state awareness (ie. of the
connection was cut a UDP based system would not recognize this) and
does not need to keep track of dispatch and receipt and just continues
streaming even if and when data is lost in between or at either end,
What is the real-world use of IWM being on TCP / IP and not UDP ?
- because UDP is stateless a lost voice or video packet cannot be
retrieved, UDP just assumes that the packet was delivered correctly,and
moves on to the next part of the stream ( this however does allow UDP
to transmit data with least delay ), this means that UDP is not a reliable, guaranteed service but just a fast one
- business applications need the relaibility, stability and security that TCP / IP offers and this is why IWM is on TCP / IP
- because IWM runs on TCP / IP, voice transmission is entirely dependent on network connections speeds,
- because voice transmission is an integral part of IWM, you dont have the additional overhead of paying for a phone - call
- this extreme reliability makes IWM perfect for ad - hoc communication, ie.
if you are at a kiosk in an airport, otherwise in transit or not at
your normal work PC and need to talk to the service department of a
hotel, airline, PC producer, software manufacturer / supplier, have a
hardware problem you need solved, select and pay for a service where
you need pre-purchase consultation the best solution now is to call a
hotline and wait for an answer (which you pay for or to use a PHP /
PERL based text chat which may not be able to completely offer you all
the information you need - brochures, schematic diagrams, user manuals
etc.)IWM meets this need adroitly - you place a link on your web
site that asks potential customers to click on it and be connected to a
live service engineer standing by, when connected -- the engineer can
pass on files to you - brochures, user manuals, help guides, FAQs, even
play videos of installation, repair, use which you can in turn download
for own storage and use
- you pay nothing for this service, the provider of the information
pays a nominal 15 cents (or thereabouts per minute for their use of IWM)
- you an access this from any PC, Linux or MAc computer even if it is
not yours ie. since IWM needs no downloads to connect and be used it is
as easy to use as going up to a public telephone and making a call,
only this time your calling collect - YOU CAN CONNECT TO IWM JUST LIKE LOGGING ON TO HOTMAIL or accessing
a regular website, because IWM needs no download install routines to be
completed before you can connect to your target party, and no firewall
or router ports need be specially configured to allow access, all
parties can connect to IWM and thus to each other just like accessing
awebsite with a username and password so if 8 users all access the same
URL with correct authentification they can all meet,
- IWM uses ISO 9001 standard port 80 ( for TCP / IP ) and 443 for SSL from Verisign giving it the same security as any international bank or payment transaction site like paypal