April 28, 2008

The Webette

While researching my TRIPLL presentation, I found a great article in the May 2007 issue of Peer to Peer, the journal of ILTA entitled "The Webette: A Simple, Effective Training Delivery Approach."

The author, Randall Farrar, talks about the use web conferencing tools to offer quick, live, web based training sessions, on very specific topics.

While he suggests that webettes should be hour-long, I'd suggest that in most cases you'd want to keep them even shorter, perhaps 15 minutes or less.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 05:39 PM | Comments (0) | Permanent Link

Free Desktop Sharing

If you don't want to pay for a desktop sharing tool, don't despair. Tom Mighell over at Inter-Alia found a free one that allows you to share your desktop with up to 15 participants called Microsoft SharedView. It requires a software download for both the host and participants, and you'll need a Windows Live ID. Apparently, it includes desktop sharing and chat, but no audio.

SharedView isn't the only free tool out there. Yakkle offers instant messaging, voice and desktop sharing. You start by initiating an instant messaging session. Once you've connected, you can opt to share your desktop.

I haven't tried either of these out yet...if anyone else has, let us know what you think.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 05:19 PM | Comments (1) | Permanent Link

April 14, 2008

Getting Attorneys into the Classroom - Why Would You Want Them There?

I'm just back from TRIPLL where we spent some quality time talking about ways to deliver point of need training to attorneys and staff using such tools as webinars, remote desktop sharing, videos, etc., in addition to finding ways to make ourselves more visible and available by walking the floors and doing personal follow-up to training. It's obvious that formal, longer training sessions simply don't draw our intended audience, regardless of the quality and abundance of the food provided. Considering the fact that attorneys aren't coming into the library as often as they once did, we have to figure out how to take training to them.

So I'm very interested in this ILTA webinar called "Getting Attorneys into the Classroom - Why Would You Want Them There?" and I thought I'd let you know about it as well. There's a lot to be learned on this topic from the technology folks, since they experience the same problems we do, but on an even larger scale!

You'll have to pay a bit more to register if your firm isn't an ILTA member, but it's probably worth it. Maybe I'll "see" you there.

P.S. Attending and speaking at TRIPLL was a great experience. I learned a lot, enjoyed exchanging ideas with the group, and ate way more than I should have. If you're involved with training, and ever get the opportunity to go, take it! Thanks very much to the group at Lexis Nexis for continuing to offer such quality programs.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 04:37 PM | Comments (0) | Permanent Link

April 06, 2008

Web Conference Basics

Do you want to get started with web conferencing, but just aren't sure how? What products are out there? What features do you need? I recently stumbled across a c|net tutorial that walks you through getting your conference up and running, picking the best software and leading a successful web conference.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 12:07 PM | Comments (0) | Permanent Link

Poll of the Week - Blogs and Wikis

Are you using blogs and/or wikis in your library? Answer this week's poll!

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 11:58 AM | Comments (0) | Permanent Link

March 23, 2008

How much CO2 is Saved Through Web Conferencing

Typically web conferencing services tout the money that can be saved by using web conferencing to replace business travel. But iLink is also highlighting the environmental savings by is offering a unique tool as part of their software - a green meter! Their green meter is an automatic calculator inside the iLinc Web conferencing software that tracks CO2, in addition to cost and travel reductions accrued by meeting online rather than traveling. The green meter appears whenever you have hold a meeting using iLink. The calculations are based on the location of all of the participants.

Hey, it's actually easy to be green! (Sorry, Kermit!)

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 07:36 PM | Comments (2) | Permanent Link

Poll of the Week - Web Conferencing in the Library

I know vendors are using web conferencing extensively. But I'm curious as to how much it's being used in law firm libraries for training purposes; so that's the subject of this week's poll.

You can review the poll results at any time by clicking on the view results link.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 07:20 PM | Comments (0) | Permanent Link

March 16, 2008

Poll: Do you Use IM in Your Library?

I'm in the midst of preparing for my presentation at TRIPLL next month, and would like to ask you, my kind readers, to answer a series of questions relating to my topic, technology tools and solutions for point of need training. You'll be helping me focus my presentation appropriately, and in addition, I think the results will be of general interest. These questions are intended for law firm librarians only.

Here's number one.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 11:21 AM | Comments (0) | Permanent Link