iPad Web Conferencing apps enable learners to join virtual meetings and classrooms via phone or VoIP. Participants can view live presentations, see who is attending and interact/chat with other participants, etc. Following Apple's User Experience Guidelines highlighted in my earlier blog post, Web Conferencing apps take full advantage of the iPad's device capabilities: They enable collaboration and connectedness and enhance interactivity, learners can switch between portrait and landscape view and use the multi-touch interface to zoom in on content.
The first web conferencing iPad apps that have been released are Citrix GoToMeeting and Cisco WebEx (demo video on their homepage). Adobe anticipates that iPad users will be able to take advantage of their Connect Pro Mobile app, which was published as a native iPhone application built using a pre-release of the next version of Flash Pro.
An interesting alternative solution, which got developed specifically for mobile devices, is the free software MightyMeeting. Their value proposition is to "Present Anywhere":
You can manage a library of PowerPoint presentations directly from your smartphone or tablet and share them via email or social media (blog, Twitter, or Facebook). Moreover, you can not only join but also run web meetings directly from your iPad. This is where MightyMeeting sees their key differentiator compared to traditional Web Conferencing vendors that mostly let you join an online meeting but have difficulty running a meeting from a mobile device.
While current software and hardware (lack of built-in camera!) features are still somewhat limited, this is just the beginning of a totally new chapter of business collaboration platforms. In my eyes, definitely one of the areas with the highest potential for future innovation and a totally new set of impactful learning applications. Would you agree?
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I've been a huge fan of the iPad the last few days as I'm discovering more and more things that I think will help to truly transform the way we interact with computers. However, one of the biggest deficiencies in my opinion is the lack of camera or webcam built into the iPad. This is a dream Skype machine and could truly transform the way people communicate with each other remotely. Hopefully in the next release of the product we'll see that.
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