We work in an industry that relies on online stuff. If it’s not on-line, then generally us intranet folks aren’t interested in it are we? No we’re not. Why? Because that’s what we do. We do stuff on-line. Simple.
On-line working in the virtual world has been around for ages. I’ve been chairing and attending meetings ‘virtually’ for about ten years. In intranet terms that’s like forever. In this fast paced industry a year is the equivalent to five dog years, so I reckon I’ve been in the business for about 50 intranet years and I’ve seen an enormous amount of change, but not in my current organisation.
To make an online meeting successful some simple basics need to be available. Usually a phone and access to the internet at the most. Alternatively you can access both the audio and visual bits via a pc and away you go, utilising whatever technology you have installed. It can be done from one device. And that’s how it should be, or so I thought.
But unfortunately things aren’t as simple as they should be. Not all companies are equal. Access to a simple telephone line and a working LAN connection in the same meeting room at the same time isn’t always available. Wireless is virtually none existant, or pc’s just don’t connect to it when it is. Conference (spider) phones are in short supply and hey it’s hit and miss as to whether the electric sockets work and if they do then they’re situated miles away from where they’re needed. So we have to arrive armed for every eventuality.
On-line meeting software, like Live Meeting, is either not available or unsupported so if you do have it and it doesn’t work then you’re on your own.
I regularly chair meetings for large numbers of people who have to travel from all parts of the country, incurring travel expenses, time out of the office and everyone increasing their carbon footprints whilst spending the organisations money. Not good. Hopefully when they arrive all the kit will be working and we can have a productive meeting for those in the room, but I can’t invite those who can’t be there to join remotely. It just doesn’t work.
The recent IBF24 online conference ably demonstrated that virtual meetings are a productive and effective way of getting intranet people together irrespective of where they happen to be at the time. It can work externally, but if the basic tools aren’t available then it’s difficult to do likewise for internal audiences.
Our intranet is up there with the best in the world. Sadly our technology and the telecommunications infrastructure within our meeting rooms currently simply isn’t, but there are noises that collaborative software is on the way.
But look on the positive side. At least I can offer the attendees a cup of coffee and a danish pastry upon their arrival. And that’s something other organisations stopped doing years ago!
