Technology for Meetings

Sometimes it seems like technology has made our lives more complex, so it's nice when you run across something that actually makes your life easier. The tools listed here are ones that I use for meetings of various groups I'm a part of. They work equally well for faculty committees, board meetings, and meetings with students. I also recommend them to students who want to collaborate with each other on a project but don't live near each other.


Free Conference Call
Use: conference call service
URL: www.freeconferencecall.com
Registration: one member of the group registers and receives a phone number along with conference call instructions to share with the rest of the group
Ease of use: SUPER easy
Cost: the conference call service is free; each caller pays for her own long distance charges

Skype
Use: conference call service
URL: www.skype.com
Registration: all members must download the Skype software to their computers; Skype has a conference call feature
Ease of use: FAIRLY easy (the download is SUPER easy; using the software requires a little computer savvy but not much more than e-mail)
Cost: free (but users will need to make sure they have built-in computer speaker and microphone or an external speaker and microphone -- most computers have built-in speakers; fewer have built-in microphones)

Agree-a-Date
Use: meeting scheduler
URL: www.agreeadate.com
Registration: one member of the group registers to send out meeting invitations and notices to other members; the registrant chooses a span of dates/times, and other members select their availability; the registrant can then easily tell which date/time has the best availability
Ease of use: FAIRLY easy (but much easier than scheduling a meeting through a series of emails)
Cost: free

In addition, groups that need to share documents or collaborate on documents to accomplish their work might consider online collaboration applications like Google Docs or Adobe Buzzword. For those applications, each member must have her own account. Another option is to set up a TWEN site (or Blackboard or other course management site) to "park" documents that the group needs.