29 March 2006
Canberra Times

IN a country as sparsely populated as Australia, technology that allows people to communicate effectively across vast distances is invaluable.

Conferencing solutions allow large agencies to hold group meetings without any of its delegates having to travel. They also let people in different locations participate in group learning — an important benefit for students living in remote areas.

Video conferencing solutions can be costly and often require dedicated, high-speed internet connections. In order to allow a range of people to participate in one-on-one or group meetings, a new system called 'Elluminate Live!' has been designed to run on a low bandwidth.

The system is currently being offered by Yellow Edge, a Canberra-based consulting company specialising in business solutions.

Elluminate is a 'virtual classroom' product that allows organisations to teach, conduct meetings and deliver training over the internet by collaborating interactively using 'voice over internet', text chat, whiteboard, multi-media libraries, video streaming and the sharing of desktop applications. As sales manager Rolf Rekort explained, Elluminate has several advantages over other video conferencing solutions.

"It's low cost and can run on a low bandwidth," Mr Rekort said.

"In terms of learning, video alone adds nothing. With this product, you can share desktop applications and watch changes being made to a document on-screen — something that you can't even do in a normal boardroom." Participants can talk to one another in real time, they can edit a document together or they can be taught by a lecturer using the whiteboard function. Everything that is said or done during a lesson or a meeting can also be recorded, so that absentees can catch up on what they missed.

Elluminate moderators can conduct surveys or organise group work among smaller numbers of participants. Everything is done from the desktop — eliminating the need for a common video screen.

Technology such as the internet is often criticised for devaluing human relations and reducing cultural diversity. However, Elluminate is actually helping to maintain diversity by facilitating teaching across vast distances.

Courses at individual universities are often cancelled if enrolment numbers are too low. However, if a group of people in different cities across Australia want to participate, the course can be made cost-efficient. "If you only have one person at your university who's interested in doing your course, it's unfeasible," Yellow Edge representative Troy Klep said. "But if you can teach to people in various places at once, it becomes worthwhile. People can still take courses in obscure or less popular subjects that would otherwise become obsolete."