Video Connecting
There is a lot going on in the video conferencing space. Some of it is malicious hacking (cracking) into video meetings and the linkages are a vulnerable entry point for mischief. With schools I suspect that there is some rebellion not materially different than when we were in high school. I know all of you were eager, totally committed students, but I certainly had my moments of mischief with friends making TNT in the chem lab and and forging signatures of our teacher’s on building passes, among other things. There is something about the mandatory attendance and regimentation in school environments that brings this stuff out.
It has occurred to me that there may also be some industrial mischief afoot. Video conferencing has been and is a very competitive industry. The big players are Adobe (Connect), Cisco (WebCT), Microsoft (Skype) and Google (Hangout). Google has a lot going with its Google Education packaging. I can’t imagine they, or the others, appreciate the competition from the new kid on the block, Zoom. It is part of reality that competitors take advantage of weaknesses and not infrequently, emphasize (overstate? No.) their competitive advantage differences. Zoom does, almost undoubtedly, have issues with security and will have to fix problems in order to remain viable with their big customers. I certainly wish them well because the software has been well constructed and fills a niche that has certainly been helpful across many users and sectors. At one point Google Hangout was also a free video conferencing tool, but Google saw fit, several years ago, to pull it back and then later released it behind a paywall, as Hangout for Business and Hangout for Education. My experience with the business version a couple of weeks ago was not so hot (screen sharing didn’t work), and my son, Brent, the educator in Las Vegas, where Google Hangout is widely used, tells me that the Zoom features and uses are much superior.
Meanwhile, Zoom is our baby! As Judy Woodruff says to close the PBS NewsHour, “We hope to see you soon.”