When I first heard about ooVoo, I must admit to being a little sceptical. I have been a user of Skype for many years and have grown used to it — though I mostly use it for voice, I do occasionally use the video conferencing option. And ooVoo felt, to me, like it had come late to the party.
But over the last few days I have been trying it out. I have made VOIP calls to the US and had one-to-one and multi-user chats with friends and with colleagues. And this morning, spent a very enjoyable hour or so chatting with folks all around the world as part of MyOovooDay. Kris Hoet and Luc Debaisieux linked in from Belgium late in their evening, Drew McLellan, J Erik Potter, Scott Monty, Joseph Jaffe, Susan Reynolds and Connie Reece joined from the USA and Efrain Mendicuti from Mexico. It really was a global conference.
The ease with which ooVoo allows us to connect has really changed my mind about video conferencing. The immediacy of video chat easily trumps Seesmic in my mind — and trounces the 140 character limitations of Twitter. While each of these have their place, ooVoo is feeling like a revolution to me.
I have even noticed that I stopped using the IM feature of ooVoo and jumped straight to a video chat. It helps make me feel more connected. I also captured some video and will share it with you soon. Lots of fun!
Gavin,
It was nice talking to you, I mean… seeing you too! ; ) Well, I must admit that this was indeed a completely NEW experience and as a communication platform, I also believe it is a revolution. Felt strange to me to interact with 6 live screens at the same time, though. But I suppose you get used to it with “practice”. It also immediately inspires lots of application ideas and makes it a fantastic tool.
Gavin, it was great video chatting with you yesterday. I do think ooVoo could turn out to have some very interesting applications. I’m hoping to link up some family members in faraway places for video chats. And I am starting to use it for business collaboration — will make a great tool for small work groups. See you in NYC soon!
Gavin – it was great meeting you in the digital flesh. Oovoo is quite an amazing experience! I’m totally sold on it. I’m even going to attempt to hook up my mom’s computer so she can check in with her grandsons on a more frequent basis.
I agree with Luc, it was difficult to focus on six different faces, and the lack of direct eye contact with the camera is a little unnerving. I’ll have to work on that.
Looking forward to continued contact on the next Age book.