I also really like uStream for many reasons including the fact that it's free. You can involve multiple people in the audio conversation via Skype and everyone who joins in can participate in the chat. You can video the person speaking/presenting but more importantly, you can stream the desktop with websites, screenshots, PowerPoint slides and even streamed video. This is an example of some of the ustream features on a recent show facilitated by Dean Shareski. There's some audio difficulty near the beginning, but once it gets underway it is very good. The video is about 35 minutes into the preso. He brought in several presenters one at a time via Skype and they were able to answer questions from the chat room. The students in this session also participated via Elluminate so you will hear comments about hands raised.
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/293430

I had a really hard time participating in the recent Adobe GoLive session you hosted on Diigo. It was very challenging to try to keep the chat on the screen and keep the screen visible (no way to move the chat window) and the lag in the voice with what was actually on the screen was very problematic because the demo of steps to do certain tasks on Diigo was essential to understanding. I don't know if that was a bandwidth issue, but it was difficult for me.

If money were no issue, I really like Elluminate and think that Steve Hargadon has done a wonderful job of using it very effectively for his Classroom 2.0 LIVE Conversations. Participants can interact via audio or text chat, you can do quick surveys, and much more.
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Miguel guhlin wrote:
> Maggie, I like uStream (because it's free) but unfortunately, it's blocked for similar reasons as Diigo is in some places.
>
> Elluminate and Wimba provide alternative solutions that are usable but can be expensive, although I'd argue Elluminate is MORE expensive than Wimba.
>
> Miguel
>
>
> Maggie Tsai wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Great group and lots of good resources and expertise here! I hope I'm in the right place to ask this question:
> >
> > We are interested in hosting more interactive online Diigo sessions. Can someone recommend the best platform that will accommodate a large group of audience, allow online demo, record session, and hopefully no or minimum cost? Oh, one more - ideally the platform will support Firefox browser, not just IE. We see a few platforms ( uStreams, Elluminate) mentioned - curious what are the pros and cons...
> >
> > Thanks a lot!

I went back in and added edustreams to the tags where they were missing. If we can all remember to do that when we share a bookmark with edustreams that will help a lot! I think if we occasionally remind people about edustreams on Twitter we will get more people involved. These are the presentations they are wanting to see and hopefully they will add their own streams. :-)
Peggy
------------
Miguel guhlin wrote:
> edtechdiva:
> Sounds like a plan. I definitely think we should tag stuff "edustreams" as well. The catch will be inviting more people to this group so that more folks will know about it!
>
> Any suggestions for accomplishing that?
>
> Miguel
>
>
> edtechdiva wrote:
> > Might I ask that if we are the content creators of the UStream, that we also tag our videos w/ 'EDuStreams'.
> >
> > And while we're at it, if you have videos in your Diigo account you might want to tag them w/ 'EDuStreams' as well.
> >
> > I looking for (hopefully) a universally accepted educational tagging format.

I'm wondering if it is OK for us to post edustreams links for presentations/shows we have participated in or if they need to be posted by the creators? Would we need permission to post them if we are not the originators? This is such an awesome way to track and view conversations we may not have been able to participate as live events. Miguel, thanks for setting this up!
Peggy

Excellent! That makes sense to me. Since I am "retired" and have more time than most of our educators who are creating/leading these sessions, I will try to follow the postings in Twitter and post the links to the group as much as possible. It's often very last minute notification about the live event but is usually followed with a post about the archived event.

Is there a good way to quickly check whether something has already been posted to the group? Not a problem yet but as the list grows, it could be quite time consuming. Wonder if tags help? Tags are often so inconsistent. Any thoughts?
Peggy

Miguel Guhlin wrote:
> Peggy, that's a question I hadn't thought of...thanks for bringing it up. If it's posted on uStream.tv or Elluminate, then it would seem that it IS available for general sharing and consumption. So, I'm inclined to not worry about obtaining permission for merely bookmarking it....since that's what anyone would be doing.
>
> In a funny way, we're just bookmarking the site ; that those bookmarks are shared is after the fact. How's that for sophistry?
>
> With appreciation,
> Miguel
>
>
> Peggy George wrote:
> > I'm wondering if it is OK for us to post edustreams links for presentations/shows we have participated in or if they need to be posted by the creators? Would we need permission to post them if we are not the originators? This is such an awesome way to track and view conversations we may not have been able to participate as live events. Miguel, thanks for setting this up!
> > Peggy