Webinar service?

[Aaron Green]

We're in the process of looking for software that could be used for internal and public webinars. Something so that people could go online, watch a speaker give a presentation, then ask questions through a chat system that is submitted to a moderator or directly to the speaker. We already webcast different events and have had some success with people attending them. It doesn't have a chat component though. Anyone have suggestions about software or online service that could help with this?

[Zac Doob]

I haven't really looked into this very much, but I've seen people use this free service:

http://www.ustream.tv/

Good luck!
Zac

[Matt Herzberger]

Yeah ustream is great and just he right price, free

[Aaron Green]

Thanks for the replies. We checked out the service and the video quality was good. Only had two complaints. Ads popping up and the chat server wouldn't connect. I think I may go in another direction since we have a webcasting service already set up and paid for. I just need to figure out a good chat or comment solution to go with it. We would ask people to submit by email, but IT is doing a big email provider switch the same week, so we're unsure if that will be a reliable way to take questions.

[Karine Joly]

What webcasting solution do you use? Maybe using twitter for the backchannel will work.

[Aaron Green]

We use OnStream

[Karine Joly]

Just thought about something else. Ning is supposed to launch a better chat interface soon (per Rachel Reuben's webinar yesterday), so you could set up a ning website, and organize the chat at the same time of your event.

If you have a budget, I'm sure you can find a web chat provider as well.

[elizabeth cobb]

wimba

[Michael Fienen]

DimDim is pretty awesome, and free for up to 20 attendees.