I have a small study group and want to use iNaturalist in a video conference to review and discuss our observations. We usually meet in person… Have not done videoconferencing so any suggestions on video conference software (preferably free), linking to iNaturalist, best practices etc. would be appreciated.
If this is already covered elsewhere, please direct me there.
Thanks,
Henry
3 Likes
Google Meet and Zoom are popular options right now.
2 Likes
I’m also interested in options for this.
1 Like
My organization uses Zoom which I think works really well. Without a subscription, you can have a video conference with up to 100 participants for 40 minutes max. There are unlimited meetings allowed, so theoretically, you could close out and start over if you went over the 40 minutes. Zoom has screen sharing capabilities so each participant could screen share their observations page one at a time. I’ve also heard of GoToMeeting but I’ve never used it before.
Best of luck!
4 Likes
Welcome to the forum! Glad you are participating! :-)
1 Like
Just today I had my first couple of video conference meetings through Webex, since my workplace has arranged a business-level subscription for us to telework. As I was looking into it, I saw they have a basic tier for personal use, apparently with fewer features than I used today, but possibly ok for your needs- screen sharing is listed, for instance. I think this has the feature list for $0 USD option: https://www.webex.com/pricing/index.html
2 Likes
Just started using Microsoft Teams for work, though under duress. It seems to work ok. You can easily share screens, request screen hand over, and the phone app syncs with the desktop app, so you don’t need a microphone on your computer.
3 Likes
Hello, I am also interested in these options
Just had my first remote class yesterday using Google Meet. It worked really well. It has a great automatic closed captioning feature. Some of the other apps require a person to be typing those live.
1 Like
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll do some investigating and trials and report back in a few days.
1 Like
This has taken longer than I expected. the $ means it costs and I’m looking for free.
MS Teams, I’m not using Office 365 or other Office product, $
Google Meet needs G Suite, $
Google Hangouts I’m not fond of but just learned it has screen sharing which I’m looking for as a feature, still need to test.
Zoom too many negative reviews, 40 minute limit, need more. My collaborator does not like it. And now the hacking which if I understand correctly can be managed.
I finally got a Webex account and hope to try it soon.
All for now, will add should I find more that applies.
Re:$
MS has a free version of Teams.
Also, you don’t need an O365 subscription to use Teams. Someone who has Teams can invite you to a Teams meeting, and you can join with limited access (guest or external, depending on their setup).
We use it at work.
1 Like
I’ve used it outside of work.
After the 40 minute limit, you can jump back in.
We had an initial meeting and had to rejoin after 40 minutes. A week later we rejoined the same meeting ID and used the same pin, and after 40 minutes there was a brief pop-up that said “This meeting no longer has a time limit” and we remained connected without needing to rejoin.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.