Picture Talk Communicator™
Copyright © 1997 Matthew Berry. All rights reserved.
PictureTalk Communicatorä by PictureTalk, Inc. is a free presentation browser plug-in that allows one person to display whatever is on their screen to others in real time. Those of you who have seen a Harvardä or Powerpointä presentation broadcast on a LAN know exactly what this is. User at different locations watch on their own computer the slideshow that the presenter has on his. In fact, you can do a Harvardä or Powerpointä over the Internet with PictureTalk. And it does not matter type of computer the presenter or attendees are using. Be they PC, Mac, or UNIX they all see the same thing.
To use PictureTalk you need to go to a PictureTalk Server and join a conference, or set one up yourself. You can leave access open or password lock it. Once the members have joined the conference, one person becomes the presenter. The presenter can have their entire screen broadcast to the conference or a selected portion of it. Attendees can also choose how much of their screen to devote to watching the presentation. (It does not have a size-to-fit-window option). Once the presenter has finished they become an attendee and someone else can take over. If in the middle of a presentation, an attendee wish to become the presenter, they can broadcast their request by selecting a menu item. PictureTalk has a whiteboard on which presenter can draw or write. It has a chat screen. It also has audio which allow both presenter and attendees to broadcast sound files or use a microphone to talk to everyone or a selected individual.
The applications for PictureTalk are enormous. Check out the list of organizations that are using it already. Besides the obvious use for business presentations, it can be used by anyone from interest groups to families to hold a meeting no matter how much they are spread out over the globe. It give tech support personnel another tool to help their users. But the most important role for PictureTalk is in the fields training and education. PictureTalk Communicator is virtual classroom. It has almost everything a teacher needs except testing and no doubt that will be a future add-on.
PictureTalk Communicator is available for free download on the PictureTalk, Inc. site.
