New Technology For Conflict Resolution Professionals

Originally posted at www.EnjoyMediation.com

5 Way Video Chat Coming to Skype?

Could this be the newest tool to help mediators and conflict specialists (including ombuds) engage their clients?

From Skype's official blog:

Today we’re offering you a preview of our brand new version of Skype, which supports group video calling for up to 5 people. With the latest version, you’ll be able to bring the whole family together for a chat, for lunch, or even for a birthday. You’ll be able to spend quality time with your best friends, planning a trip, or even hosting a book club. And you’ll be able to meet with colleagues from across the world without leaving your desk. [read more here].

As an admitted advocate of embracing and using online video chat providers as a way to increase our services [read a draft paper on how ombuds can use new technological features such as video chat here], I think this new option being offered by Skype could create many new options for those in the conflict field.

This is not new however, as sites such as www.ooVoo.com have been offering multi-person video chat for some time. The big difference is two things- 1) Skype's brand name is much more recognizable and 2) it is free to use while the feature is still in beta (testing).

PCworld.com has this to say:

Unfortunately, the group video chat is a premium feature, which will require you to pay for it; however, it is free until the full version is released later this year. Regular video chat will continue to be free of charge. Skype has not released pricing plans for the new feature. However, compared to competitors, Skype has been known to have remarkably cheap plans. [full article]

What does everyone think? Do you currently use Skype personally and/or professionally? Could you envision yourself using this to engage parties in

two different locations while you are in a third?

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Comment by Michael Seinberg on May 18, 2010 at 11:16am: I think this would be a good thing for ADR in general. I recently did some research into videoconferencing and the offerings are generally expensive for the budgets of most non-profits. I did find a company called Nefsis that had some good, reasonable services, but if Skype wants to jump on board at a lower price point, I say let's try it out.

Comment by Bryan Hanson on May 18, 2010 at 1:45pm: It seems viable, especially since Skype has expended so much effort to ensure its ability to be secure. I tried Oovoo out when they were in Beta due to the ability to video multiple parties, however the program was just too buggy and caused me to jump back to Skype and settle for one person at a time. I use skype quite regularly for work purposes and rarely have issues with its reliability. It is really exciting to see all of the technology expand so quickly. It is applicable to our field in so many ways. Especially the opportunity it provides to bring geographically dispersed parties to the table.

Comment by Jeff Thompson on May 18, 2010 at 1:50pm: I too have used ooVoo and haven't really had any problems with it. One advantage for ooVoo is they have the feature where only one user has to download the software and create an account comapred to Skype where everyone has to.
I really think it was just a matter of time before Skype started offering this.

Also, look for Skype to really 'cash in' when the new iPhone comes out this summer. Rumor has it that it will have a forward facing camera for video chat.

Back to the multi-party option, I think in addition to the web panel discussions we offer here at ADRhub.com, having archived/non-live video discussions via Skype could be something interesting as well. Let's see what happens when Skype rolls out the non-beta version.