[Catalist] WebX

[Andrew Williams]

On 2020-03-26 4:53 PM, Rod Blitvich wrote:

> Zoom got some rave reviews BUT both DOE ICT Customer Support and the DOE 
> Corona Virus email support people have pointed out that Zoom is not on 
> DOE's list of "approved apps".
> I am now comfortable that WebX will be useful

Hi all, to clarify, there's two products usually called called 'Webex' - 
'Webex Meetings', and 'Webex Teams'. Both are licensed to the WA 
education department, so if you sign up with a departmental email, use 
your departmental password when asked, and you'll get all the paid-for 
features. They are very different products, and don't work together at all.

'Webex Meetings' is good for one-on-one telecons, while 'Webex Teams' is 
good for working with predefined groups of people. For example, you 
might create a team for all the teachers in the science department, or 
for you and the students in a class. You can also share and store files 
(including the shared whiteboards) long term for a team. It also lets 
the meeting organiser have more control - muting everyone else on entry 
by default, forcing everyone to see just the presenter's video, etc. 
It's also the only way to connect to a Cisco 'Spark' board, or other 
video conferencing hardware (not that anyone would at home).

There's a good comparison of the two here:

https://sei-mani.com/webex-meetings-vs-webex-teams/

That said, for anything other than one-to-one calls, I would use Zoom in 
a heartbeat over either of the Cisco products, and Zoom is allowing K-12 
teachers around the world to use the professional features (up to 100 
participants, unlimited length meetings) for free.

Andrew