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NEW NORMAL

soft, which is further developing it as a basic All one needs
web communication platform. It usually works is a computer,
great. It can connect up to 50 participants to a network connection, and
a video at once. You don‘t even need to have
a user account; Skype can use invitations by a bright spark of initiative and
sending an invitation link. creativity to join the economy.
At https://www.skype.com/cs/free-con- Don Tapscott
ference-call/ you will create a unique link
and send it by e-mail. Whoever clicks on the
link will join in, unless… unless they work in
a properly secured corporate network. Rules in
various enterprise systems often do not allow
for the use of any freely available programs. It‘s
logical and correct but at this time you won‘t
be able to invite some partners to a Skype con-
sultation because of these limitations.
No such restriction applies to you when you
are at your home office; at home you can share
your computer screen or share files by sending
them through the chat window with all con-
ference participants. The application is also
available for iOS and Android, so you can also so there is no need to troubleshoot installati-
connect from a tablet or phone. This is espe- on issues. Your desktop may require that you
cially important for schools. Many children do install Chrome extensions for desktop sharing,
not have a laptop or desktop PC but tablets which is safe and free, so there‘s nothing pre-
are standard equipment. Skype is therefore venting you from using it.
ideal for school facilities that do not have the Google Meets, as part of a paid package
opportunity to quickly use Microsoft‘s paid so- in GSuite, removes some of the limitations of
lution, MS Teams. the free variant. Even with the basic program,
What is positive is the fact that many schools it supports at least 100 call / conference parti-
have purchased Office 365 for schools which cipants.
includes MS Teams (formerly Skype for busi- For those who want to coordinate with their
ness). It is a reliable and suitable solution. large team and do not have a paid version of
The biggest competitor of the Microsoft‘s a Google Account, I have good news. Only the
solution is Google. If you have a free version host needs to have a paid version of G-Meets.
of your account, you have the Google Han- It is not even necessary to force all video mee-
gouts app available. It’s quite reliable and it ting participants to create accounts in the ne-
also allows for screen sharing and chatting be- twork of this global American company. It also
tween participants. However, it lacks file trans- works in a private window without losing any
fer functionality. On the other hand, Google is time registering. This is important, as not eve-
replacing this with its freely available online ry partner is interested in storing their perso-
office suite. nal information on servers out of their reach.
Documents stored on a Google Drive can be A significant advantage is the ability to join
copied by sending links. This is a great soluti- a conference call outside of a data connection.
on if more people work with the same table When the invitation is generated, you will rece-
or text. Google applications work in browsers, ive a telephone number which the participant
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