I'm doing some scouting on behalf of Third Sector New England, which is looking for a good web-based tool for conducting meetings. I say "meetings" rather than "trainings," because a lot of the courseware that TSNE has considered is tailored to the needs of teacher/student interaction rather than the needs of peers to discuss and decide.

Up until now, TSNE has been using ASAP, which is adequate but not wonderful.  However, ASAP recently notified its customers that the company was getting out of the online meeting business.

Here are some things that TSNE needs from an online meeting solution:


Multi-lateral audio chat.  (I.e., not just a voice-over by the facilitator or instructor.)

Private and public instant text messaging, running parallel to the presentation.

Ability for participants to raise their hands (electronically speaking) to request the floor or take a straw poll.

Ability to show Power Point presentations.   (Not that I'm personally a fan of Power Point.)

Ability to log the entire meeting:  audio, live chat, and presentations.

Ease of use for techno-phobes.  (I.e., participants should not have to configure their desktops or download any applications before they enter the online meeting.  It's ok to ask meeting faciliators to configure or download.)

Ease of use across platforms.  (I.e., All Windows, Linux, and Mac users with internet access and web browers should be able to use the online meeting tool without special accommodations.)

Off-site hosting of the online meeting application

It would be desirable (but not necessary) if the facilitator could choose to display what's on the screen of one of the participants.


Some of the solutions under consideration are:

I would be especially interested in hearing from nonprofit professionals about the relative merits of the various options.  I don't think that online meetings will ever be as powerful as face-to-face meetings, but if you've had an experience that came close, I'm eager to know about it.