Web Conference Guide

In this section you will find a general overview of Vesta DataXchange.

1.1 Overview of Vesta DataXchange

Vesta DataXchange allows you to hold online meetings with other users. An online conference allows computer users in different locations to work together as though they were sitting at the same computer, talking to each other and viewing and controlling the same programs.

You may be familiar with setting up a conference call, so that a group of people from different locations can hold a conference over the telephone. In a similar way, Vesta DataXchange allows you to set up a conference, but in this case people have a much wider range of ways to communicate.

• Chat (sending messages in text format)
• Whiteboard (free-form text and drawings)
• Shared applications (one user can share a program running on his or her computer and other users can see it in operation; another user can even take control and work with the program as if it were running on his or her own computer)
• Slide shows (snapshots of the Whiteboard or applications, PowerPoint slides, or JPEG images, which you can annotate as you discuss them)

In Vesta DataXchange there are two types of users: Attendees and Presenters. Presenters can use the full functionality of the product, while Attendees can view the presented material and use the chat function.

Presenters can use a Promote function to change attendees into presenters during the conference. The functions available to Attendees and Presenters are described in detail in Chapter 4, Attendees, and Chapter 5, Presenters.

1.2 Do I need to install Vesta DataXchange?

You do not have to install Vesta DataXchange on your own machine because it is a web-based application. The software you need is downloaded when you first join a conference.