Recently meeting software of all sorts has replaced working in an office, talking face-to-face with friends/coworkers, and even some doctor visits can be made online. Different scenarios in everyday life situations which we would have never thought about five or six months ago have been instituted over the past months.
I talked directly about Google hangouts/meetings as one that I use. It works well and has been dependable during this time in the world. If you are reading this sometime in the future, remember COVID-19?
I also mentioned we had problems where I work with some of our meeting software. However, a week later those companies had successfully upgraded where needed. Service was almost immediately back to acceptable levels.
The following information only concerns Zoom (zoom.us) but I am sure the others had similar stats. In December 2019, Zoom had 10 million people meeting PER DAY. I thought, “WOW, that is a ton!” Then after COVID hit in March of this year, they had 200 million daily meeting participants PER DAY! That included their free and paid plans. Now, you know why they and others had problems. I think it is great that they resolved all of this in only a week.
This week there were reports of Zoom Bombing going on. This is when someone, not involved with your meeting, gets into your meeting. They have, of course, done very mature things. There are stories of them coming into a meeting and cursing, screaming, playing loud music so no one in the meeting can hear anything else and even posting lewd pictures and movies during the meeting. The Zoom hosts (the person who starts the meeting) can stop them but it gets in until they do.
If you are interested in trying out Zoom, still my favorite of the many, check the Zoom User Guide for new users, dblclx.com/ZoomGuide.
To stop Zoom Bombing in your meeting is simple. You email the Zoom meeting link to your team, family member(s) or whomever. By-the-way, as of the time of this writing, the free version of Zoom allows users to have unlimited 1-on-1 meetings along with group calls featuring up to 100 participants for 40 minutes. Paid plans offer much more. Also, if you have the screen size to see them, they all have video as well as audio. But know that you can cut the video off for certain people and they can individually turn their cameras on or off.
The free account also has whiteboarding, screen sharing and recording capabilities available.
Now a meeting link looks something like this, “us04web.zoom.us/l/” which is followed by many other characters. Your attendees just click the link and the software will be downloaded to their computer, tablet or phone. When it starts, either the host or attendee can choose to turn video on or off. They join and you start meeting.
To stop bombing, check the box requiring a passcode to enter the meeting. That way they may randomly get your meeting link but not participate in any capacity. Safe. Now, this does not stop anyone of your attendees from emailing the link and password to anyone else. If you have someone you are worried about doing this, do not invite them.
Zoom also makes it very convenient for you to Host a meeting if you are a Google user. I highly recommend it. Read how, dblclx.com/ZoomGoogle.
Pretty simple once you use it a time or two. I look forward to seeing the guys in my Wednesday morning Bible study using Zoom again this week. Thanks for hosting it, Neal!
