Wednesday’s video conference was the first time the family of three was able to be “together” since Hotard’s deployment. To partake in the video conference, Hotard is required to travel across the war zone from Baharia to Fallujah since that is the only location that has the equipment required to interface with the video conferencing that Freedom Calls enables.

Mariela Hotard:

I’m so thankful that Saint Francis Hospital stepped up to help us in our time of need. I thought I’d be having this baby alone and could never have imagined that my husband could be here to meet the baby when he is 8,000 miles away fighting a war. This means the world to me and my family.

Freedom Calls will arrange for the Hotards to video conference three times a month from their home so that the family can stay in touch, and so that Brandon can see his daughter grow up. The family video conferences are being conducted over the satellite network that Freedom Calls has built in cooperation with the Army and Marines to serve U.S. deployed military personnel and their families 24 hours per day, free of charge. It is funded 100% by donations from the public.

Lance Cpl. Corey Ashcraft, 20, held a video conference with his wife, Teasha, 20, of Peoria, as she gave birth to Adryan. The free video conference service provided to military members by the Freedom Calls Foundation, has been connecting family members serving in the Iraq war since 2003.

At first, I was really scared to do it on my own without him here, but the video conferencing helped out ridiculously. Said Teasha Ashcraft.

The following day, Corey was able to travel to Al-Asad again to check up on his wife and newborn. Corey is in the fourth month of his first tour of duty in Iraq. He is expected to return in mid-September.

The Freedom Calls Foundation operates five call centers in Iraq. Al-Asad Airbase was where Corey held his video conference. The other sites are: Camp Taji, Camp Fallujah, Camp Taqaddum and Camp Victory.

Analyst Rebecca Swensen of IDC:

The value of videoconferencing is much more than cost savings, but for small and mid-sized companies, that’s usually what they look at first, especially today, with the cost of travel skyrocketing.”

On the surface video conferencing can seem like an expensive solution, however many companies both large and small are realizing its cost benefits. Videoconferencing helps companies disseminate information more quickly and effectively to sales teams, associate partners, and internal divisions. It also can help unify dispersed work teams, including those working from home.

For most small businesses, high-end telepresence solutions like Halo from HP are too expensive, but there are many lower-cost solutions for webcasting and video conferencing that are much more affordable. The best way to figure out what type of videoconferencing set-up to consider is to first determining how your employees typically conduct meetings, what technologies they use for communication, how much travel your employees do—both to customer sites and to other company sites—and the capabilities of your network.

Companies like InstantPresenter.com offer a wide range of webcasting and video conferencing solutions that can easily support small and very large online meetings alike. Many of these companies offer pricing plans that allow you to pay-as-you-go, or package deals to accommodate recurring online presentations.

http://code.google.com/p/openmeetings/

The cross platform, cross browser and Flash-based application can upload office files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and will convert it on the fly using the Openoffice plugin. OpenMeetings uses Flash to present the document in the whiteboard area. You can upload and share images through the application, but at this point you cannot share video. The desktop screen-sharing feature allows you to instantly share your desktop with everyone in the web conference.

OpenMeetings is constantly being updated and is currently in v0.5.1. The service is completely free to register and use, however since it is still in the early stages of development is somewhat unstable, and should not be used for critical online meetings. OpenMeetings also offers all of its code and resources for web conferencing providers to implement and develop their own online collaboration applications.

Travel cost savings: Not only do businesses save on airfare costs, but also on hotels, meals, phone charges and other incidental expenses which are easy to identify and track.

Productivity: Employees who are not standing in airport security lines or delayed at airports can be more productive. Employees also don’t get worn out by the mental and physical drain that traveling can cause.

Enhanced customer relationships: Video conferencing can enhance customer service and relationships through increased “face-time.” Meeting by video conferences can project a large-company image to customers regardless of the number of employees.

Team Building: Increased “face-to-face” time among dispersed team members within a company leads to a stronger sense of familiarity, community and loyalty than traditional teleconferencing, and can make midsized companies feel more intimate. This may seem hard to value, but consider the cost of replacing valued employees and training their replacements.

Timeliness: Businesses are able to schedule important meetings on short notice and make decisions faster, increasing the efficiency of operations and processes.

Today, networking giant Cisco proudly announced the installation of its 500th telepresence room. The Cisco telepresence room is essentially a room dedicated to video conference meetings, however it’s unlike any videoconference you’ve ever been in.

The room has a semi-circle table for your local members to sit at, and three high definition screens that simulate the other half, completing a virtual round table. The directional cameras and microphones allow you to directly address an individual on the remote end of a telepresence room. People that have tried this technology claim that it is very much like meeting in person.

The technology isn’t cheap. The six person telepresence installation will cost you $300,000, and you need two of them to complete the circle. The Halo system from rival HP can cost up to $350,000 and Polycom’s RealPresence can cost $200,000. There is also the cost of the bandwidth — you will need a dedicated 10-15Mbps connection between telepresence rooms, which could cost between $8000 to $10,000 a month per site.

Currently the prohibitive costs limit telepresence to wealthier companies that currently have a large travel budget. As installation and bandwidth costs continue to decrease, web conferencing via telepresence could all but eliminate the need for future business travel.

Throughout my 13-year tenure in Congress, I have found my many conversations with Kentucky’s youngest residents to be among the most enlightening.” Whitfield, R-Ky., said before the conference. “Students from Kentucky’s First Congressional District are some of the brightest, most talented young people in our country. I am looking forward to speaking with students from Calloway County Middle School to see what issues are most important to them and answer any questions they may have on our nation’s government.

In response to concerns about the environment, the Congressman said that “technology will save us in the long run” as America looks at its energy sources and the effects on the environment. He said lots of taxpayer dollars are being spent on research to develop new sources including ethanol, bio-diesel, solar and wind power.

The unique video conferencing opportunity was made possible through a pilot project with IOCOM, a Chicago-based visual collaboration and web conference company. IOCOM’s initiative, entitled “Removing Boundaries”, invited a group of K-12 schools to submit a one-page proposal for a distance learning project. IOCOM’s offer included free software and support for the duration of the project.