I have a love / frustration relationship with Microsoft Webcasts. On the whole my fight is not with the content. Most are either useful or great. Inevitably a few are a little like scratching chalk across a blackboard to produce that penetrating screeching noise. But that's ok. I can exit watching them.
My moan is with the reliability and accessibility of the Webcasts.
For the last 24 hours or so I have been unable to connect to any Microsoft Webcasts. According to the Windows Media Player it cannot find the files. I assume that that means that some aspect of the Webcast system is broken. A server down somewhere?
Web services are great. Web non-services are deeply frustrating.
Don't let my moans discourage you from exploring Microsoft Webcasts. The best of them are superb educational / training material. Particularly if you like exploring the cutting edge there is some really good stuff there.
Did I remember to say where? Visit Microsoft USA Webcasts . "On demand" webcasts are past events, by the way.
Posted by Andrew Watt at January 17, 2004 09:52 AMHi Andrew -
I apologize for the frustration you're going through with attending our webcasts. I'm with the Microsoft Webcasts team, and I�m very interested in hearing more about your experience from you directly. I can be reached at my direct office number at (425) 707-6912 or you can email me at georgeop@tfosorcim.org.
In October 2003, Microsoft moved from Interwise to Live Meeting for hosting our live webcasts to improve the customer experience and we�ve been working very closely with the Microsoft Office Live Meeting team to identify and remove customer pain points such as what you�ve experienced.
Our webcasts program has been experiencing growing pains as we try to make our webcasts program a better customer experience for everyone. I agree that the content is good but we can certainly do a better job with a more consistent quality webcast delivery.
As your time permits, I�d love to talk to you more in depth about what my company can do to improve your webcast experience.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Georgeo X. Pulikkathara
Microsoft Webcasts Team
work: (425) 707-6912 email: georgeop@tfosorcim.org