Recent advances in web conferencing technology have exploded our ability to inexpensively share graphical information in real time. This greatly enhances the effectiveness of a virtual meeting by creating a shared visual focus. With web conferencing software (e.g. WebEx, PlaceWare, or Microsoft's free NetMeeting), you can share a presentation, brainstorm at a virtual whiteboard, or share any software application.

Even then, most groups are missing a key opportunity -- the use of application sharing technology to make the meeting progress visible by capturing and sharing information online during the meeting. When discussions, decisions, and action items are visibly shared, all participants have both an aural and visual sense of what is happening. It allows non-native speakers to read as well as hear, it supports group alignment by making things explicit and allowing misunderstandings to be seen, caught and fixed quickly.

One simple way to do this is to start up Microsoft Word, share the application and start taking notes. However, it does require that someone agree to capture information during the meeting. This requires a new role for virtual meetings which Bernie DeKoven, the founder of coworking.com, calls the "technographer." Teams can become very skilled at enhancing group meetings with technography. But don't let not having a trained technographer stop you. Start by simply rotating the role around the group, and learn what works.

And what about videoconferencing or individual video cameras? In an article for the Los Angeles Times ("Conducting Virtual Meetings," Sept. 27, 2001), Lawrence J. Magid interviewed DeKoven who asserts, "Video can actually make it harder to conduct a good virtual meeting." Video is great for broadcasting speeches, but doesn't fulfill the promise 'to add personality and subtle meaning to meetings.'

	Tip 3: Determine what's best done in vs. out of the meeting
	Tip 1: Level the playing field
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