I was a little confused by this press release at first, thinking somehow MS Office was going to become integrated with Elluminate, but closer inspection revealed it to be the other way around, and it’s not integrated with MS Office, but with MS Office Communicator. Never heard of MS Office Communicator? Me neither, and I found this link which explains that it doesn’t really exist yet. Scheduled for release the first half of 2005… The Microsoft pages uses language that makes it very obvious this product is intended for the business market (pain points?!?), but here’s what MS Office Communicator is supposed to do:
Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 is an enterprise messenger that integrates communications capabilities (including instant messaging, rich presence, PC-based voice and video, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and enterprise telephony) with productivity and other communications applications.
Definately sounds useful for distance education to me! Something to watch for…
Elluminate to Support Microsoft Office Communicator