ECO GUIDELINES
on
ELECTRONIC WORKING ARRANGEMENTS (EWA)
Part II: Web-meetings
European Communications Office
July 2014
Introduction
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There is a general agreement within the ECC that the efficiency of the ECC working process can be
increased by making use of the available electronic means.
These Guidelines have been developed by the European Communications Office (the Office, ECO) in
support of the Electronic Communications Committee (ECC) working process via electronic working
arrangements (EWA).
This part of the Guidelines contains a basic description of the proposed ECO solution for webmeetings of ECC groups. It does not address the regulatory or procedural aspects.
The proposed ECO solution is based on the “GoToMeeting” platform (www.gotomeeting.com, see the
system’s user interface in the picture below) which includes:

a GoToMeeting application suitable for web-meetings with up to 25 participants, and

a GoToWebinar application suitable for remote participation in physical meetings and
webinars with up to 1000 remote participants (subject to the Internet connection limitations).
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The GoToMeeting platform was chosen by the Office during the internal evaluation phase (October –
December 2009) as the preferred one out of a number of similar software platforms which were
available on the market at that time.
The Office’s preference for the GoToMeeting platform was based on the following considerations:
-
GoToMeeting appeared to meet the major requirements to the methods of work by electronic
means formulated by Working Group Regulatory Affairs (WGRA, closed by the ECC in
December 2011), first of all a high level of security and reliability;
-
GoToMeeting seemed to be the easiest one to start using almost without training due to its
simple and user-friendly interface;
-
neither administrative rights nor specialist software (such as ActiveX or Java) are required to
install and use the GoToMeeting, however a permission from the IT department may be needed
for the GoToMeeting software installation;
-
GoToMeeting has been used within ETSI for some time and has shown to be a suitable tool for
web-meetings; there has also been a number of successful trials of GoToMeeting within WGSE
in November and December 2009;
-
GoToMeeting is free of charge for participants; expenses for using it within the ECC are
covered by the Office.
-
technical and user support of GoToMeeting has shown it to be responsive and efficient;
Other parts of these Guidelines as well as the general framework for using EWA in the ECC working
process can be found on the ECC website www.cept.org/ecc (see the picture below).
Under the guidance of the ECC, the Office is responsible for the maintenance of these Guidelines.
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Use of GoToMeeting for web-meetings
The Internal ECC Report on “Implementation of Electronic Working Methods (EWM) in the ECC
working process” defines web-meeting (formerly, web-conference) in the following way:
“A web-conference is a meeting where the participants are not located together in a physical meeting
room. It is similar to teleconferencing, except that the communications are Internet based and that
software may be used to share meeting documents in real time.”
GoToMeeting application is particularly suitable for web-meetings of lower level ECC groups with a
limited number of participants (normally up to 10, the maximum being 25) which do not adopt final
decisions (should the number of participants exceed 25, the GoToWebinar application can be used
instead).
It is possible to connect to a GoToMeeting session either using a PC equipped with a microphone and
speakers (a USB-headset is highly recommended) or by calling in the session using an ordinary
telephone. The combination of these two methods is also possible, i.e. using a PC for viewing/sharing
documents online while listening and speaking via a telephone.
It is necessary that the organizer of a web-meeting knows all the participants and their e-mail
addresses in advance since the participants receive the link and, optionally the password, to join a
GoToMeeting session in an e-mail invitation. Such an invitation can be sent out to the registered webmeeting participants by an ECO expert or by the web-meeting organizer or the responsible ECO expert
through the ECC website (the Meeting calendar of the ECC group holding the web-meeting).
Alternatively, the invitation can be sent out from the GoToMeeting system (in this case a new event is
automatically added to the MS Outlook calendar of the organizer and the participants who have
accepted the invitation).
Using GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar requires client software installed on your PC. To test whether this
software can be installed, go to this webpage and join a live test session.
To get familiar with the GoToMeeting software review the following webpages:

for GoToMeeting: this webpage (watch the “Attendee quick start” training video (5 min) and
see the popular topics);

for GoToWebinar: this webpage;

for IT and security related issues: review the following attachment
IT related
information
Shortly before the start of a web-meeting the organizer should log in to one of the ECO accounts
(advised by the responsible ECO expert) and launch the scheduled GoToMeeting session. Either the
whole screen or a relevant application (e.g. a document or a presentation) should be chosen on the
organizer’s PC for sharing with the participants.
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Once the organizer has started the session, other participants should be able to connect to it by
clicking on the link which had been sent to them in the invitation e-mail and, optionally, entering the
password. Alternatively, they can join the session by using an ordinary telephone, dialling the number
and entering the PIN code included in the invitation. In this case a calling participant will be charged a
fee for a telephone call (local telephone numbers for a number of European countries can be
optionally provided in the invitation). As mentioned above, calling in the session does not exclude the
possibility to share documents with other participants within the same GoToMeeting session.
Once joined, a participant is requested to identify himself/herself by voice. This also helps to check the
connection and give appropriate recommendations to the participants who may introduce the echoeffect in case their speakers are placed close to the microphone.
It is highly recommended to use a USB-headset. For those participants using “speakers + microphone”
setup instead of a headset it is recommended to keep their microphones off (click on the green icon
showing a mike on the user’s Control Panel) at all times except when they are speaking. This would
also alleviate the issue of possible background noise.
It is also a good idea, in particular when you are joining a GoToMeeting session for the first time, to
test the connection in advance of the actual start of the meeting. In case it shows any signs of
malfunction, you can always call in the session through an ordinary telephone, preferably using the
local dial-in number.
The organizer and the participants should be able to see the list of the current participants on their
Control Panels. The organizer can also mute/unmute participants.
Through the GoToMeeting user interface, the organizer can either give control over the shared
document to any of the participants or temporarily make another participant the presenter, so he/she
could share another document with other participants.
Participant of a GoToMeeting session cannot request the floor as there is no “raise hand” button as
opposed to the GoToWebinar application. Instead one has either to intervene in the discussion by
voice or send a text message (using the chat box) to the organizer/other participants.
Since participants of a web-meeting are supposed to follow the shared document/presentation
displayed on the main PC, it is recommended to have another laptop nearby the main PC which could
be used for accessing other documents during the web-meeting:
+
Main PC
Laptop (optional)
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Web-meetings of ECC groups / correspondence groups (CGs) should be added to the Meeting calendar
of the relevant ECC group on the ECC website (see an example below):
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Meeting documents for web-meetings should be uploaded to the Meeting documents area of the
relevant ECC group on the ECC website (see an example below):
All questions related to the installation and use of GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar should be addressed to
the Office ([email protected]).
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