Ozzo A ZoomGather Alternative?
Author: John Kelly Issue: 2023-05-17
Ozzo: A Zoom/Gather Alternative?
by John Kelly
For my fellow facilitator/connectors, I wanted to let you know about Ozzo, a free (for most of what we do) alternative to Zoom breakouts or Gather.
Ozzo appears to be a more naturalistic breakout group alternative to Zoom. The participant’s live picture grid is replaced by small movable oval cameos with the live video of each participant. There is a conventional presentation or lecture mode, but the default is open, self-organized “cocktail” conversations.
Moving your image closer to an individual or group amplifies the sound from that cluster of people and dampens the background from the larger group. This is also a feature of other apps like Gather. The sound quality in Ozzo seemed more robust than in Gather in a recent demo. The live video picture vs. just an avatar enhances the perceived clarity of speech.
Group sizes of 20 with OK to poor internet connection or 35--50 if everyone is on high bandwidth internet seem possible. The rooms of participants can be concatenated with what looks like a doorway through which participants can navigate to a new room and group.
Jesse Katz, co-founder of Ozzo and Matri, expects that Ozzo will remain available free for ongoing use by non-profit volunteer associations.
Ozzo deserves serious consideration by those of us attempting to facilitate new forms of creative collaboration.
Related:
- John Kelly (author)
- 2023 (year)
- Topics: Innovation and Creativity