To Zoom or not to zoom?

Companies (and individuals) have to choose their service providers, and often must make decisions quickly. So, how do you balance the need for speed, with the need for a researched (and fair?) decision? And what factors should you use to filter your decision? Cost, reliability, ease of use, easy integration with existing systems, and security seem to be core factors for most people and companies. Diverse needs and functionality, eg backgrounds, recordings, capacity, etc… and signaling values, eg diversity & inclusion, “buy local”, other, can round out most companies’ (or individuals’) decision making process. Ideally, the decision making process involves setting some guidelines, doing some research and critical thinking, and of course, taking action. But situations evolve, needs shift, and decisions can be hobbled by our un/conscious mental shortcuts (which are often helpful, sometimes illogical). And, of course emergency situations, like the pandemic, made us rush to solutions, for better or worse. This is just one simple example, and a conversation that I’m sure occured in many of your circles as well.

Zoom’s popularity increased 30-fold in four months — from an average 10 million daily meeting participants in December 2019 to average 300 million daily participants in April 2020– thanks to COVID-19 lockdown orders issued around the world, forcing people to work from home, be in touch with colleagues, friends and family through virtual means (phone or video call, letters, etc). There are many videoconferencing alternatives – Skype for Work, LogMeIn/GoToMeeting, Blue jeans, Zoom, Google meet, and the list goes on. I’ve used a few of the platforms, and found, not surprisingly, pros/cons of each. Then, with the increased popularity, came the zoom bombers, and revelation of other security issues, and decisions of some school systems and companies to ban use of Zoom. But, security fixes and changed default settings also gradually came. You wouldn’t want to discuss top secret issues on it (nor on unsecured cell phones, in public places), but corporate and family conversations are fine. And the security fixes keep coming.

On April 29, an active association I’m a part of , was e-meeting almost daily for happy hour (whoever could drop in), plus, we were having some deeper discussions weekly, and some creative fun, all via Zoom and WhatsApp. Honestly, we chose Zoom because it was easy, affordable to use, and several of us have our own businesses and accounts. The (calm) discussions started again.

“Didn’t know zoom owner is from China. Think I’ll stick with Google Hangouts.”

I understand this sentiment — we don’t want our data to be compromised and given to Chinese hackers, to be watched and controlled or given social scores (there are some “interesting” things happening in China). And we’ve heard of several data breaches by hackers from China, Russia, the Balkans, and other nations; plus, many of us have received the odd robo-calls in Chinese for the last year (apparently to verify a working mobile number and then send a phishing text), so our reticence is understandably heightened.

That said, I’ve lived and/or worked in 14 countries, traveled to dozens more, and my friends and colleagues are truly from around the world. Beyond my rely-on-experience- but- also- question-your-assumptions-education, I’m also sensitive to racial profiling and making decisions based on gut, without data. I’ve seen that so many conflicts come from “otherizing” categories of folks, and jumping to conclusions, rather than paying attention to data or what was actually said/written. As a result, two of my main “soapboxes” are critical thinking and unity across diversity.

Below is an online conversation we had, that speaks to decision making processes and my soapboxes. *****

“We all choose the platform with which we feel most comfortable — they all have pros & cons.

 A healthy skepticism is always good, looking at people’s incentives. I’m just not comfortable discarding zoom, *bcs it is run by someone who happens to have been born in China. Nor am I comfortable discarding everything Google bcs S Brin was born in Moscow, or everything Yahoo bcs Yang was born in Taipei.

Yes, it’s true Eric Yuan was born in China, true some Chinese nationals have committed industrial espionage, but also true that he is a US citizen, that Zoom is headquartered in CA,  that zoom has improved their security measures in the last 1-2 months, and that Google is co-founded by someone born in Russia….

https://www.businessinsider.com/meet-zoom-billionaire-eric-yuan-career-net-worth-life

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-01-22/china-tech-valley

This is a fun interview w him (and I rarely look at foxnews): https://radio.foxnews.com/2019/07/31/ceo-eric-yuan-zooms-past-obstacles/ *****

***** I’m not advocating for one product over another; everyone should make their decision based on the functionality that is important to them – virtual backgrounds, affordability, recording capability, webinars, webcam capacity, security, etc, etc – and on data vs assumptions. And let’s be kind to each other.

However you communicate or regardless of the decisions you’re making, good luck on your research, happy connecting (and resting) in these Corona-times!