Web Conferencing

So are you the type who likes to state your opinion anywhere you can? Ever heard of online forums? How about web conferencing? If you answered yes to any or all of the following, then it’s confirmed. You are a child of the 21st century. But joking aside, what exactly is web conferencing?

Well, to define the word by its context, we can say that web conferencing is a meeting between different groups of people in an online web environment. As such, the purpose of web conferencing, therefore, is to hold group meetings or live presentations over the Internet.

Before the Internet became the big-time mass medium that it is now, the terms “web conferencing” and “computer conferencing” were often used interchangeably. They both refer to group discussions conducted within a message board via posted text messages. However, with the increasing popularity of the World Wide Web and the growing dynamics of online discussions, web conferencing soon came to refer specifically to “live” or “synchronous” meetings as opposed to mere posted messages which became known variously as a “forum”, “message board”, or “bulletin board.”

What happens in web conferencing?

Like any other conference, web conference involves individuals participating in the meeting. Each participant sits at his or her own computer and is connected to the other participants by means of the Internet. The most basic feature in web conferencing is screen sharing. This simply means that participants of web conferencing see whatever is on the presenter’s screen. To facilitate interaction between the participants, web conferencing is often accompanied by voice communication via a traditional telephone conference or through VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol (IP). Sometimes though, text chat is used in place of voice.

Other Features of Web Conferencing

Aside from screen sharing and voice communication, there are other features involved in web conferencing. These are the following:

* Slide presentations (often created through PowerPoint)
* Application sharing – This is where participants can cooperatively manipulate a spreadsheet on the presenter’s computer (demonstration).
* Web co-browsing – Uses the same principles as application sharing.
* Annotation (allowing the presenter to highlight or mark items on display)
* Text messaging
* File sharing
* Polls and surveys

How Web Conference Works

As a service, web conferencing is most often offered as an Internet software application hosted on a web server. Usually, the web conferencing server is controlled by the vendor, either on a usage basis (cost per user per minute) or for a fixed fee (cost per “seat”). However, some vendors do offer their web conferencing software as a licensed product thus allowing organizations to make heavy use of it and install the software on their own servers.