Web Conferencing 101

First, a small disclaimer: No matter how you slice up
conferencing solutions, the categories you use to group them are
mutable and subject to instant revision. Combinations of various
elements make some applications basically impossible to
categorize. Depending on how you look at it mail lists are even
a form of conferencing and so is email. Real-time versus
asynchronous is even becoming blurred as text, audio and video
merge in varying combinations.

That said and out of the way, lets look at some of the ways
conferencing solutions are categorized.

1. Real-Time Conferencing. Real-time conferencing refers to
synchronous communications such that the participants are
concurrently virtually present and able to actively interact as
if they were physically co-located. Some typical and common
applications are instant messaging and interactive chat,
participatory webinars, interactive webcasting, online
interactive teleseminars. Now these are primarily web-based,
however the old-time telephone conference call is still widely
used. Call-in teleseminars are also common. Today however, they
are merging into web applications as VoIP services with gateways
into landline telephone systems become widely available.

2. Video conferencing is generally considered separately because
it is a far more bandwidth intensive activity. To achieve
reasonably acceptable simultaneous live video and audio, you
need serious bandwidth. And the more active participants
involved the more serious the problem becomes. Internet chat
services with webcams are one rather simple form of video
conferencing that's quite popular for individual
person-to-person links, but clearly not of sufficient quality to
use for business purposes or for larger groups. Some video
conferencing is one-way video with interactive audio. Others
require high-speed networks or dedicated connections. High-end
solutions may work well for large corporations because of the
savings involved in reducing travel expenses and time lost from
productive work.

3. Forums, message boards, bulletin boards and so forth. These
are asynchronous forms of conferencing or discussion solutions.
Even blogs and wikis may, at times fall into this category.
Generally these are linear or threaded, topic centered meeting
places with chronologically tagged sequential entries that make
up a discussion. Some prefer the linear mode as being easier to
use and follow while others insist that threaded tree-like
structures often more scope and the ability to develop
sub-topics integrated into the main topic. Whatever one’s
preference, these are excellent solutions given the nature of
the evolving internet and the need for participation by persons
in time zones spread across the world. Real-time communications
can be a burden when day/night cycles are offset by large
amounts. Forums, with their purpose centered focus can develop
extensive and dedicated communities which can be a source of
extremely valuable knowledge and experience.

4. Collaborative team- or group-based work environments. These
kinds of solutions can also include on-line virtual classrooms
in several forms. The most sophisticated of these solutions
include both real-time and asynchronous modes with audio, video,
messaging and conferencing built-in. While some of this software
is in use over the internet (again, some collaborative
workspaces have been developed based on blogging platforms and
even forum software is sometimes used this way), the more
resource intensive versions are generally used on dedicated
networks and intranets with high bandwidth. Many of these
applications are oriented more toward in-house corporate uses.

So, do you suppose this covers it all? Just those four areas
reflect a huge growth of the available modalities for
conferencing and meeting over only a few years ago. Remember the
old landline conference call? Once it was a major deal to be
able to add a third person to a phone call. Now you can spend
months just researching available solutions.

And this really doesn't even touch systems such as desktop video
conferencing, the extensions of phone conferencing and the
interaction of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services with
all forms of web conferencing. Attending teleseminars in foreign
countries, once prohibitively expensive for many, is now an
accessible alternative with low-priced VoIP gateway services
that allow fixed price calls to any landline or mobile phone.

As internet service continues to increase in speed and decline
in price, the utility of these kinds of conferencing solutions
will continue to expand. The growth of the cybersphere and the
elaboration of purpose driven and affinity communities on the
internet will continue to drive the development and integration
of conferencing and communication software and services. In a
very real sense conferencing software is at the heart of the new
realities that the explosive growth of internet usage in every
corner of the world is creating. These are social applications
and they are changing how people live, interact and view each
other.

There is yet another form of widely used "conferencing" software
which is rarely mentioned in this connection. Multi-user,
real-time, online games of all types from role=playing to live
gambling (play poker with your friends, live roulette, etc.).
Some of these systems are highly sophisticated and a lot of
people love them. Their attraction lies not only in the ability
to vicariously be someone (or something) else or to do things
that may not be available locally, but in the social
interactions and the communities that develop. While surfing is
pretty much an unsocial activity, people are social creatures
and the popularity of all types of solutions offering
interactive contact and a sense of community reinforces this.

Marketing use of audio conferencing in the form of teleseminars
and pre-recorded audio streams have undergone tremendous growth
in the last year alone. Bandwidth still limits the quality of
the video that's often used with pre-recorded audio to fairly
static material. But this is changing as compression and
streaming technologies improve. The major breakthrough that's
still to come is the technology to effectively and affordably
do, first, one-way live high quality video and beyond that live
interactive multi-way video over the internet. If it seems like
a difficult, perhaps impossible task, think again about what’s
happened in the last five years. And the future is arriving
faster all the time.

About the author:
Richard writes, teaches, trains and consults on business and
professional presentations and eCommerce related matters. For
more information on web conferencing, VoIP, conference calling
and related subjects visit http://altaglobal.com - find more on
wireless and cellular subjects at http://www.altaglobal.org and
check http://www.altaglobal.net for networking and security.