Web conferencing is used to conduct live meetings or presentations over the Internet. In a web conference, each participant sits at his or her own computer and is connected to other participants via the internet. This can be either a downloaded application on each of the attendees computers or a web-based application where the attendees will simply enter a URL (website address) to enter the conference. Meetings are sometimes held around conference tables. ... For other uses, see Presentation (disambiguation). ... This article is about the machine. ... A Uniform Resource Locator, URL (spelled out as an acronym, not pronounced as earl), or Web address, is a standardized address name layout for resources (such as documents or images) on the Internet (or elsewhere). ...

A webinar is a specific type of web conference. It is typically one-way, from the speaker to the audience with limited audience interaction, such as in a webcast. A webinar can be very collaborative and include polling and question & answer sessions to allow full participation between the audience and the presenter. In some cases, the presenter may speak over a standard telephone line, pointing out information being presented on screen and the audience can respond over their own telephones, preferably a speaker phone. There are web conferencing technologies on the market that have incorporated the use of VoIP audio technology, to allow for a truly web-based communication. A webcast is a media file distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology. ...

In the early years of the Internet, the terms "web conferencing" was often used to describe a group discussion in a message board and therefore not live. The term has evolved to refer specifically to live or "synchronous" meetings. discussion redirects here. ... A typical Internet forum discussion, with common elements such as quotes and spoiler brackets A page from a forum showcasing emoticons and Internet slang An Internet forum is a web application for holding discussions and posting user generated content. ... Synchronous conferencing is the formal term used in science, in particular in computer-mediated communication, collaboration and learning, to describe text chat technologies. ...

Features

Other typical features of a web conference include:

• Slide presentations (often created through PowerPoint)
• Live video (via webcam or digital video camera)
• VoIP (Real time audio communication through the computer via use of headphones and speakers)
• Web tours - where URL's, form data, cookies, scripts and session data can be pushed to other participants enabling them to be pushed though web based logons, clicks, etc. This type of feature works well when demonstrating websites where users themselves can also participate.
• Recording (for viewing at a later time by anyone using a unique web address)
• Whiteboard with annotation (allowing the presenter and/or attendees to highlight or mark items on the slide presentation. Or, simply make notes on a blank whiteboard.)
• Text chat (for live question and answer sessions)
• Polls and surveys (allows the presenter to conduct questions with multiple choice answers directed to the audience)
• Screen sharing/desktop sharing/application sharing (where participants can view anything the presenter currently has shown on their screen. Some screen sharing applications allow for remote desktop control, allowing participants to manipulate the presenters screen, although this is not widely used.)

Web conferencing is often sold as a service, hosted on a web server controlled by the vendor, either on a usage basis (cost per user per minute) or for a fixed fee (cost per "seat"). Some vendors make their conferencing software available as a licensed product, allowing organizations that make heavy use of conferencing to install the software on their own servers. Some web conferencing software is distributed free for hosting on the MC's server. There is also software available that is installed on the MC's computer and does not require server configuration software. IP Telephony, also called Internet telephony, is the technology that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the Internet or a dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) network instead of dedicated voice transmission lines. ... A small whiteboard with pen and eraser clipped to top A whiteboard (also called a dry-erase or dry-wipe board) is the name for any glossy surface, most commonly coloured white, where markings can be made. ... Online chat can refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, but is primarily meant to refer to direct one-on-one chat or text-based group chat (formally also known as synchronous conferencing), using tools such as instant messaging applications—computer programs, Internet Relay Chat, talkers and possibly... The inside/front of a Dell PowerEdge web server The term Web server can mean one of two things: A computer program that is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from clients, which are known as Web browsers, and serving them HTTP responses along with optional data contents, which usually are...

An important capability of web conferencing software is application sharing, the ability for one party in the conference to share an application (such as a web browser, spread sheet, etc.) from their desk top with every one else in the meeting and pass the control of the application to someone else in the meeting. // Overview Application Sharing is an element of remote access, falling under the collaborative software umbrella, that enables two or more users to access a shared application or document from their respective computers simultaneously in real-time. ...

History

Real-time text chat facilities such as IRC appeared early in the internet's history. Web-based chat and instant messaging software appeared in the mid-1990s. In the late 1990s, the first true web conferencing capability became available and dozens of other web conferencing venues followed thereafter. Synchronous conferencing is the formal term used in science, in particular in computer-mediated communication, collaboration and learning, to describe text chat technologies. ... This article is about Internet Relay Chat. ... // Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. ... For the band, see 1990s (band). ...

In May 1998 Eric R. Korb ^[1] was first to use the term "webinar "(web-seminar) to brand the online meeting service for his company ComLinx, LLC. Korb received a registered trademark (Serial Number 75478683) by the USPTO on April 18, 2000. Korb successfully defended the mark several times, but widespread use of the mark without his permission flourished throughout the internet making it very difficult to monitor and defend. Korb eventually transferred ownership of the mark when the dot.com boom failed and ComLinx was forced to shut down in 2001 due to lack of funding. The mark has subsequently been abandoned. “(TM)” redirects here. ...

The first commercial 100% computer base web-conference (webinar) product called StarLive was delivered by Starlight Networks in 1997 (acquired by Picturetel in 1998).^{[citation needed]} StarLive combined multicast video (MPEG1 on Intranets along with RealVideo on the Internet with slides and chat and support tens of thousands of simulataneous users across different countries.^{[citation needed]} This type of Web conference became mainstream a few years later mainly thanks to WebEx (acquired by Cisco).^{[citation needed]}

Standards

Web conferencing technologies were not standardized for many years, a significant factor in the lack of interoperability, platform dependence, security issues, cost and market segmentation. In 2003, the IETF established a working group to establish a standard for Web conferencing, called "Centralized Conferencing (xcon)" ^[2]. Mechanisms for privacy and security are important requirements for the resulting protocols. Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is charged with developing and promoting Internet standards. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

The deliverables of xcon, listed as part of their charter include creating:

• A basic floor control protocol. This was published in 2006 as RFC 4582: Binary Floor Control Protocol (BFCP)
• A mechanism for membership and authorization control
• A mechanism to manipulate and describe media "mixing" or "topology" for multiple media types (audio, video, text)
• A mechanism for notification of conference related events/changes (for example a floor change)

CONFiance is an implementation of the XCON framework and BFCP licensed under the GPL and Academic Free License. Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The GNU logo For other uses of GPL, see GPL (disambiguation). ... The Academic Free License is an open source / free software license written in 2002 by Lawrence E. Rosen, general counsel of the Open Source Initiative. ...

Software

• Adobe Acrobat Connect
• Convenos Meeting Center
• Genesys Meeting Center
• IBM Lotus Sametime
• Pixion PictureTalk
• WebHuddle
• Glance
• Yugma

Adobe Acrobat Connect, formerly Macromedia Breeze, is software used with Microsoft PowerPoint to create information and general presentations, online training materials, web conferencing, and learning modules. ... Genesys Conferencing (NASDAQ : GNSY) (EURONEXT EUROLIST C: FR0004270270) is a Software as a Service global provider of real-time collaboration services, integrating audio, video and web conferencing. ... Lotus Sametime is an enterprise instant messaging and web conferencing application sold by the Lotus Software division of IBM. Lotus Sametime provides enterprise instant messaging functionality, presence information, and web conferencing. ...

See also

• Collaborative software
• Webcast

Collaborative software is software designed to help people involved in a common task achieve their goals. ... A webcast is a media file distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology. ...

References

This article does not cite any references or sources. (November 2006) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.