Web ConferencingA 'webinar' (a vulgarization of 'web' and 'seminar') is a specific type of web conference. It is typically one-way, from the speaker to the audience, with limited audience participation, 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 onscreen, and the audience can respond over their own telephones, most likely over 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. 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 host's server. There is also software available that is installed on the host's computer and does not require server configuration.An important capability of web conferencing software is application sharing, i.e. the ability for one party in the conference to share an application (such as a web browser, spread sheet, etc.) from their desktop with every one else in the meeting and pass the control of the application to someone else in the meeting. The first commercial 100% computer base web-conferencing product, StarLive, was delivered by Starlight Networks in 1997 (acquired by Picturetel in 1998). StarLive combined multicast video on the Internet with slides and chat, and supported tens of thousands of simulataneous users across different countries. This type of Web conference became mainstream a few years later mainly thanks to WebEx (acquired by Cisco).As of 2006, the market continued to expand as web conferencing became a more widely accepted alternative to face-to-face meetings requiring travel (which has become more and more expensive of late), and as a richer form of communication than voice-only conferences. |
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