Web conferencing

Web conferencing is used to conduct live meetings or presentations over the Internet. In the early years of the Internet, the terms "web conferencing" and "computer conferencing" were often used to refer to group discussions conducted within a message board (via posted text messages) therefore not live, but the term has evolved to refer specifically to "live" or "synchronous" meetings, while the posted message variety of discussion is called a "forum", "message board", or "bulletin board".

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" or website meeting address to enter the live meeting or conference. These web-based applications are used either with Flash or Java technology.

A webinar is a type of web conference, that tends to be mostly one-way, from the speaker to the audience with limited audience interaction, such as in a Webcast, which is transmission of information in one direction only, like watching a concert on the internet. A webinar however, can be very collaborative, and include polling and question & answer sessions to allow full participation between the audience and the presenter. A webinar is 'live' in the sense that information is conveyed according to an agenda, with a starting and ending time. In most 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 speakerphone. There are a few web conferencing technologies on the market that have incorporated the use of VoIP audio technology, to allow for a truly web-driven presentation, removing the need for any external devices, such as a telephone.

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)
• 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 webconferencing 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.

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.

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.

As of 2006, the market continued to expand as web conferencing became a more widely accepted alternative to face-to-face meetings requiring travel, and as a richer form of communication than voice-only conferences.

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 XCON: Centralized Conferencing Working Group. Mechanisms for privacy and security are important requirements for the resulting protocols.

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.