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Online Conferences - Technology For The 21st Century On-Line Business
Web conference capabilities in the not so distant past were extremely expensive and only obtainable to richer companies. However due to recent price changes they are now readily available in the market to even the smallest business.
With web conferencing delivering benefits such as instant messaging and in real-time hosting of group meetings, it won't take you long to see how viable they can be for business meetings, seminars, or even presentations or product roll-outs.
The improvement of web conferences has been tremendous in just the short time it has come available as a valuable commerce tool.
Some of the capabilities of the conferencing technology are tele-conferencing, video conferences, and web seminars and of course web conference rooms.
With tele-conferencing, it is essentially about conference calls where small to very large groups of people can enter in to or listen to the phone conversation.
With video conferences, the presenter can be within view on the screens of all the participating members or for small groups, all the attendees can appear on the screen in separate web cam windows.
A web conference is often confused with web seminars. There is just few differences separating these two types, it is mainly about the number of the participating members and the amount of inter-activity in the session.
Web seminars are usually more than ten attendees and only the host and a small number of panelists would have the control over the session. With web conferencing, it is commonly limited to ten people, where the attendees would have the opportunity to present and take control of the progression of the discussion.
Web conference programs use Internet communication to transfer and share files and applications. These software combine HTML, Java scripts, flash animation, instant messaging and even audio and video streaming.
Through the combination of these, web conferencing can offer several capabilities. These features are application and file sharing, desktop sharing, co-browsing the Internet, white boards, polling/surveying, text messaging, Power Point presentations and even private meeting rooms.
There are two options to choose from if a company or any institution is interested in using web based conference rooms. There is conference software that can be installed on the owner's computer where they can host conferences themselves. Another way is by using a hosting service that provides the software and server space to offer the web-based conferences.
Prior to the session the organizer sends out e-mails or text messages inviting the guests and participants to the web conference. The invitation sent out includes a link to the conference room and a access code to join the conference. The participating members just have to click the URL and enter the access code.
Once the attendees have logged on to the conference, the organizer starts the meeting. The host has the ability to share the desktop and other applications. Control of the flow of the discussion can also be handed over to other participating members. Participants can communicate to each other by audio or video, voice chat, instant messaging or desktop sharing.
Photographs from the host's computer are uploaded to the server and sent to participating members, much like video streaming. Participants can share documents and applications because the files are temporarily available on the server where anyone with the right link and password can access. To end the conference or to log out of the meeting, participants just simply close their conference room window.
Web conferences are easy to set up and can forge strong working relationships among employees. Plus play a very important role in improving business and its operations.
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