Online conferencing or web meetings are virtual online meetings between two or more people, using their Internet connection, a conferencing program and a web cam (optional). If calling together or attending meetings is a problem, online conferencing provides very cost-efficient solutions that are available for very low costs. Just imagine that mere decades ago, seeing a person in a different country face-to-face was an impossibility; nowadays, however, it is just an everyday thing. Through online conferencing, people wouldn't have to spend on transportation costs and waste time traveling to meet one another; they could just attend that meeting even while staying put right in their own offices.
Online conferencing programs have a variety of features, including data and audio transfers, file and desktop sharing (or ability to share your workstation s contents with the other participants), whiteboards (which participants could all use as an aid in getting their ideas across more effectively), text messaging (which could be used for clarification purposes, such as if one of the members can't understand a word another person is saying), and playback options (which is useful for documentation purposes).
So how does online conferencing work? It's hard to imagine that such powerful technology is readily available and very easy to use; but you better believe it! Here are some details:
- All the participants should have Internet access, speakers, a microphone, a webcam (optional) and the conferencing software. It's also advisable that each participant's Internet access is high-speed, to ensure fewer video streaming delays and for the ability to have that conference in real-time, and to have an almost natural effect.
- One moderator will need to invite all the participants, or do conference calling before these participants can enter the conference center.
- Participant's entrance to conference centers will be announced by a bell or some other signal. Although participants must wait for the moderator's invitation, they may choose to leave the conference at any time.
- If the online conference is a videoconference, each participant is assigned a box where his image can be seen (as long as that participant has a web cam; if not, then that box could simply remain blank). This enables each participant to better communicate with one another because they can see each other.
- Other things to remember with regard to online meetings are the terms multi-point conferencing which allows for many participants, and point-to-point conferencing, which is between two participants only.
Different online conferencing software products are widely available; some of them are actually downloadable for free. You could obtain a listing of available video conferencing software via the Internet (just type video conferencing software using your preferred search engine). Commonly used software includes the very user-friendly yahoo messenger (which has video conferencing options), and Skype, although they may not have some of the features available in other programs such as whiteboard and desktop sharing.
There you have it! If you have never had a video conferencing experience before, rest assured that it s much more simple than you think. Go ahead and get started, and enjoy!
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