Real-time collaboration tools allow people to work together on a project as if they were in the same room. Participants can edit documents, use audio and instant messaging, and share their desktops. The moderator controls the session and can grant privileges to participants.
Real-time collaboration is one type of business tool that has come into common use, thanks to the power of the Internet. Essentially, the various types of web collaboration tools allow people located in a variety of physical locations to come together in one virtual environment and work together on a common project as if they were in the same room. Tools of this type can be used as part of an internal network within a business operating a number of facilities around the world or can be obtained for use by a telecommunications company providing online web conferencing solutions along with audio conferencing capabilities.
A basic real-time collaboration tool will allow meeting participants to actively participate in creating or editing some type of document. The document can be a proposal that is being prepared for presentation to a new client, a slide presentation that will be used at an upcoming sales or industry conference, or even the creation of some sort of internal document such as an employee handbook . Typically, an individual identified as a moderator or group leader has the ability to authorize each meeting participant to participate in some way, from using their computer to make real-time changes to text or document appearance, to participating to group chats via an audio or instant messaging connection.
This type of real-time collaboration is sometimes known as whiteboarding or whiteboard collaboration. Basically, the process is based on uploading the document to the server of the company hosting the conference session in real time or using so-called desktop sharing to allow all participants to see the group leader’s desktop. The leader displays the document on their desktop for all to see, then grants group members the ability to make changes to the document through the conference interface. Once the changes are made, the leader can save the changes to the source document just as if the changes were made in place.
Depending on the design of the real-time collaboration tool being used, the audio interaction may be provided by a companion audio conferencing that occurs concurrently with the web conferencing session. Other times, the audio portion of the meeting is provided by a voice over connection IP that allows the moderator and participants to communicate with the use of speakers and microphones connected to the desktops and laptops used to join the virtual meeting. In both scenarios, the moderator has the ability to control collaboration in real time by locking the meeting once all required staff are present and choosing who has editing and other privileges at any point during the session.
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