Web conferencing is an inexpensive way to add visual data to audio conferences. It was first introduced in the 1990s and relied on loading and caching an application on attendees’ hard drives. However, this approach raised concerns about sensitive information being hosted on multiple hard drives. Over time, web conferencing technology has improved, allowing for automatic deletion of files once the conference is over. Today, web conferencing tools allow for document viewing, audio streaming, messaging capabilities, attendance lists, and recording capabilities. It has proven to be a useful tool for businesses and organizations of all sizes.
As a way to add visual data to an audio conference, web conferencing offers a relatively inexpensive means of creating a virtual working environment with people across the city or around the world. Here are some basics of web conferencing technology, options, and applications.
Conceived as a complementary service to audio conferencing calling, web conferencing first hit the mass market in the 1990s. Before that, web conferencing was considered a premium service that only the most prosperous businesses and organizations could afford to use. However, technological advances in the late 1980s made it obvious that the internet could support a simple presentation sharing environment which would be an ideal way to share charts, spreadsheets and other data with people while still using line calling. audio conferencing for verbal communication.
Early web conferencing relied heavily on loading and caching an application on the hard drive of each person attending a web meeting. The upload would include files that would have been used during the meeting. In effect, the conference author or leader would access those files during the conference and control their display during the meeting.
However, many people objected to this approach, as proprietary information was now hosted on a number of hard drives. The conference leader had to rely on the generosity of the attendees to delete sensitive files from the hard drive after the meeting. Over time, the technology has been improved to allow for automatic deletion of files once the conference is over. To this day, there are still web conferencing providers that require attendees to log in at least thirty minutes before live meetings and go through this upload process.
During the early 1990s, alternative solutions to web presentations began to emerge. One type of service relied heavily on the use of presentation sharing tools, such as PowerPoint. With this type of web conferencing, the leader would upload a slide presentation to the web conferencing service server. The slides have been converted to basic HTML slides and saved on the provider’s server. Using login credentials, the leader was able to log in and activate a meeting, choosing from a list of saved presentations to share with attendees. This approach greatly attracted people who traveled and could not always be in front of their computer to lead the meeting. Provided the presentation had been uploaded to the web conferencing service in advance, any computer with an Internet connection and media player would have sufficed.
For attendees, this new form of web conferencing has eliminated caching of any files on their hard drives. All that was required of them to join was a URL to the login page and a passcode. Since the presentation was converted to basic HTML slides, attendees needed nothing more than a media player to view the presentations. You haven’t logged in early to download anything. Web conferencing just got a little cleaner for everyone.
Over the years, computer conferencing has gotten easier to use, even as additional features have been added. Audio streaming allows attendees to listen to audio as they watch presentations today. Most web conferencing tools today allow not only for document viewing, but also the ability for the leader to transfer control so that participants can work together on a letter, spreadsheet, or presentation.
Messaging capabilities on many web conferencing systems allow participants to send a private message to the leader, who can reply privately or post the message to the entire group for discussion. Attendance lists for both leader and attendees allow everyone to see who is currently in the conference, when people join, and how long people are in the web presentation meeting. Recording capabilities allow voice and images to be synchronized into a permanent record that the leader can share with others at a later time.
Web conferencing has proven to be a useful and convenient tool for many businesses and organizations of all sizes. As the product will be enriched with additional features in the years to come, it will undoubtedly provide an even more useful way to communicate with people from all over the world.
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