EVALUATING

WEB CONFERENCING
TOOLS
 Introduction

• Email is great for one-one-one

communications that aren’t time
sensitive.

• Instant messaging is better for

time-sensitive communications, but it’s
still essentially a one-on-one medium.
• When you need to include more than
two people in your communications, or
when you want to give a presentation
to a group of people who aren’t all in
the same location, a different
communications tool is needed.

• This new tool is called a web

conference, and it’s a way to conduct
live meetings and presentations over
the Inter

Real-time text chat facilities such
as IRC appeared in the late
1980s.
HISTORY
In May 1995, PictureTel
announced LiveShare Plus as a
general-use data collaboration
product for Windows-based In 1996, PlaceWare was founded
personal computers. as a spinoff from Xerox PARC.

late 1980s early 1990s May 1995 May 1996 1996

Several point-to-point and In May 1996, Microsoft

private-network video announced NetMeeting as an
conferencing products were included component in Interneet
introduced in the early 1990s, Explorer 3.0.
most notably CU-SeeMe.

In February 1998, Starlight
Networks released StarLive! (the
exclamation point being part of
the product name).
In April 1999, Vstream introduced
the Netcall product for web
conferencing as "a fee-based
Internet software utility that lets
you send business presentations In January 2003, Macromedia
and other graphic information via acquired Presedia, including the
e-mail to a Vstream server. Breeze Presentation product.

Feb. 1998 June 1998 Apr. 1999 Dec. 2003 Jan. 2003

In June 1998, PlaceWare 2.0 In December 2003, Citrix Systems

Conference Center was released, acquiredExpertcity, giving it the
allowing up to 1000 live GoToMyPC and GoToAssist
attendees in a meeting session products.
What is Web Conferencing?

• Web conferencing may be used as an umbrella term

for various types of online collaborative services
including web seminars ("webinars"), webcasts, and
peer-level web meetings.

• general Web Conferencing refers to conversing with

one or multiple people over the internet.
 Application sharing: where the presenter and
participants can all access and use the same
application in real time. This is useful for smaller group
What features can meetings, when all participants are collaborating on a
project.
you expect from a
web conferencing Desktop sharing: similar to application sharing, but
with the presenter’s entire desktop visible and
service? accessible to participants. File and document sharing,
with individual files and documents open for all to
edit, also useful for group collaboration.

PowerPoint presentations: the core component

of large presentations; the presenter gives a
PowerPoint presentation in real time, complete with
slide transitions and animations, using audio
conferencing tools to narrate the presentation

Presenter notes, which let
the presenter take notes during
the course of the conference
for future action.
Text-based chat, which lets
participants discuss the
presentation with each other in
real time.
Annotation, which lets the
presenter mark up the
document or presentation
being shared or given, typically
by drawing or highlighting on
the screen.
Audio conferencing, which
adds the spoken words of the
presenter to a PowerPoint
presentation. With two-way
audio, all participants can
speak—assuming that they all
have microphones, of course.
Whiteboard, which is a blank
screen on which the presenter
or participants can draw or
highlight object
Video conferencing, which
puts a picture of the presenter
in a corner of the conference
webtop, typically generated via
webcam. With two way video,
conference participants can
also show pictures
 How IT Works

• Web conferencing software is

invoked by all participants in a web
meeting. Some technologies include
software and functionality that
differs for presenters and
attendees. Software may run as a
web browser application or stand
alone computer application.
EXAMPLE
 • Cisco’s WebEx (www.webex.com) is
perhaps the most-used web conferencing
solution today.
• Various solutions and pricing plans are
available, for organizations large and
WEBEX small.
• Features include VoIP support, integrated
audio and video, application sharing, on-
the-fly annotation, meeting recording and
playback, and so on.
• In this example, a PowerPoint presentation
is being annotated by the presenter, while
participants are chatting in a pane on the
right. The presenter, in this case, can also
take notes during the course of the
presentation; these notes appear in their
own pane on the lower right.
EXAMPL
Advantages of Online Conferencing
● Scalable
● Flexibility
● Robust
● Scope
● Durability
● Sustainability
Disadvantages of Online Conferencing

• Not everyone’s internet is great. That’s a given.

• Web conferencing can be expensive, and the people who are going
to attend the meeting need to access to suitable hardware and
software

• The bandwidth is very expensive & it defeats the whole purpose of

using web conferencing, web conferencing is very expensive and
you should purchase and maintain the equipment.