Web Conferencing Software
Web conferencing software has become an essential and popular source for Online interaction. Presently, there are a number of free ware and shareware software available on the Internet which support web conferencing in one way or another. But, what actually is web conferencing? You must be aware of the meaning of term conferencing. It is a type of group discussion where different people interact with each other. Conferencing done via web with the support of various web browsers is known as web conferencing. Web conferencing make use of the text messages that are stored on a computer as a communication medium. Communications like real time, synchronous, voice and video are not included in a web conferencing.
There also exist some non-web conferencing software. These are the one which are not adaptable to the web browsers and servers. But, their numbers are decreasing day-by-day as the developers are making extreme efforts to make them web friendly. It is expected that very soon the boundary line between web and non-web conferencing would diminish. Web video conferencing software and web meeting software are also very useful in making interaction with a group of people with similar interests. Features of a good web conferencing software One of the universal feature is the different conferences for broad topics. Each conference focuses on a different topic and have a completely distinct atmosphere and social conventions. You can be a regular member of the conference in which you are most interested in. Another aspect of a good web conferencing software is the threaded discussion. The basic structure of a threaded conference is like that of a tree. A single topic act as a starting point (base) and all the responses act like its branches. Usenet is an example of such conferencing software. But, this structure is not preferred as discussions can be lost. So, a linear structure in a web conferencing software is comparatively considered to be a very good choice. In this, all the answers and conversations can be viewed on a single page, right below the topic. The effort of clicking a button in order to view the responses is almost eliminated and hence you can browse through conversations quickly. WebNotes is an example of such conferencing software. What are the features of an effective web conferencing software? All the topics for discussion must be listed in an informative manner. Basic information like number of responses, date of topic posted etc., can really help the user. A good web conferencing software must have the ability to clear all outdated stuff (specially related to a closed discussion) to avoid clutter. These types of software must have good search and filter capabilities to search conferencing topics and responses. A good software must have the capabilities to give various access control features to the users like read only, read & write only, etc. The speed of frequently used functions like moving on to next page must be quick. Thus it can be rightly said that a web conferencing software is the best available solution to handle the conferencing needs of an individual and an organization. |