Web Conferencing Has Its Roots in the Early Days of the Internet

For organizations that operate on a national or international level, it is often necessary to conduct business meetings with offices that are far away from each other.

This can be accomplished by traveling to different locations to meet in person, but if something needs to be handled spur of the moment, this is not necessarily the best solution. Web conferencing has become a standard in interoffice communications for businesses worldwide, allowing organizations to communicate in real time, without having to leave their offices. Web conferencing software offers a variety of ways in which meetings and presentations can be given and attended.

Web conferencing software is used to conduct meetings and presentations over the Internet. In the early days of the World Wide Web, web conferencing referred to using message boards in order to conduct group discussions. These discussion boards were not live, and often discussions took a lot of time to carry out. Now, web conferencing refers to live or synchronous gatherings via chat rooms or using different types of software and hardware such as web cams. And more often, VOIP is being used in the place of chat rooms, which really gives a personal feeling to meetings. Web conferencing allows issues to be handled with immediacy.

In addition to chat rooms and VOIP, web conferencing software provides the capability to perform a multitude of functions, including slide presentations, sharing and amending live spreadsheets, annotations, the ability to highlight points displayed on a screen, text messaging, and file sharing. Some web conferencing software even records meetings and presentations for documentation and easy playback for reference. The trend in web conferencing today seems to be heading toward VOIP and web cam usage.

For organizations that want to use web conferencing software and technology in their business dealings, there are a few options. Often, web conferencing is sold as a service that is regulated by a vendor on a web server. The vendor can charge by the minute or for a fixed fee, depending on the situation. However, more and more vendors are beginning to license their web conferencing software, making it available for organizations to purchase and use on their own web servers.

Web conferencing has its roots in the early days of the Internet. Text chat capabilities have been around almost as long as the Internet itself. Instant messaging, or web-based chat capabilities, made the scene in the early 1990's. Later in the 1990's, peer-to-peer communication (relying on the bandwidth of the participants) allowed actual web conferencing to take place. There are many services and web conferencing software applications currently vying for business. Work is currently being done to establish a standard for web conferencing, for more detail www.pure-profit-software.com which might include membership and authorization management, a means to maneuver media mixing, and a means for notice of conference related changes. These standards will help to guarantee the best possible service to users, and help to keep prices reasonable.

The use of web conferencing software seems to have become commonplace in the world of business today. It enables organizations to not only speak to one another in real time, but allows them to share and modify pertinent information in the form of graphics, spreadsheets, for more detail www.scrirts-to-sell.com and slide presentations that use to require a plane ride or waiting for the mail to ship packets of materials and information. The synchronous (real-time) capabilities of web conferencing software make it easier for organizations to operate on a national or global scale, and help to facilitate the success of a business.

Video Conferencing Hardware – How To Set Up Online Conferencing Equipment

A great alternative to having countless face to face meetings with clients, colleagues or partners is the video conference. Using both software and hardware designed for video conference, you can hear and see what others have to say even if they’re not in the same room as you.

You can use video conference software to share opinions, files, documents, as you talk to each other. To do a video conference, you will need an Internet connection, a computer, a microphone and a webcam.

Different types of hardware give you different performance, sound and video quality.

Installing hardware for video conferences should be planned in advance. You might need projectors, cameras, drop down screens, monitors, quality headphones and microphones, projectors, VCR or DVD recorders and players, wireless remote control panels, auxiliary video-audio sources and even podiums.

You should install the software before you install the video camera. Connect the camera to your PC, insert the CD that comes with it and click the install hardware link. Follow the step by step install process after that.

Because some of the software is uploaded to the camera when you start it, you should turn on the camera before you start the software. Its led will become green if everything was done correctly and the camera is ready to go.

When you first start the application for video, you will see a wizard process that will help you configure it, asking you questions and processing your replies.

It makes video installation much easier. If you need help at any time, there is a special button that will assist you if you click it. It will tell you what each parameter means. If you need to modify any of the settings later, you can do that with ease. If something goes wrong when you first install it, don’t worry, it can be easily fixed.

Connect the microphone with the headset in order to install the hardware for audio. This will solve the audio part of the conference, allowing you to get phone calls.

After that, do the same like you did with the video installation.

Internet Conferencing - Advantages

Nobody works in complete isolation. In virtually all lines of business, contact with other people will be required in some capacity. Whether it is meeting with clients or colleagues; presenting new ideas or products; or giving or receiving training, good communication is the key to running a successful business.

However, in the modern world of commerce, business takes place twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Large, international organizations have sites across the globe and thanks to the Internet, even small and medium sized companies have found themselves trading on an international scale.

International markets and twenty-four hour business undoubtedly provide great opportunities, but they are not without their difficulties. Trying to arrange a seminar for a large number of delegates based in different countries, for example, can be a logistical nightmare. Diaries need to be synchronized, flights booked, accommodation sourced and meeting facilities organized. It is a major undertaking, and one that takes a lot of time, money and effort.

No Need To Travel

In this instance, the advantages of web conferencing are easy to see - nobody needs to travel anywhere. From the comfort of their own office delegates can participate in meetings and seminars without having to travel a single extra mile.

For smaller organizations, web conferencing can open up whole new markets. Where before, perhaps there was not the man-power to spare for long periods out of the office, web conferencing reduces the need for travel to allow face to face meetings. Proposals can be pitched and new business won without the need for lengthy trips away from the office.

The reduced need for travel that web conferencing brings has other advantages; staff spend less time travelling and more time at home - that should make for a happier and more productive workforce; thousands of dollars spend on air fares, car hire and accommodation are saved and less time is spent sourcing flights and making hotel reservations. All these benefits, simply by reducing the need for travel with web conferencing.

Saving Your Company Time

There is no doubt that organizing a meeting takes time. Even the smallest meetings, if they involve delegates from different geographic locations, require a degree of effort. Whether it is down to the delegates themselves or if it is left to the secretary or personal assistant, someone is spending precious company time making the necessary arrangements. Flights, hotels, catering, diary management - they all take time to organize - time that could be spent far more productively.

Take away the need for travel, days or weeks out of the office and the requirement for overnight accommodation and suddenly organizing the meeting or seminar is not such a major task. Diaries will become much more easy to synchronize, a quick email or telephone call is all that is needed to set up a web conference. Hours of time are freed up for staff to concentrate on making money for the organization.

Saving Your Company Money

Saving money is something that every company strives to do. Nobody wants to spend more than they have to. Think for a moment how much you spend on travel. Even if you are simply driving to the other side of town, your company will be incurring costs - parking tolls, dead time spent driving to and fro the meeting - they all have an impact on your company's bottom line.

Imagine reducing that pile of expense claim forms at the end of the month; the chances are you could be saving a significant amount of money. No organization, large or small, can afford to waste money and with web conferencing those costs are coming down.

The advantages of web conferencing to any business are clear; you can save time, you have a more productive workforce and, most importantly of all, you can save money.

Hosted Wed Conferencing

When we are talking about web conferencing, hosted web conferencing generally comes to our mind. Well, since the technology of web conferencing emerged on the market and on demand, hosted web conferencing has been the preferred trend of most businesses. Now the question arises what is hosted web conferencing? And what makes it most preferred trend of businesses?
Hosted web conferencing is an online meeting between groups of individuals with the help of internet without leaving his actual place. Actually in this type of conferencing, internet provides the individual with a virtual meeting room. We can say hosted web conferencing is a Conferencing over the Internet through a server hosted by your vendor.

In its simplest form it is a conferencing in host place with a group of individuals sitting at different places or locations.

Advantages of hosted web conferencing

? The majority of Web conferencing solutions are hosted services
A hosted Web conferencing service exists on an Internet-based server.

? The biggest advantage of a hosted service is that it’s extremely easy to set up and use and it can be implemented immediately.

? There’s no capital expenditure and no need to get the IT department involved. For small-scale or infrequent Web conferences, a hosted service is an ideal solution

? Whiteboard is another remarkable feature which is newly added in the hosted web conferencing. This allows you to make ideas down on a virtual whiteboard. You can underline, bold, or encircle key concepts on a certain slide for highlighting.

? The important feature of hosted web conferencing is application sharing or file sharing..

Some other features of hosted web conferencing:

• File sharing
• Application sharing
• Polls and survey
• Text messaging
• Slide presentation

Some companies are providing free web conferencing services .It may include free video conference. Free web conference rooms are available in internet. And these free conference room enables the businesses to communicate widely and it also cut of the cost of management and communication.

Secure Web Conferencing – Advantages Of Using Secure Internet Conference Software

Using secure web conferencing can bring a lot of benefits to small or large businesses. Some of the benefits include the increase in productivity, no travel costs, and the ability to do business with people from all over the world.

As web conferencing becomes more and more used by people from all over the world, businesses begin to understand that if they want to be competitive they need to use it.

With the speed that decisions are taken now, secure web conferencing makes sure that the business data is secured.

Here are some of the benefits of using secure web conferencing:

It takes out the costs of travelling from the equation. Since the price of travelling and paying for gas increases all the time, meeting online is an alternative that plenty of people choose and prefer these days.

Software for online meetings insures that it’s cheap enough for everyone to use, even if they’re on a tight budget.

The productivity is increased. Since people don’t need to waste a lot of time travelling and coordinating schedules, they have more time to actually work.

Whether they’re from the other side of the planet or in the same office, they can meet in virtual meetings, to talk and exchange ideas. If they want, these meetings can be scheduled, or they can be decided on the spot.

What people talk between them is secure, and that’s something all the people involved want. The security is improved when you use secure web conferencing.

The best secure web conferencing software is quite versatile, as it can be used on any operating system, including Windows, Mac or Linux. You can also use it together with a number of applications, such as whiteboards that are interactive or PowerPoint presentations.

You can even let people enter the conference if they don’t have an invitation, by publishing the meeting on the home page of your site.

The business world, with its fast movement, needs web conferencing. If there is a problem that needs to be fixed quick, people can get together fast and find a solution to their problem. It doesn’t matter where they are, they can communicate easily with the others.

A business that uses web conferencing makes sure that they get the most out of their possibilities. A web conference can be made between computers that are different, even if they have different bandwidth available to them.