Web Conferencing Definition – 1 Definition, Multiple Variations

If you’ve ever watched the old-school animated TV show “The Jetsons,” you may recall images of videophone screens popping up from the floor just before a video call, only to retract again when the call was over. Back then, it was assumed that by the year 2000 we would all have these kinds of devices in our cars, our homes, and our workplaces. Reality has proven to be a very different picture of the future.

In fact, the idea of ​​remote conferencing with both voice and visual elements dates back to at least the 1950s and 1960s, when AT&T unsuccessfully tried to popularize the devices on a large scale. But it wasn’t until the late 1990s that something similar to the videophone, web conferencing, came into common use.

Web Conference Definition

Web conferencing refers to any type of remote communication that leverages the World Wide Web (Internet) as the underlying communication infrastructure. All data, whether it’s video images, rich media, text, or voice, is converted into data packets that are exchanged via Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) through the decentralized set of thousands of networks today called Internet.

Web conferencing is significant unlike video phones and simple text messaging systems of earlier times where, due to the fact that the internet is used to make them possible today, the cost of communications has dropped considerably. This is what makes it accessible to so many people. Of course, the fact that people can largely use the equipment they already own (mainly their computers) to host a web conference also makes the cost of entry particularly low.

Web conferencing by any other name

In reality, there is no complete and detailed definition that describes all the possible providers of solutions, products and features that are sold under the name of web conferencing. And, in fact, there are a host of different names for this set of related technologies, including: Video Conferencing over IP, Voice over IP (VoIP), Internet Conferencing, Web Meetings, Network Meetings, and Webcasting, among others. .

Top 7 Web Conferencing Product Focus Areas

While there is no centralized definition, here are 7 main areas where solution providers in this space tend to optimize their products for different customer uses:

1. Simple online meetings, including desk sharing and sometimes voice communications.
2. Enterprise-grade work collaboration systems
3. Webcasting, which involves a one-to-many format featuring 50,100, 1,000 or more people at once
4. Remote IT support and remote computer control
5. Rich Media Streaming
6. Education, training and e-learning
7. Application sharing, such as remote collaborative CAD design

The various definitions of technologies in this area make it a challenge to find a comprehensive list of products while searching for the right solution. However, by using the keywords embedded in the 7 descriptions above in your searches, you should be able to easily find solutions relevant to your needs.