Web conferencing is a service that allows multiple people to give presentations or participate in meetings from their own computers by interacting with others over the Internet using a shared website or an application provided by the web conferencing vendor. Web conferencing presentations conducted on a one-to-many basis (one or a few primary speakers with possibly hundreds of participants) are often referred to as webcasts or webinars. Web conferences may be highly interactive, allowing all participants to share applications and speak to the group, or very controlled with very few presenters. Web conferences may be recorded for later viewing, with recordings either being streamed from the web conferencing server, or downloadable for independent connection-free viewing.
Web conferencing typically allows for sharing documents and presentations, along with chat messages, voice communication (or other audio), and video. Many web conferencing sites and applications also allow participants to share views of applications or screens running on their own computers, and include participant whiteboarding.
Web conferencing is often paired with traditional teleconferencing - where the telephone network is used for voice communication - but voice communication may also utilize Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology from within the web conferencing application.
WebEx (owned by Cisco), Adobe Connect Pro, Elluminate Live!, Centra (by Saba), DimDim, and GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar are examples of commonly used web conferencing services.
