Behind the Scenes: How Web Conferencing Works Web conferencing programs are readily available in the market

nowadays. Web con ferencing offers instant messaging and hosting of group discussions. It is a gr eat way for conducting meetings, seminars, even presentations or product roll-ou ts. Conferencing technology has already achieved immense improvement. Teleconferenc ing is a product of the conferencing technology. With teleconferencing, it is m ainly about conference calls where small to very large groups of people can part icipate to or listen to the phone conversation. With video conferencing, the pr esenter can appear on the screens of all the attendees or for small groups, all the attendees can appear on the screen in separate webcam windows. Web conferencing is often confused with web seminars. There is just a thin line separating or differentiating each other, it is mainly about the number of the attendees or participants and the amount of interactivity in the meeting or pres entation. Web seminars are usually more than ten people and only the organizer and a small number of panellists would have the control over the discussion. With web conf erencing, it is normally limited to ten people, where the attendees or participa nts would have the opportunity to present and take control of the flow of the di scussion. Web conferencing programs use internet communication to transfer and share files and applications. These programs combine HTML, Java scripts, flash animation, instant messaging and even audio and video streaming. Through the combination of these, web conferencing can offer several features. T hese features are application and file sharing, desktop sharing, co-browsing the internet, white boards, polling/surveying, text messaging, PowerPoint presentat ions and even private meeting rooms. There are two options to choose from if a company or any institution is interest ed in using web conferencing. There are conferencing software that can be insta lled in computers and host the meeting themselves. Another way is by using a ho sting service that provides the software and server space to conduct the web-bas ed meetings. How web conferences run depend on the software, hosting and how the moderator or organizer runs the meeting. Prior to the meeting the moderator or organizer of ten compiles the documents and files for the meeting and have them distributed. The organizer then sends out e-mails or text messages inviting the guests and p articipants citing the certain day and time the web conference will start. Attendees may accept or reject the invitation and their calendar program will ad d the meeting to their schedule. The invitation sent out includes a link to the conference and a password or access code to join the conference. The attendee just have to click the URL and enter the password or access code. Once the attendees have already logged on to the conference, the organizer or pr esenter controls the meeting. The presenter has the ability to share the deskto p and other documents and applications. Control of the flow of the discussion c an be handed over to other attendees letting them to present. Participants can communicate to each other by audio or video, voice chat, instant messaging or de sktop sharing. Images from the presenter s computer are constantly being uploaded to the server a

nd sent to attendees, it is much like video streaming. Participants can share d ocuments and applications because the files are temporarily available on the ser ver where anyone with the right link and password can access. To end the confer ence or to log out of the meeting, participants just simply close their conferen cing programs. Web conferences are easy to set up and can forge strong working relationships am ong employees. Collaborations and cooperation made through web conferencing can play a very important role in improving the business and the operations of cert ain institutions.