Talk:Web conferencing

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Contents 1 Webinar? 1.1 Where does Webinar fit in? 2 Who's afraid of friendly capitalism? 3 comparison

[edit] Webinar?

Web conferencing is often used to describe the application-based approach to web communications - involving the download of an application by all parties - this type of communication allows partipants to view and share web pages and desktop applications. This works well for meetings with two or a few people involved. Whereas the Webinar is typically used to describe a combined live webcast and teleconference, which is accessed and made interactive through a webpage or series of webpages. This type of communication is more suitable for one-to-many people.

Webinar is a contraction of the terms "web" and "seminar" As such, a webinar is as different from a web conference as much (or as little) as a conference is different from a seminar. If all of the participants are expected to take part in a dialog, then it's a conference. If the event is primarily for information delivery with limited dialog then it is a webinar. Seminar type events that charge a fee of the attendees are always webinars.

The only practical difference between a webinar and a web conference is in the technology and the cost of an event. The method used to provide participants to engage in a dialog becomes the deciding factor. A full dialog between all participants requires two directional audio and video from each to each. This is the most costly and least often used type of web conference, mainly because of its complexity. Next is an audio conference with a primarily one directional web connection- this is the most common method used today. Finally, there is a web conference with streaming audio over the net. This provides only limited feedback from the audience with chat or email used to talk with the host. This final method is used often for training and is the least costly method alternative.

[edit] Where does Webinar fit in?

I would just like to comment that the contraction "webinar" is really unpleasant, and is sort of unnecessary, and I think that a grass roots effort should be made to remove this word from our language. What is wrong with calling something a "web seminar"? We don't call a web page a "wage" and we don't call a web-based application a "wapplication" and a web conference is not a "webference" ... why do we use this ugly word "webinar"? Just my two cents. 152.1.209.139 15:31, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Who's afraid of friendly capitalism?

Is it okay for allconferenceservices.com to use Wikipedia to get to a financially fulfilling Google page rank? Is the homework they made by writing up the Advantages and Disadvantages Of Web Conferencing sufficient to gain them such a placement? What are the WP policies on supporting capitalism?  :) --lynX

[edit] comparison

I think a comparison of the most important clients, such as ICQ, MSN, Skype, Adobe Acrobat Connect could be quite helpfull. The features and software license (Adobe: Price) could be mentioned as well.

Best regards, 83.219.98.91 23:43, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

I concur. Though obviously there are many more suitable clients for review, such as | WebTrain Web Conferencing with VoIP], LiveMeeting, NetMeeting and WebEx. 203.33.3.2 04:24, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

I disagree to the comment about examining products like MSN, ICQ, these are IM products, not web conferencing products, it's like comparing a calculator to a spreadsheet. Products like WebTrain, LiveMeeting and WebEx are reliable because they have redundent enterprise class scalable load balancing infrastructures suitable for business web conferencing. MSN/ICQ/SKYPE are fine for kids and family chats, some business text chat, but they are not reliable enough for business web conferencing.