Conferencing has been done using only traditional tools as of now but in the recent times, there has been growing trend of web based conferencing. Web based conferencing piggybacks the Internet which allows you to conduct discussions, give presentations and hold meetings. There are a number of cases when people have used text based conference chats for such purposes. Today, voice and video based conferencing is also feasible thanks to increased bandwidth.
It is now possible to hold live discussions with more than one person even on video conference because the computers are powerful enough to process multiple video streams at once. Not to mention that increase in bandwidth has been all the more advantageous. There is no need to travel anywhere if you want to have a real time interaction with any person, face to face. Web based conferencing brings it all to the desktop or the laptop, whatever the case may be.
This is another reason for the increase in the penetration of laptops which come with integrated web cameras. Even the sub $400 Asus EEE PC which is gaining major acceptance in the world market comes with a integrated web cam. The speakers and the microphone became a standard accessory for the laptops ages ago. A number of people abstained from web based conferencing because of the cost and bulk of peripherals involved, but not anymore.
There are a number of web based conferencing. To begin with, the main advantage of web based conferencing is that it is cheap. Really cheap. There are a number of people who have not used conferencing because of the fact that traditional conferencing is really expensive. With web based conferencing, the costs have been reduced to that of your normal broadband connection. There is no need to worry about money in web based conferencing.
The second advantage is that there is no special equipment required. Most of the laptops and desktop computers come equipped with integrated web cameras, speaker and microphones. Unlike traditional conferencing, you do not have to worry about installation of a lot of equipment, all you have to install is a web conferencing software. If you have a relatively new computer, not even that, in most cases, it would have been installed already.
The third advantage of web based conferencing is that it can be performed from any place, provided you have fast enough internet connection. Most of the new computers are equipped with WiFi. The connection is fast enough to support web based conferencing with audio and video. You can be anywhere while you are doing web based conferencing, home, office even the nearest Starbucks, the possibilities are endless.
Web based conferencing has truly revolutionized the way people meet and communicate.
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