Web based meeting -- let the Internet speed collaboration

September 22, 2023
By:  Ben Davidson

Conducting a meeting over the web can save lots of time and money. No matter how far away the participants may be from each other, they can easily assemble and collaborate online. In order to make a web based meeting happen, you’ll need the right web collaboration and web conferencing technologies.

Web collaboration offers powerful options

Web based meetings require varying levels of collaboration between participants, and can be divided into three basic levels: communication, conferencing, and collaboration. Collaborative meetings often prioritize shared document work, with changes being implemented online in real time.

Web collaboration tools, often in the form of software known as groupware, make it all possible. If your business would like to discuss an ongoing project with long-distance clients, and possibly make changes to documents online, there exist several application types to do the job.

Web-based tools within specially designed collaborative web sites facilitate the completion of several tasks. Here are a few:

• Data conferencing that allows users a “whiteboard” modification ability
• Conference discussions via voice and video conferencing
• Project and knowledge management

One nice aspect of web-based collaboration tools is that no software is needed, minimizing the chance of possible hardware or platform conflicts, and there are many open source and retail web collaboration solutions available.

Not all web collaboration solutions are client server though. There are a number of proprietary software applications out there too.

Web conferencing for online presentations

Discussions and presentations are the focus here. Instead of flying a few hundred miles to give clients your new PowerPoint presentation, why not just do so from the office? Thanks to web conferencing, your audience can view your slides directly on their screen, and communicate with you either via chat or VoIP.

Of course, a visual presentation may not be the only function required. Maybe you’d like to conduct a survey or poll of your clients to improve customer satisfaction, or discuss business strategies with colleagues in other offices.

Like web collaboration applications, web conferencing is available as a server-based solution (where the pricing for retail apps is either a usage or fixed-fee model) or as a software installed licensed product. If your business plans on having frequent web conferences, you’ll want to consider the latter option.

In 2005 alone, the Wall Street Journal cited industry specialists who predict over 107 million people are expected to participate in online meetings. Will you be one of them?

About the Author
Ben Davidson is a successful freelance writer and contributor to Web-Conferencing-Zone.com.  Your definitive guide to web conferencing services, online collaboration software and web meetings for business.