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Web conferencing software is used by organizations and businesses to conduct meetings without the bother and hassle of traveling or flying.
Most web conference softwares encompasses a number of features, ranging from real time text messaging (such as Internet Relay Chat or Instant Messaging) to collaborative file access to whiteboard products, where people can “draw” on a shared whiteboard. Some even support live audio and video conferencing.
Picking the right online conferencing software requires a realistic assessment of your organizational needs. For most small organizations, instant messenger programs, such as AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo Instant Messenger, are quite sufficient and have the advantage of being free or supported by advertising.
Interoperability between assorted Instant Messenger Services isn’t always assured, though all of the major ones are working towards this as a standard.
Most will support webcam operations and as of this writing, all of them support voice transmission, though sound quality leaves something to be desired.
Another need to consider is whether or not the software will run on the computer system(s) you have or that your collaborators have.
If one of your participants is on a Macintosh and the rest are on PCs, you’re pretty much limited to AOL Instant Messenger, for example. There are open source software web conferencing software solutions, most written in Java, that have some cross platform capability.
Among the ones we’ve reviewed and can recommend are 1-4-U Conferencing Systems and A+ Conferencing, which have builds that can be compiled for Windows PCs and Linux machines, as well as Mac clients.
Both of these programs offer video, audio and text chatting, plus logging, so that participants need not take notes.
Making these programs work does require the ability to compile code on your machine – they offer step by step instructions on how to do this, but you’re going to need to take them on a bit of faith or have a guru handy if it doesn’t work straight up.
Neither of these web conferencing software packages allow shared whiteboards, so if you need that, these won’t work for you.
Also, unless you’re using Microsoft NetMeeting, it’s very hard to do a shared PowerPoint or Excel presentation where participants can modify the data, though Google Spreadsheets is making that less of a concern, as is Writely.
While not technically part of a web conferencing software package, both are browser based applications that allow direct collaboration on the document for everyone with appropriate access privileges.
Compared to Microsoft Word or Excel, they’re lacking in some features, like VB scripting and inline spell checking, but for most people discussing financials and needing to show hypothetical situations during a conference call where everyone has access to the internet anyway, they’re a good enough solution that has the advantage of being free to the end user.
In conclusion, there are several web conferencing software solutions
 that are free, offer video and audio solutions and allow shared data collaboration in real time or near real time. Take a look at your organizational needs to determine which ones work best for you.
Related article: Web Conferencing Services - From Free To Audio and Video Secure Service
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