Through web conferencing, there is an opportunity to chat and communicate with co-workers, even facilitate meetings, presentations and demonstrations. Web conferencing not just offers communication exchange but also allows participants to trade documents, share applications, access desktops, use whiteboards and PowerPoint.
How did this technology started?
Lucy P. Roberts, author of History of Web Conferencing – Multifunction Conferencing Comes of Age (2004) traced the roots of web conferencing long before there is internet.
The University of Illinois developed a system known as PLATO during the 1960s. This is for their Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (CERL). This is just a small system supporting just a single classroom of terminals connected to one mainframe computer. In 1972, the terminals being supported by PLATO increased to over a thousand.
Although PLATO was long before internet technology and it is mainly designed for computer-based education, it paved several communication features that became the foundation for web conferencing and instant messaging. PLATO Notes, was the worlds first online messaging boards, while...