Cooperative Web - Overview

Overview

A convergence is occurring between various technologies associated with the notion of live web meetings. The phrase Web conferencing has been used to describe group discussions over the internet. These discussions are often implemented using Synchronous conferencing protocols and are commonly used for webinars, where one meeting participant lectures to other participants while presenting some information that is rendered to all participants by a common client application (web or fat client). The term Telepresence refers to a set of technologies which allow a person to feel as if they were present, to give the appearance that they were present, or to have an effect, at a location other than their true location. Telepresence requires that the senses of the user, or users, are provided with such stimuli as to give the feeling of being in that other location. Additionally, the user(s) may be given the ability to affect the remote location. As the analysts at IDC describe, the goal is to create a sensory experience that communicates the full range of human interactions in a live meeting.

While many Telepresence solutions have focused on the ambiance aspects of remote meeting environments and while most web conferencing solutions have focused on the integration of webinar and telephony features into collaboration software offerings/services, little has been done to simulate or reflect the asynchronous or simultaneous aspects of live meetings over the internet. Ideally what is required is a set of technologies that enrich communications with sensory elements that provide a just-like-being-there experience for live meetings. The sensory experience should include a range of sight, sound, and touch interactions. However, the current state of web conferencing and telepresence solutions focus mainly on the sight and sound aspects of a meeting and fall short on the interaction capabilities of participants. Moreover, web conferencing and telepresence solutions are typically not vendor neutral and tend to be pricey.

Interestingly, users have the ability to incorporate webinar capabilities into an Immersive or Adaptive Telepresence solution to extend meeting attendance. Yet this injection of Telepresence Lite capabilities all along the Telepresence solution spectrum still does not address support for simultaneous interactions with the material being presented in a meeting.

Orthogonal to this convergence in the technologies that support live web meetings, the web browser platform has evolved to a point whereby the mediation of user interactions amongst meeting attendees is possible. The common browser has raised the bar of expectation by users. Regardless of your browser of choice, your ability to access web applications simply and efficiently has become the norm. The overall browser experience has improved due in part by the broad adoption of web standards by browser providers and by the sheer economics and reach of the web browser platform. Essentially, the browser has evolved into the ubiquitous application container for the web.