WAP

See Wireless Application Protocol.

Web Collaboration and Conferencing

Using a web-based system for workgroup collaboration and conferencing no matter how far apart the participants may be.

For years, conferencing technology has been out of step with its time. Visual conferencing in particular - both interactive video and data sharing - illustrates this sense of anachronism. On one hand, the promise of an application like videoconferencing could hardly be in greater demand. What business, for instance, that is to any degree a distributed organization would not benefit from some form of remote visual communication among its own members and with its customers? And yet, for all that potential efficiency and (let s be honest) just plain sexiness, the technology has decidedly failed to make it big.

Some simple, if not comprehensive, reasons for this are well known: It s too expensive, it s too difficult to use, and it s too limited in scope. No matter how developed the technology becomes, and how much the quality improves, these basic barriers will still prevent the majority of businesses from deploying products and services they would theoretically love to have.

So why, despite all this negativity, has the mood of longtime players and new entrants in the conferencing industry lately been one of excitement and creative energy? The Net, of course. Conferencing, as much if not more than any other form of communication, stands to gain from the influence of IP and the Web. Integrating conferencing apps into an IP infrastructure can solve many of the...