Webinar Key Terms

Learn the basic terms assosciated with webinars

By Nikki Wheeler

Through use of a webinar, the Internet has provided the opportunity for important conferences and meetings to be held among many people from any location. A webinar is like broadcasting a program over the Internet for meeting attendees to watch simultaneously, and it provides the ability for attendees to contribute as if they were in a face-to-face meeting.

Use webinars as an inexpensive alternative for many things such as training employees, conducting long-distance business meetings, making sales presentations or as a marketing tool for finding new business. Understand the following webinar key terms before beginning to explore the options in web conferencing.

Webinar

A webinar is a web-based seminar that features audio and video elements and the ability for interaction among all of the viewers.
Try: Find an in-depth definition for webinar provided by Communique Conferencing.

Webinar service provider

A technology firm specializing in web conferencing will provide the tools needed to produce a webinar by either allowing you to purchase software to run your own webinars, or by hosting a webinar directly through the company's website.
Try: Read about the three largest webinar providers at Global Conferencing Solutions to compare all the different service options available and learn what to expect from a provider.

Webinar software

Webinar software combines communication technologies that make it possible for audio, video, text and interactive tools to work congruently across the Internet.
Try: Look at the webinar software guidelines offered at Miguel Carrasco's Real World.

Audio conferencing

The audio conferencing portion of webinars allows the presenter to be heard by all webinar attendees at the same time in one of the following ways: over a telephone line, streamed through the website, via satellite or moderated by an operator.
Try: Learn about various audio conferencing options available for webinars at WebEx.com.

Video conferencing

A video presentation is what sets webinars apart from simple telephone conferences where a live video of the presenter can be streamed through the web. This is done with a series of slides, or with high-quality equipment for television-quality video.
Try: Find various video options available for webinars explained at Coreography.

Webinar archiving

Archiving a webinar means converting to a file format that allows it to be saved for record purposes, or to be viewed later using minimal computer memory.
Try: Learn about webinar archiving by reading the FAQs about web archiving at Confluence.