Web conferencing refers to a service that allows conferencing events to be shared with remote locations. In general the service is made possible by Internet technologies, particularly on TCP/IP connections. The service allows real-time point-to-point communications as well as multicast communications from one sender to many receivers. It offers information of text-based messages, voice and video chat to be shared simultaneously, across geographically dispersed locations. Applications for web conferencing include meetings, training events, lectures, or short presentations from any computer. Real-time text chat facilities such as IRC appeared in the late 1980s. Web-based chat and instant messaging software appeared in the mid-1990s. In the late 1990s, the first true web conferencing capability became available from Starlight Networks StarLive product and dozens of other web conferencing venues, most notably WebEx followed thereafter. A trademark
for the term "webinar" was registered in 1998 by Eric R. Korb (Serial
Number 75478683, USPTO) but was difficult to defend; it is currently
assigned to InterCall.
Web conferencing started with Plato, a small standalone system that
supports a single class of terminals connected to a central computer.[10]