Bulletin Board Software

Bulletin board systems were the precursor to today's message boards, online forums and chat rooms, and web conferencing software. They were the virtual equivalent of a cork board where people post information with thumbtacks. Instead of walking up to a bulletin board and reading the notes, the BBS user would connect his or her computer to the host computer by modem over a telephone line.

Then the user would be able to read and post messages, send and receive email or download files and sometimes play single-user online games. Most BBSs could only support one user online at a time. They were often run by hobbyists and the services were usually just the price of a phone call although some communities charged for them. Bulletin boards were regional rather than worldwide like the Internet is today.

Since the World Wide Web has become so popular, bulletin board systems have died down although they are still maintained by hobbyists and special interest groups. Think of them like a mini-internet where you have to connect to the bulletin board through special software. Many of them can now be accessed through telnet while others are web enabled. This way people who are new to BBSs can use them with a web browser.

Forum and Message Board Software

Today's forum software performs a similar task to the old-fashioned bulletin boards. It allows people to post and respond to messages, often on a specific topic of interest. If you are in the market for forum software, carefully consider your needs before looking at price. There are dozens of applications and literally hundreds of features available.

Support and reliability, hardware requirements, advertising integration and how much you can customize the software are just a few things to think about. Other important considerations are whether you want threaded or serial postings, whether you want users to log in with a password, allowing html or attachments or not, and whether to email users when somebody replies to their posts.

Web conferencing software is another descendant of the bulletin boards of yesteryear. With it, you can log into a conference over the Internet without having to leave your office. It saves plenty of time and travel expenses and its features go beyond simple chat software. Again, deciding on the key features and capabilities you need before looking at price will help you find the best conferencing software to fit your company's needs.

Web Conferencing Features

While chat is at the heart of conferencing, conferencing software provides sound and graphics as well as text. You also have options such as presentations, a whiteboard, polling and file sharing. Hosted web conferencing services exist but many companies are finding they use them so much that purchasing server-based software works even better and costs less in the long run.

Web conferencing shows other attendees live content that you have on your computer. It could be a PowerPoint presentation, a software demonstration, or other information. Often, web conferencing is done in conjunction with a regular telephone conference call so attendees can talk to each other. However, voiceover IP is changing that. Conferencing software can also be accompanied by popular instant messaging applications.