Bulletin Boards and Conferences

A Bulletin Board( BBS)

 An electronic forum that hosts posted messages and articles related to a common subject.


They have been around since 1978. Basically it is a replica of a board found in schools, offices etc which display notices, adverts and messages to be posted. They have changed a lot since the first BBS which looks like the picture below.

Now you can add in pictures and videos.
Yahoo groups are an example of a bulletin board where a user logs in and posts a questions they want to be answered. Other users can view this and answer it.

Conferences

Traditional conferences mean participants have to travel and stay in a particular place. This takes time and is expensive. But an online conference uses the Internet as a conference venue. This means that participants can access the conference from anywhere in the world and can do this at any time, using standard browser software.


Advantages

• cheap- no accomadation or travel costs to pay for
• you can have a conference from anywhere as long as you have internet connection
• people can be hired from anywhere as they can work from anywhere with online conferences.
• time saving

Disadvantages

• It may take time to learn and get used to these new technologies
• you may find yourself playing solitaire in another browser.
  
  
  
• If your web meeting provider doesn't have a good security system, you could be allowing access to your most important files to anyone with an internet connection.

Example of a conference group is 'GoToMeeting'