Business units are increasingly exploring cost-effective approaches for disseminating visual training materials and dynamic marketing materials. The Web is becoming a replacement for traditional approaches such as shipping CDs or in-class training sessions. IT departments must work with these units to produce, manage, and distribute these materials. The first step towards project success is recognizing that Web conferencing and Webcasting are different and that quality is expensive.

Webcasting or Web Conferencing

There are two distinct types of visual communication on the Web. Each can be used for both training and marketing purposes but they differ drastically in terms of technology requirements. IT departments often get called in to help other business units facilitate the choice.

Webcasting can be referred to as one-to-many communication. With Webcasting, a production team creates some sort of visual material (typically a talking head video combined with presentation slides) and then stores it on a server. Users such as employees...