At least one of the participants is designated as the organizer--or moderator--of the conference. Organizers are responsible for the management and overall success of a conference in much the same way as leaders of face-to-face meetings (classroom discussions).
The online discussions in a conference are called "items." After you read an item you are prompted for a "response"--which is appended to that item.
In some conferencing software the system keeps track of which discussion items and responses each particpant has seen and participants are automatically informed when new items or responses have been added to the conference. It can feel like you are interacting in ongoing conversations with other participants--even though you are not physically in the same place, nor are all participants "online" at the same time.
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All contents copyright (C) 1995, Rene Hales and Trish Smith. All rights reserved.
Revised: June 21, 1996