In general, online conferences occur in a specific timeframe (usually a small number of weeks) during which there is some form of interaction available between participants and presenters using some form of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC).

There will usually be a website that is used to advertise, register and promote the conference and then record the event as it happens. This website will often remain after the conference and be available as an ongoing resource.

Participation in an online conference takes considerable time and although there is much flexibility in when the time is spent, it still needs to be planned for.

Some specific examples of online conferences are featured below.

• Issues in Online Education - The Third Annual TCC-L Online Conference
This conference was advertised on email discussion lists two months before the event. People were invited to "register" for the conference which involved filling in an online form.

People were kept informed of conference updates via messages to an email list and a website recorded the details of the program and speakers. At the time of the conference, presenters were available for interaction via web forums. After the conference a website acted as proceedings for the conference and also included the social activities and a record of the discussions.

Visit the web archive and have some fun!

The previous two conferences are also available.

• IFIP'96 Home Page - International Federation for Information Processing 1996 conference - Practicing what we Preach
• NetWorking 97 - an ANTA conference that focussed on flexible delivery. There was a face to face conference in Adelaide and a parallel online conference that started before and ran afterwards covering the same conference streams. The website that remains does not contain all of the content but is enough to give you an idea.

A short evaluation of the conference is also available

Conference Models for the Future was the featured article in the ONLINE-ED bulletin on April 9, 1998. It gives valuable background and insight into some unique features of the NW97 conference.