Links 

Web Conferencing Review
 http://thinkofit.com/webconf/index.htm

Poetry Forge
 http://www.poetryforge.org

Saba Centra Suite
 http://www.saba.com/products/centra/

Moodle Electronic discussion
 http://moodle.com/

The current era of online collaborative publishing is drawing to a close.. Until recently educators, mostly at the college level, have placed journals for reading-only online or exchanged data tables and email (see the many cool projects in this library) or shared notebooks via local area networks. Businesses use groupware for publishing on proprietary networks. Some free software is available for interoperable, online collaborative publishing but its use is limited to higher end machines than schools can afford.

Centra combines audio conferencing, live application sharing, a collaborative whiteboard, breakout sessions, computer-based training, web tours, and threaded discussion forums. The live online conference capability is used most frequently with the quality of the audio depending upon each user's system.

Since the turn into the 21st century, interest in "open source" applications has grown. Users can share improvements and modifications in the actual software code. The Poetry Forge is one of the first open source archive for a content area. Truly tailoring educational software the style of a teacher and the interests of a particular class in combination with learner-based instruction may enhance the focus on exploration.

"Open Source" publishing seeks to increase accessibility by, say, doctor and patient and teacher and student, rather than restricting access. This philosophy has wide acceptance among Web devotees as well as opposition by those who want control of information.

Moodle is a course management system designed to help educators who want to create quality online courses. Moodle is open source and completely free to use.