The main aim and benefit of webcams has been to provide teleconferencing (remote videoconferencing) 
 between two or more humans. That is to say, allowing real-time visual as well as audio links between
 parties at a distance.
The webcam is at the cheaper end of the technologies available for this: Personal Computer World
 June 2000 quotes, "For as little as £30 you can use a low-resolution 'golfball' shaped camera 
 (often with a built-in microphone) to perform low-quality videoconferencing over Ethernet, ISDN
 and dial-up connections, either directly or over the Internet. The picture quality is crude, the
 audio disastrous, but to be fair, it is seldom ever hyped as being any better on the box." 
However, by all accounts today's webcams are simple to install and operate as an accessory to a
 PC, and _can_ provide a viable alternative to physically travelling to meetings, either personal 
 or business.