[BlueObelisk-discuss] Interested in testing out a web conferencing system?

[Noel O'Boyle]

Hello all,

I'm looking for a couple of people interested in trying out the open source
web conferencing system BigBlueButton (designed for distance learning).
This software, started in 2009, appears to work very well and combines
voice, video, slides, chat and desktop sharing. Given that the commercial
alternatives are out of reach for open source projects like Open Babel
etc., this system opens up the possibility of online conferences, tutorials
and meetings. The system allows recording, so that people who miss the
meeting or want to look at the tutorial afterwards can easily do so.

The only catch is that you need your own server (the hosting companies are
too expensive for occasional use). I've set up a server on EC2 and I need 5
or so people (no more) as volunteers to test it out, stress test it and
give some feedback. Hopefully, some of you will be interested in using it
yourselves and may even have the resources to provide a permanent server
for Blue Obelisk projects (hint hint).

So, get in touch on or off list and let me know. I note in advance that the
client requires Flash but is otherwise crossplatform, and a headset or just
a pair of ear phones will help avoid echo.

- Noel

[Peter Murray-Rust]

Post by Noel O'Boyle
Hello all,
I'm looking for a couple of people interested in trying out the open
source web conferencing system BigBlueButton (designed for distance
learning). This software, started in 2009, appears to work very well and
combines voice, video, slides, chat and desktop sharing. Given that the
commercial alternatives are out of reach for open source projects like Open
Babel etc., this system opens up the possibility of online conferences,
tutorials and meetings. The system allows recording, so that people who
miss the meeting or want to look at the tutorial afterwards can easily do
so.
The only catch is that you need your own server (the hosting companies are
too expensive for occasional use). I've set up a server on EC2 and I need 5
or so people (no more) as volunteers to test it out, stress test it and
give some feedback. Hopefully, some of you will be interested in using it
yourselves and may even have the resources to provide a permanent server
for Blue Obelisk projects (hint hint).
So, get in touch on or off list and let me know. I note in advance that
the client requires Flash but is otherwise crossplatform, and a headset or
just a pair of ear phones will help avoid echo.

Wonder if we could deploy this for the Skolnik symposium?? In august. Bob
Belford has experience with BBB. Or maybe this is too ambitious.

Post by Noel O'Boyle
- Noel
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[Noel O'Boyle]

Post by Peter Murray-Rust

Post by Noel O'Boyle
Hello all,
I'm looking for a couple of people interested in trying out the open
source web conferencing system BigBlueButton (designed for distance
learning). This software, started in 2009, appears to work very well and
combines voice, video, slides, chat and desktop sharing. Given that the
commercial alternatives are out of reach for open source projects like Open
Babel etc., this system opens up the possibility of online conferences,
tutorials and meetings. The system allows recording, so that people who
miss the meeting or want to look at the tutorial afterwards can easily do
so.
The only catch is that you need your own server (the hosting companies
are too expensive for occasional use). I've set up a server on EC2 and I
need 5 or so people (no more) as volunteers to test it out, stress test it
and give some feedback. Hopefully, some of you will be interested in using
it yourselves and may even have the resources to provide a permanent server
for Blue Obelisk projects (hint hint).
So, get in touch on or off list and let me know. I note in advance that
the client requires Flash but is otherwise crossplatform, and a headset or
just a pair of ear phones will help avoid echo.

Wonder if we could deploy this for the Skolnik symposium?? In august. Bob
Belford has experience with BBB. Or maybe this is too ambitious.

I haven't really considered the possibilities of BBB for remote talks, and
it's certainly not aimed at this audience (pardon the pun). I think that
for one-to-one audio, Skype is definitely ahead here (lower latency I
believe). Beyond the ability to advance the slides remotely, I can't see
any other additional advantages of BBB. A separate question is whether it
would be useful to allow remote attendees. You'd have to test this out.

BTW, I'm happy to explain how to setup BBB on EC2 (probably via a
blogpost). It costs about 15p an hour while running (possibily twice that
once I go over the bandwidth cap), but you only need to run it during a
meeting.

Post by Peter Murray-Rust

Post by Noel O'Boyle
- Noel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Developers, A Lot Can Happen In A Second.
Boundary is the first to Know...and Tell You.
Monitor Your Applications in Ultra-Fine Resolution. Try it FREE!
http://p.sf.net/sfu/Boundary-d2dvs2
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--
Peter Murray-Rust
Reader in Molecular Informatics
Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
CB2 1EW, UK
[phone]

[Robert E. Belford]

Noel,



Did I send you these links?

http://www.ccce.divched.org/blog/521



If you go to David Wild's Youtube and move it up to the 40 minute mark you
can see how we did the discussion. This used BBB for video and slides
(notice how David was able to annotate the slides and you can follow his
mouse during the talk), we used Skype for VOIP and Bandicam
(http://www.bandicam.com/ )to record it (there were actually 6 computers
participating in the seminar.) We used Skype Desktop sharing during Tony's
discussion and so we not able to record it as the free Skype only allows
that between two computers (and we were using a "ghost computer" to do the
recording). We now have given 4 remote seminar presentations using this
setup, and they all went real smooth.



What I can say is that when we first set up BBB we could only use it at UALR
(between machines on-campus - we were firewalled) and the VOIP and desktop
sharing were acceptable. But once we went off campus they were not
acceptable, and so I suspect it is a network traffic issue.



Also, that link goes to a blog concerning an NSF proposal for an
intercollegiate OLCC (OnLine College Course - an actual misnomer) on
Chemiinformatics, that may be funded, and if it is, I think it will be of
interest to many members of the BO.



Cheers,

Bob







From: Noel O'Boyle [mailto:***@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 9:21 AM
To: Peter Murray-Rust
Cc: BlueObelisk-Discuss
Subject: Re: [BlueObelisk-discuss] Interested in testing out a web
conferencing system?





On 24 April 2012 14:56, Peter Murray-Rust <***@cam.ac.uk> wrote:



On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 7:10 PM, Noel O'Boyle <***@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello all,

I'm looking for a couple of people interested in trying out the open source
web conferencing system BigBlueButton (designed for distance learning). This
software, started in 2009, appears to work very well and combines voice,
video, slides, chat and desktop sharing. Given that the commercial
alternatives are out of reach for open source projects like Open Babel etc.,
this system opens up the possibility of online conferences, tutorials and
meetings. The system allows recording, so that people who miss the meeting
or want to look at the tutorial afterwards can easily do so.

The only catch is that you need your own server (the hosting companies are
too expensive for occasional use). I've set up a server on EC2 and I need 5
or so people (no more) as volunteers to test it out, stress test it and give
some feedback. Hopefully, some of you will be interested in using it
yourselves and may even have the resources to provide a permanent server for
Blue Obelisk projects (hint hint).

So, get in touch on or off list and let me know. I note in advance that the
client requires Flash but is otherwise crossplatform, and a headset or just
a pair of ear phones will help avoid echo.


Wonder if we could deploy this for the Skolnik symposium?? In august. Bob
Belford has experience with BBB. Or maybe this is too ambitious.


I haven't really considered the possibilities of BBB for remote talks, and
it's certainly not aimed at this audience (pardon the pun). I think that for
one-to-one audio, Skype is definitely ahead here (lower latency I believe).
Beyond the ability to advance the slides remotely, I can't see any other
additional advantages of BBB. A separate question is whether it would be
useful to allow remote attendees. You'd have to test this out.

BTW, I'm happy to explain how to setup BBB on EC2 (probably via a blogpost).
It costs about 15p an hour while running (possibily twice that once I go
over the bandwidth cap), but you only need to run it during a meeting.




- Noel

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
For Developers, A Lot Can Happen In A Second.
Boundary is the first to Know...and Tell You.
Monitor Your Applications in Ultra-Fine Resolution. Try it FREE!
http://p.sf.net/sfu/Boundary-d2dvs2

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