[clue-tech] Open Source Conferencing overview and questions

[Crawford Rainwater]

Remarks below.

----- YES NOPE9 <yes at nope9.com> wrote: -----
> 
> I submit to the CLUE group since CLUE is looking at incorporating
> meeting conferencing into it's web package. There is no attempt to
> make this an exhaustive overview. CLUE is currently switching it's web
> presence over to Drupal. http://drupal.org/ Moodle is an educational
> delivery package I have been using for a few years. http://moodle.org/
> 
> Thanks go to Crawford at http://linux-etc.com/ for his contributions
> to Drupal , BBB and OpenMeetings.
> 

You are welcome. ;-)

> I will see if I can establish a blog or similar on the CLUE website
> covering Drupal and conferencing developments.
> 

For future Forum's perhaps?

> Experiments with wireless microphones ( sub $100 ) worked well. Two
> wireless mics were run at the same time successfully. Several webcams
> were tried with success. The LogiTech C910 and the LogiTech Orbit
> worked well.
> 

Nice to hear.

> A desired feature would be the ability to
> #1 Choose one of several cameras attached to one laptop to be the one
> being used. This allows multiple views.
> #2 Choose one of several audio sources attached to one laptop to be
> the one being used. This allows multiple sources.
> #3 Be able to control pan , tilt and zoom for a camera such as the
> LogiTech Orbit.
> 

See my comments about changing such within the Flash settings might be "the next test" to try here for #1 and #2.  As for #3 I have mixed feelings on this in general since this would essentially give remote access control of my system to another if my camera was "active".  I believe OpenMeetings though has this feature of "remote control" which could do such essentially though.  BBB does not at this time have such features.

> There are more features that are desired and will mentioned once a
> blog or similar is established on the CLUE site.
> 

Work in progress, see above reference to perhaps Forum page on such.

> DimDim
> Dimdim was acquired by Salesforce.com according to a recent
> announcement. 2011m01d11
> While Dimdim will discontinue supporting the open source code at
> Sourceforge.net [http://sourceforge.net/projects/dimdim/] it?s
> possible that other developers could continue to maintain that branch
> or utilize that code as a foundation for a new open source webinar
> tool.
> 

DimDim's SourceForge code as I understand it has been dated a bit.  DimDim (corporate) allegedly stopped feeding back into the Open Source community.  Said allegations were back in June 2010 IIRC.  With that said, I would personally question the future of the DimDim code from an Open Source perspective unless folks wanted to partake in such.

> 
> WebEx
> http://www.webex.com
> I have not found an open source version of WebEx
> 

WebEx is a "service" or more a "hosted service provider".  While a conference can work under Linux with Java, there have been more "issues" versus other operating systems accessing a WebEx provided conference.

> BigBlueButton
> http://www.bigbluebutton.org/
> 
> CLUE is investigating this as a conferencing solution. BBB is said to
> connect with Moodle and Drupal.
> Several tests of BBB have been run. One at an installfest and one at a
> DTC meeting. The first was encouraging. The second was not as much.
> Bandwidth and other unknowns may be a factor. BBB did not knock out
> any competitors.
> 

So the "first" run being the CLUE meeting with David A was encouraging then, correct?  I noticed David A. had some remarks on the DeVry bandwidth since I receive this list in Digest format which might elaborate on things.  Oracle...well, I suspect there is not much of a bandwidth issue there perhaps. ;-)

> OpenMeetings
> CLUE did some testing at the 2011m01d22 installfest at DTC. All I can
> say is that OM did not knock out any other contenders.
> 

First run of OpenMeetings ("OM").  There are some folks with the Boulder LUG who are doing similar "test runs" with Linux ETC's BBB and OM systems since they requested features that OM had that BBB did not currently have (e.g., recording a presentation).

What I will also toss into the mix is now..."cost" or "price".  Linux ETC is willing to provide BBB and/or OM for CLUE's use as a donation (i.e., free as in "free beer").  WebEx and former DimDim would be at a cost I suspect.  I admit, I normally save "price factor" as the last item to decide going with something after getting all of the other aspects researched and addressed first, but I wanted to throw this out there.

FWIW.

--- Crawford

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