Question

I would like to integrate a “virtual blackboard” functionality with my e-learning website. I would like users to be able to participate in “meetings”, with the following functionality:

• chat (optionaly voice chat/videochat)
• virtual blackboard (collaborative drawing)
• screensharing (so one of the users can present material like pictures to other users)
• ideally Flash or Java applet based (so users wouldn’t have to install any additional software – but this is not a requirement, as long as setup wouldn’t be too cumbersome)

I guess there are no free solutions, so I’m looking for a paid one. It would be best if users didn’t have to set up separate accounts to participate in meetings. Perhaps they could just click on a link with the meeting id.

I googled a little and looked at Adobe Connect Pro. Are there any alternatives that you can recommend?

Answer 1

Checkout BigBlueButton http://www.bigbluebutton.org/

BigBlueButton is an active open source
project that focuses on usability,
modularity, and clean design — both
for the user and the developer. The
project is hosted at Google Code
http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/