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BigBlueButton
BigBlueButton is an open source real-time collaboration tool. (Audio / Video / Screensharing / Chat / Whiteboard / Recording), which is built upon several open source components and with a focus on distance education.Key features of the Tiki & BigBlueButton integration
- 1-click login into BigBlueButton using Tiki user system
- Various permissions on the BigBlueButton session via Tiki's permission and group system
- Listing BigBlueButton recordings in Tiki.
The Tiki community Dogfoods BigBlueButton at tiki.org/live.
The Tiki community has been testing BigBlueButton for this type of live collaboration and members of the community have decided to enter in a long-term integration partnership to maintain it as a Tiki feature, starting in Tiki5.
Tiki 5.0 supports BBB 0.64, and Tiki 5.1 (and later) supports both BBB .64 and .7
Tiki 8.0 adds support for the new features of BigBlueButton 0.8, such as record and playback. (and continues to support previous versions of BBB)
click to enlarge
BigBlueButton users need to have Flash. For the server, a dedicated server is needed. BigBlueButton is licensed LGPL, just like Tiki.
More info at: http://bigbluebutton.org/
Table of contents
About the integration
Similar to Kaltura, BigBlueButton needs to be installed alongside Tiki (can be on a different physical server). Each project remains standalone, and we'll collaborate to continuously improve the glueware between the two.At first, Single Sign On, but over time, we expect that many features will meld. The Tiki community will DogFood extensively. Tiki8 integrated the new record and playback features from BigBlueButton 0.8
Set-up
Before setting up the tiki integration, the BigBlueButton server stack must be installed. Detailed instructions are provided for multiple platforms. However, using the provided virtual machine is the easiest way to go. Also note that there are heavy bandwidth requirements.
To enable the integration in tiki, you need the following information:
- The BigBlueButton server location.
- The server salt — a secret token used to generate call signatures. This value is located inside the bigbluebutton.properties file on the BigBlueButton server.
Creating rooms
The user interface for BigBlueButton goes through a wiki plugin. You can use it in wiki pages or most wiki-parsed text areas. To schedule meetings on a calendar, you can use the calendar feature.Sample
{bigbluebutton name=My Meeting Room}If the server location was configured successfully, the BigBlueButton logo will appear. A create button will be proposed to create the new room (a permission is required, but administrators have all permissions). If the salt was set-up correctly, you will be redirected to the meeting room.
Going back to the plugin, you can set-up the permissions to select who can join the meeting room or moderate it.
More info at PluginBigBlueButton
Asterisk
To use the voip feature when using a room name instead of a number:Change
open the config:
sudo nano /etc/asterisk/bbb_extensions.conf
then replace:
exten => _XXXX.,1,Playback(conf-placeintoconf)
with:
exten => _.,1,Playback(conf-placeintoconf)
and replace:
exten = _XXXX.,n,Konference(${EXTEN},H)
with:
exten = _.,n,Konference(${EXTEN},H)
Than reboot the Big Blue Button server with bbb-conf --restart.
note: if you don't have nano installed use sudo apt-get install nanoUses
This will help with several related but slightly different uses.Webinars / e-learning
Scheduled, live, interactive, one to many delivery of knowledge. The session could be one time (webinar) or an ongoing course with a regular schedule. This is BigBlueButton's core objective "our focus is to make the best web conferencing system for distance education."Remote support
A visitor clicks a link on a brochure website and is put in contact with a representative of the organization. This is similar to Tiki's Live Support feature (ad hoc 1 on 1 chat help support), but with BigBlueButton's feature set, there are way more possibilities (screen sharing, co-browsing, etc.)Team meetings
Useful for Teams to meet & coordinate. These are typically scheduled and have an agenda (presumably in a wiki page). Ideally, decisions are recorded (presumably in a wiki page). Everyone can be on audio & webcam. Headsets are recommended.Broadcasting live events
This will be useful during TikiFests. A projector can be setup at the live event so all participants can see everyone and follow the discussion on the chat. Typically, remote participants can listen in, but will respond in the text chat. (Just because of logistics and ambient noise).- An alternative is http://www.ustream.tv/user/tikiwiki
- An example: TikiFestBigBlueButton
Community chat
This is the place to go to hang out with "everyone". It's on 24/7 and can be idle for long whiles. It should be logged as a lot of knowledge, answers and links are shared there. Quick "decisions" are often taken there as well (ask a quick question and if everyone seems ok with it, it must be ok). Even if some users may be identified with special rights (ex.: ops), the room is very p2p. It's possible to break out of the room into a smaller one for a short, focused or private discussion. Historically, we use irc.tiki.org but we could eventually develop an IRC to BigBlueButton gateway.Surveillance camera
Typically a video stream which can be monitored and recorded.Related links
- http://bigbluebutton-blog.blogspot.com/2010/08/pictures-from-tikifestbigbluebutton.html
- http://bigbluebutton-blog.blogspot.com/2010/04/tiki-wiki-looking-closely-at.html
- dev:BigBlueButton
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