Testing desktop conferencing with the big blue button

A very common request from staff has been for desktop conferencing to run webinars, 1-2-1 support, e-workshops etc., Infact, a session was run successfully with a presenter in the USA and the rest of the group in Ipswich last week (more to follow from Aaron).

The Elevate Team have been investigating various software to meet this need given our resources. We've been exploring the wonders of the "Big Blue Button" (http://www.bigbluebutton.org/), an open source desktop conferencing solution. As part of this evaluation, we are going to run a webinar (desktop conference) on Thursday 14th April, 11.30 to 11.45. I've not decided on the topic, but the user requirements are as follows;

• deliver to a teaching room in Waterfront building (project, audio, and allow them to ask questions)


• deliver to a number of desktops machines in UCS Ipswich


• deliver a presentation (powerpoint), with a quick demo (walk through of a web site - share desktop), and run a question and answer session.

The aim is to see if it works, and how straight forward it is for the presenter and the audience. If you'd like to take part, please email us elevate@ucs.ac.uk, with the subject ... e-conferencing

You will need a set of headphones, and you'll need to be on the UCS Ipswich campus (as the software is installed on our development server and we've limited this to certain networks).