Linux usable Live Meeting - like or Webex-like online collaboration

[Dan Ritter]

On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 12:40:58PM -0500, Jerry Feldman wrote:
> I am looking for a way that the Boston User Groups board members can
> conduct an online meeting to include features like voice as well as a
> web interface where we can post an agenda, add elements to the agenda,
> and have the secretary prepare the meeting report. We can get Windows
> Live Meeting free, but AFAIK, there are no live meeting clients that are
> usable from Linux. I have looked at
> http://www.btconferencing.com/btc/infocentre/guides/web/msolm/webaccess/?sel=gSched&sec=gWeb
> <http://www.btconferencing.com/btc/infocentre/guides/web/msolm/webaccess/?sel=gSched&sec=gWeb>
> 
> While the BT conferencing package "supports" Unix, one of the
> limitations is no audio. One of the problems we have had is that our
> president has an online conferencing phone number, but he was tied up in
> Colorado and we did not have a way to carry on a meeting without him.
> 
> My personal requirements:
> 1. Must support audio using Linux, Mac, or Windows systems
> 2. Must support some time of blackboarding capability other than simply
> sharing a desktop.
> 3. Should be able to list who is online similar to Webex, but not a
> requirement.
> I don't know how we would end up using it since we have some very
> different types of board members (including one who actually works in a
> Jail - he is an it manager).
> 
> For audio only something like Skype would work, but the Skype Linux
> client is a bit old, but does work in Fedora 12 and Ubuntu 9.10.
> While I would prefer OpenSource, that is not a requirement. We would be
> willing to pay a small fee or add a sponsorship on the BUG website.

It's reasonably easy to set up an Asterisk system to do voice
conferencing; if everyone uses SIP clients, it will be free, or
you can do cheap telephone calls with any number of gateway
services.

There are any number of free or cheap web whiteboard services --
the first to come to mind is Skrbl -- http://www.skrbl.com

-dsr-




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