BigBlueButton
BigBlueButton is an open source web conferencing system designed for online learning. BigBlueButton is a tool used by instructors, which helps them access to Learning Management Systems, engagement tools and analytics. History. In 2007 the project was started at Carleton University by the Technology Innovation Management program. The first version was written by Richard Alam (it was initially called the Blindside project) under the supervision of Tony Bailetti. BigBlueButton is an affiliate member of the Open Source Initiative. The BigBlueButton name comes from the initial concept that starting a web conference should be as simple as pressing a metaphorical  big blue button. In 2009 Richard Alam, Denis Zgonjanin, and Fred Dixon uploaded the BigBlueButton source code to Google Code and formed Blindside Networks, a company pursuing the traditional open source business model of providing paid support and services to the BigBlueButton community. In 2010 the core developers added a whiteboard for annotating the uploaded presentation. Jeremy Thomerson added an application programming interface (API) which the BigBlueButton community subsequently used to integrate with Sakai, In 2011 the core developers announced they were adding record and playback capabilities to BigBlueButton 0.80. In 2020 the project released BigBlueButton 2.2, a full rewrite  of the client and server to support HTML5. In March 2020 BigBlueButton 2.2 was awarded by the President of the ENTD, Pasquale Aiello, as the best web conferencing system and used in the project UNIOPEN approved by the European Commission for Digital Skills and Job Coalition action plan. Features. The platform allows for audio, webcams, slide and screen sharing between participants. The platform allows the instructors to use multi-user whiteboard, breakout rooms, chat (public and private), polling, shared notes, random user selector, emojis. Analytics. The latest version 2.4 provides the instructor a live dashboard of student attendance, engagement, and  learning, which is based on responses to polls. The analytics tracks: Architecture. As a web page application, BigBlueButton front-end uses React and the backend uses MongoDB and Node.js. It also uses Redis to maintain an internal list of its meetings, attendees, and any other relevant information. The BigBlueButton server runs on Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit and can be installed either from packages or install script. Integration. BigBlueButton is natively built-into the codebase for Instructure Canvas, Schoology, Jenzabar eLearn, and Moodle 4.0. Adoption among non-profits. In 2020 BBB has been adopted by many FLOSS focused non-profits including  Wikimedia Australia, Constant vzw and new FLOSS focused coops like Catalan's The Online Meeting Cooperative. In France it is recommended since may 2020 by the Digital Interministry Direction defining the state's information and communication systems.