Webinar. What Webinar?

Given that Raspberry Pi is an open-source beastie, I'd suggest a more open webinar system perhaps. I don't have anything in particular in mind. My Linux browsers complained about the Java (sending me to Oracle to resolve the issue), and complained about the audio.  Oracle Java has licensing issues, and my audio works fine over the web with just about everything else I've tried...

Message was edited by: Kevin Cole

Message was edited by: Kevin Cole

I joined the webinar in plenty of time (almost half an hour in advance) but the webinar software seems distinctly flaky.  It complained I didn't have audio (untrue), and refused to show me anything other than a list of the speakers.  I tried dialling in to the 0800 number given, but although that got me audio it wasn't a lot of use without the pictures.

Altogether a pretty naff software solution.  Please don't use it again.

John

Unfortunately I didn't make it to the live showing (2 a.m my time), however I'm suprised about the reports of Webex failing. Webex are owned by Cisco and I have used it in another life for demonstrating medical pathology slides (2TB images) to researchers amd medical staff world wide - it always performed OK apart from the one hospital that was still on dial up and a weird exchange system.

What is confusing if Webex someone hasn't used Webex before is that it isn't always apparent which page you should be looking at and how if you've clicked on the list of participants by mistake how to get back to the actual event.

I have both Firefox and 11.0 and IE9 installed, and Webex does seem to work better with IE with those versions. There is also a Webex Player that some events require which can be downloaded and installed.

Although it's generalizing, all proprietary systems are doomed to be flakey, non-portable, and permanently giving people headaches.

Webex is a good example of this.  And, given Cisco's litigation-based "business plan" for Webex, it's not going to get any better in the future.  I would tend to recommend to Element 14 that they stick to open standards, even if it means a reduction in bullet points.  At least open standards reduce the headaches at the same time.

I have both Firefox and 11.0 and IE9 installed, and Webex does seem to work better with IE with those versions.

I think you may have put your finger on it there.  It looks like this is an application which is thoroughly tested for Windows, but whilst it provides token Linux support it's a bit touch-and-go whether it works or not.

I was using Debian Squeeze with Firefox.  I checked the hardware and software requirements in advance.  It said I would need Flash and the test for Flash worked fine.  (I use the official version.)  When I came to join the webinar however, it seemed to download a Java application instead.  This ran but refused to show the webinar.

It would be good if there were a way to test in advance whether the software is working.  It's really annoying to find out only once the thing has started that the software doesn't work, then spend half the time of the event hunting through the rather sketchy help to see if you can find anything.

I did find one knowledge-base article which said that the software wouldn't work on Windows 7 unless you had something plugged into your microphone port (huh, what?!)  I tried plugging a microphone in and restarting in case the same bug affects the Linux version but that didn't help.

Thank you to the person who put a copy on Youtube.  It was a gently informative talk.  Pity about the technology failure.

John

I've often had no luck with Webex in other browsers than IE - just curious if any of you have have better luck with any other webinar programs that you've used and prefer over Webex?  Any "open source" suggestions get bonus points!   I'd like to share with the team here who hosts the webinars so we can look at using it in the future. 

Thanks for your ideas and feedback!

Nicole, element14 Community Manager

I couldn't get on to the Webinar at all with either Chrome or Firefox (Am on Lubuntu 11.10). Then saw tweet from element14 with alternative url. Got in first time.

Anything that's based on Internet standards is always well supported on all platforms, so really all it requires is to decide what media types you want to provide and then pick Internet standards that implement it.  This is typically more "hassle" than just buying in a proprietary integrated solution like Webex, but it almost always works better across the very diverse populations of the Internet.

As an example, to implement something like the recent "Webinar" (a word that takes days off my life every time I hear it), you want at least an audio/video stream and a bidirectional chat channel.  The main Internet standards for these media types are very well known (RTSP, RTP, IRC, XMPP) and extremely widely supported by both proprietary and open source server-side solutions.

I know very little about proprietary ones, but open source streaming of both video and audio is typically done with Icecast, while ircd or ejabberd are commonly used for the chat stream.  (I'd also add an additional audio-only stream for accessibility, or for those who want to listen on the move and don't have video-capable smartphones, or simply as fallback when video fails.)

The main fly in the ointment is that you need a local techie to configure it all, instead of just paying a company like Webex.  OTOH, a techie is just a contract hire away, even if you have no in-house tech to spare.

Morgaine.

PS. Just found another open source video streaming system --- http://goalbit.sourceforge.net/  -- don't know anything about it though.

Anything that's based on Internet standards is always well supported on all platforms, so really all it requires is to decide what media types you want to provide and then pick Internet standards that implement it.  This is typically more "hassle" than just buying in a proprietary integrated solution like Webex, but it almost always works better across the very diverse populations of the Internet.

As an example, to implement something like the recent "Webinar" (a word that takes days off my life every time I hear it), you want at least an audio/video stream and a bidirectional chat channel.  The main Internet standards for these media types are very well known (RTSP, RTP, IRC, XMPP) and extremely widely supported by both proprietary and open source server-side solutions.

I know very little about proprietary ones, but open source streaming of both video and audio is typically done with Icecast, while ircd or ejabberd are commonly used for the chat stream.  (I'd also add an additional audio-only stream for accessibility, or for those who want to listen on the move and don't have video-capable smartphones, or simply as fallback when video fails.)

The main fly in the ointment is that you need a local techie to configure it all, instead of just paying a company like Webex.  OTOH, a techie is just a contract hire away, even if you have no in-house tech to spare.

Morgaine.

PS. Just found another open source video streaming system --- http://goalbit.sourceforge.net/  -- don't know anything about it though.