For programmers who are curious about OpenMeeting, I’ve set up a mockup server on my PC. It’s is not entirely stock install, I’ve changed a few configurations to make it more like what we want. No source code changing yet though.
You can have a look at it here: http://forecast.student.utwente.nl:5080/openmeetings/ Go there, wait for a few seconds for it to load, make an account (no verification or anything required), and then you can join the public room. You’ll get a popup for video settings: it shows a black screen initially, even though your cam does work when you hit “Start recording test”. I’ve notified the devs that this is very non-intuitive, and they’ll be changing it. Instead of joining the public room, you also have the option to make personal rooms, and invite people in with a link.
My impression about OpenMeetings: Pros:
Open source
Very customizable, because it’s open source
Doesn’t require a google account
It’s in active development, with an active mailing list on which people reply quickly
Easy to limit rooms, get a room overview, and create new rooms
Cons:
I find the documentation not very intuitive
It needs a server to run on
Screensharing is a bit clunky: You can’t really use it instead of your webcam, as in google hangout. Should be fine for 1-on-1 video chats though.
Compared to Google hangouts: Pros:
Easy to set up
Doesn’t need a server
Supports screensharing
Somewhat customizable: It supports widgets, but I’m not sure to what degree the layout is editable.
Cons:
Needs a google account
Permanent rooms are a bit of a hack (by creating an event far in the future)
Neither is a clear winner. I’ll personally be looking at if it’s easy to change the layout on OpenMeetings. If that’s doable, then it’s already at or beyond the “baseline” level we have with Tinychat.
What I understand from that is that there can’t be more than one video canvas. What we would like is to move the elements around: get rid of the large video (just the strip of smalls is fine), move the strip up, get the chat in the center. That kind of thing.
For programmers who are curious about OpenMeeting, I’ve set up a mockup server on my PC. It’s is not entirely stock install, I’ve changed a few configurations to make it more like what we want. No source code changing yet though. You can have a look at it here:
http://forecast.student.utwente.nl:5080/openmeetings/
Go there, wait for a few seconds for it to load, make an account (no verification or anything required), and then you can join the public room. You’ll get a popup for video settings: it shows a black screen initially, even though your cam does work when you hit “Start recording test”. I’ve notified the devs that this is very non-intuitive, and they’ll be changing it.
Instead of joining the public room, you also have the option to make personal rooms, and invite people in with a link.
My impression about OpenMeetings:
Pros:
Open source
Very customizable, because it’s open source
Doesn’t require a google account
It’s in active development, with an active mailing list on which people reply quickly
Easy to limit rooms, get a room overview, and create new rooms
Cons:
I find the documentation not very intuitive
It needs a server to run on
Screensharing is a bit clunky: You can’t really use it instead of your webcam, as in google hangout. Should be fine for 1-on-1 video chats though.
Compared to Google hangouts:
Pros:
Easy to set up
Doesn’t need a server
Supports screensharing
Somewhat customizable: It supports widgets, but I’m not sure to what degree the layout is editable.
Cons:
Needs a google account
Permanent rooms are a bit of a hack (by creating an event far in the future)
Neither is a clear winner. I’ll personally be looking at if it’s easy to change the layout on OpenMeetings. If that’s doable, then it’s already at or beyond the “baseline” level we have with Tinychat.
Rearranging the internal video canvas layout seems to be not supported.
What I understand from that is that there can’t be more than one video canvas. What we would like is to move the elements around: get rid of the large video (just the strip of smalls is fine), move the strip up, get the chat in the center. That kind of thing.