Adapting Webconference Cloud Services to R&E communities Session: Successful instantiations of cloud services Rui Ribeiro FCCN|FCT 21 May 2014

Agenda What is a webconference Service COLIBRI service history Decision points and alternatives The big challenges! Technical details Service Uptake

What is a WebConference Service? A simple, easy to use, web oriented collaboration service Main collaboration features: Audio and Video Screen sharing Chat Whiteboard Document sharing Other features: VoIP integration H.323 integration Recordings Web Integration (LMS, Blogs, …) Strong authentication

COLIBRI service history 2009

COLIBRI service history Videoconference on the desktop Audio, video and screen sharing H.323 compatible SIP dial-in compatible Self provisioning rooms Federated Authentication

COLIBRI – Meeting Point

COLIBRI service history 2013

Decision Points and alternatives

Final Decision Licensing: 100 simultaneous ports Unlimited number of meetings Unlimited number of users Unlimited space for recordings Hosted on Adobe Connect Cloud (3 years)

Deployment Service deployed and available in 2 days after purchase! A few hours to configure: –Colors –Logos –Policy and permissions Done! … not quite

Adobe Connect “default” service Service Homepage

Adobe Connect “default” service Service Homepage after authentication

Adobe Connect “default” service Meeting Schedule

Adobe Connect “default” service Room Access

The Big Challenge! Technology Service Policy User Expectations

Technology Challenges Hosted on the cloud –Unable to “customize” installation Centralized User management –Vs. AAI authentication Efficient resources management –Enforce room scheduling policy Only one cloud backend –“development” vs. “production”

Service Policy Challenges Secure access to room –“Stronger” authentication on AC requires user registration on cloud Hide backoffice AC from users –Too much to see and break All users must become room hosts –But that means that all users have “too high” privileges Provide “extra features” –Competitive solution on the webconference “marketplace”

Multi-language –International users and groups Moodle Integration –Alternative scheduling interface Multi-device support –Responsive Design Notifications –Invitations & iCal Transition from v1 –Must be better, but no H323, no VoIP User Expectations Challenges

COLIBRI Homepage

Meeting Schedule

General Meeting Info

Active Embed Widgets

Time aware embbed metadata meeting information and actions Active Embed Widgets Time Meeting didn’t start yet “Register” as a follower Meeting FuturePresent Past Meeting is occurring “Enter” Meeting is finished List of Recordings Play recording “Meeting has finished” Automatic Notification Meeting in the… Basic Information Actions “Meeting is about to Start”

Automatic User Provisioning While creating meeting… Homepage Validate AC user create if doesn’t exist Validate AAI attributes Schedule Meeting Form Schedule Confirmation

Other Features Strong Security for Participants –AAI to access secure sessions eduGAIN aware –Invite and validate users from eduGAIN SNMP Monitoring –Plot graphs, monitor performance Local data cache –Avoid API queries (delay) Recordings –Not yet. Possible export to MP4 VoIP Integration –Possible, but…

Effort Proof of concept –1st Stage API tests and experiments Proof of concept & gory details 1 week –2nd Stage First attempt to join up all tested features on a natural workflow 1 week –3rd Stage First Web based full application with AAI 2 weeks

Effort Final Implementation –Features: Meeting schedule and setup –Security + Invitations + Sharing Meeting access –Listing + Security Recording access –From user meeting list + security + sharing –Team: Developer & Web designer –Time: 2 months

Service Uptake Not released in Production yet AAI SP not registered on the federation, each institution had to manually configure the SP

Service Uptake Entities with 10 or more hosted meetings

Conclusion Adobe Connect –“webconference” interface works, but some training is needed for end users –backoffice isn’t useful for a “open” community of users –API provided works quite well and is correctly documented, but has some gory details Service Development –Set of innovative features under test –User feedback promoted and integrated on development –Great use case for eduGAIN

COLIBRI