BigBlueButton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

BigBlueButton
BigBlueButton logo.png
ItWikiCon 2020 - final greetings.png
Developer(s)BigBlueButton Inc.[1]
Stable release
2.3.4[2] Edit this on Wikidata / 16 June 2021; 2 months ago (16 June 2021)
Repositorygithub.com/bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton
Written inJava, Grails/Groovy, Scala (back-end), JavaScript/React (web framework) (front-end client),
Operating systemLinux
TypeCollaborative software, Web conferencing
LicenseLGPL[3]
Websitebigbluebutton.org

BigBlueButton is a free software web conferencing system for Linux servers. Its intended use is online learning. BigBlueButton is an affiliate member of the Open Source Initiative.[4]

Features[]

BigBlueButton offers certain core features[5] including:

  • real-time sharing of audio, video, screen
  • public/private chat
  • Upload of PDF and Microsoft office documents
  • Interactive whiteboard
  • Integration with phone systems (using FreeSWITCH)

Certain use cases are intended for teachers using the software, including:

  • Tutoring/virtual office hours
  • Flipped classroom
  • Group collaboration
  • Full online classes


BigBlueButton is a pure HTML5 client; no application is required to use it. It uses the browser's support for web real-time communications WebRTC to send/receive audio, video, and screen.

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 16.04 64-bit and can be installed either from packages[6] or install script.[7] There is work underway to move to Ubuntu 18.04 in BigBlueButton 2.3.[8]

Security[]

In October 2020, the German tech news portal golem.de published an article about several vulnerabilities in BigBlueButton. They criticized the unsafe use of LibreOffice, cookies without secure-flag and the use of old Ubuntu and Node.js versions. "I found a bunch of other security issues in BigBlueButton and proposed some hardening changes." wrote Hanno Böck. "This took a lot of back and forth, but all significant issues are resolved now."[9][10]

History[]

In 2007 the project was started at Carleton University by the Technology Innovation Management program.[11] The first version was written by Richard Alam (it was initially called the Blindside project) under the supervision of Tony Bailetti.[12]

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.[13]

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, [14] WordPress,[15] Moodle 1.9,[16][17] Moodle 2.0,[17] Joomla,[18] Redmine,[19] Drupal,[20] Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware,[21] Foswiki,[22] and LAMS.[23] Google accepted BigBlueButton into the 2010 Google Summer of Code program.[24] To encourage contributions from others, the core developers moved the source code from Google Code to GitHub.[25] The project indicated its intent to create an independent not-for-profit BigBlueButton Foundation to oversee future development.[26]

In 2011 the core developers announced they were adding record and playback capabilities to BigBlueButton 0.80.[27]

In 2020 the project released BigBlueButton 2.2, a full rewrite of the client and server to support HTML5.[28]

In March 2020 BigBlueButton 2.2 was awarded by the ENTD[29] – as the best web conferencing system and used in the project UNIOPEN[30] approved by the European Commission for Digital Skills and Job Coalition[31] action plan.

Version Release date
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.4 12 June 2009
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.5 21 July 2009
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.60 12 August 2009
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.70 15 July 2010[32]
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.8-beta1 12 September 2011[33]
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.90-beta 15 October 2014[34]
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.0-beta 6 October 2015[35]
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.1 25 May 2017
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.2 11 March 2020
Current stable version: 2.3 30 April 2021
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still maintained
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release

The BigBlueButton name comes from the initial concept that starting a web conference should be as simple as pressing a metaphorical big blue button.[36]

Related publications[]

  • Open Source Collaboration Software for Multipoint Video, Audio, and Text[37]

Adoption among non-profits[]

In 2020 BBB has been adopted by many FLOSS focused non-profits including Wikimedia Australia, Constant vzw[38] and new FLOSS focused coops like Catalan's The Online Meeting Cooperative.[39] In France it is recommended since may 2020 by the Digital Interministry Direction defining the state's information and communication systems.[40]

Third party integrations[]

  • Canvas (Learning Management System)
  • Chamilo (Learning Management System)
  • DoceboLMS (Saas/Cloud Learning Management System)
  • Drupal (Content Management System)
  • ILIAS (Learning Management System)
  • Moodle (Learning Management System)
  • Mattermost (Web-based chat service)
  • Nextcloud (Open Source cloud solution)
  • OpenOLAT (Learning Management System)
  • Sakai Project (Learning Management System)
  • Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware (Content Management System)
  • Qwerteach (Saas / Tutoring platform)
  • WordPress (Content Management System)
  • (Learning Management System)
  • (Learning Management System)

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ BigBlueButton Foundation
  2. ^ "Release 2.3.4". 16 June 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  3. ^ "open-source-license".
  4. ^ "OSI Affiliate Membership". Open Source Initiative. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  5. ^ "Core Features".
  6. ^ "packages".
  7. ^ "bbb-install.sh".
  8. ^ "BigBlueButton 2.3-dev".
  9. ^ Hanno, Böck (21 October 2020). "Das große blaue Sicherheitsrisiko". golem.de (in German).
  10. ^ Hanno, Böck (21 October 2020). "File Exfiltration via Libreoffice in BigBlueButton and JODConverter". Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  11. ^ Nettleton, Rob "BigBlueButton" Archived 2010-08-14 at the Wayback Machine, EDC Blog, June 4, 2010.
  12. ^ "Lead Projects". TIM Review. Archived from the original on 1 May 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  13. ^ Dixon, Fred "Lessons from an Open Source Business" Archived 2012-05-01 at the Wayback Machine, Open Source Business Resource, April 2011.
  14. ^ "Home – Contrib: bigbluebutton – Confluence". sakaiproject.org. Archived from the original on 22 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  15. ^ "WordPress Plugin Directory: BigBlueButton". wordpress.org. Archived from the original on 6 November 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  16. ^ "Moodle.org: Modules and plugins: BigBlueButton". moodle.org. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  17. ^ Jump up to: a b "BigBlueButton releases activity module integration for Moodle 1.9 & 2.0". lmspulse.com. Retrieved 18 January 2011.
  18. ^ "BigBlueButton Integration – Joomla! Extensions Directory". joomla.org. Archived from the original on 20 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  19. ^ "Redmine – PluginBBB – Redmine". redmine.org. Archived from the original on 3 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  20. ^ "BigBlueButton - drupal.org". drupal.org. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  21. ^ "BigBlueButton – Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware". tiki.org. Retrieved 22 January 2011.
  22. ^ "BigBlueButtonPlugin - foswiki.org". foswiki.org. Archived from the original on 17 November 2010. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  23. ^ "BigBlueButton integration - lamscommunity.org". lamscommunity.org. Retrieved 4 May 2011.
  24. ^ "GSoC Organization for BigBlueButton". appspot.com. Archived from the original on 26 July 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  25. ^ Dixon, Fred. "Minutes from BigBlueButton committers meeting 2010-04-27 – BigBlueButton-dev – Google Groups". Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  26. ^ Dixon, Fred "BigBlueButton Foundation", BigBlueButton Blog, July 12, 2010
  27. ^ Dixon, Fred. "BigBlueButton 0.8-beta-3 released – BigBlueButton-dev – Google Groups". Retrieved 24 November 2010.
  28. ^ Dixon, Fred. "BigBlueButton 2.2". Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  29. ^ ENTDI, Direzione. "Home". ENTD - Ente Nazionale Digitale ed Innovazione (in Italian). Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  30. ^ "Pledge Viewer | UNIOPEN". pledgeviewer.eu. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  31. ^ oestean (10 October 2014). "The Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition". Shaping Europe’s digital future - European Commission. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  32. ^ bigbluebutton-0-7-is-released.
  33. ^ bigbluebutton-0-8-beta-released.
  34. ^ BigBlueButton 0.9.0-beta now available.
  35. ^ BigBlueButton 1.0-beta Released.
  36. ^ "BigBlueButton : FAQ". BigBlueButton. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  37. ^ Morales, Aurelio F. "Open Source Collaboration Software for Multipoint Video, Audio, and Text", FINAL PROJECT REPORT FOR EEL5718 – COMPUTER COMMUNICATIONS, April, 2010.
  38. ^ "VJ13 live | Prototypes for · pour · voor transmission". Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  39. ^ "About – The Online Meeting Cooperative". Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  40. ^ "Socle interministériel de logiciels libres". Retrieved 22 May 2020..

External links[]

Retrieved from ""