At the moment SuSanA still feels a bit "Web 1.0" and I think we discussed before that options for more user interactions beyond the regular forum might be nice.
I think some people have also expressed previously that a easy to use micro-blogging platform would be nice to have for people to reflect on their work or recent developments in the sanitation sector.

A nice new and standard compliment way to have something like that would be to include a Movim XMPP system, see:
movim.eu/
Movim is a kind of social network, micro-blogging and messaging system that builds up on the standard XMPP federated messaging system.
There are options to link the Joomla/Kuena to a XMPP server so that every user would automatically also get a XMPP account, which is kind on a mix between Watsapp and email. Which this one could then start using Movim.
It would be also possible to integrate this nice side-bar XMPP client into the forum:
www.jsxc.org/ which would allow a quick (group) chat option with other users and friends.

arno wrote: Hi Kris
I couldn't see whether BBB features dial in capacity, pods for showing text agendas, PDFS, PPTs, MP4s, etc. The various prepared layouts available in Adobe Connect allow for a smooth product. Haven't found a good competitor.

As far as plug-ins or apps are concerned, Adobe Connect does have a plugin to be added to a browser but that is a very minor event that takes a few seconds, and only once. We recommend using MS Internet Explorer.

Android or Iphone Adobe Connect works even better than the browser in a PC or MAC since echo elimination is much more sophisticated on mobile phones.

We can do some testing with various phone and computer platforms next week if you like, Monday afternoon? There may be others interested in participating as well. I can open up a test room if you like.

Regards
--Arno

Please see this (slightly older) video of BBB usability:
To me it is much less cluttered and easier to use than Adobe Connect, and it also doesn't need any large plugins to work (the one for Firefox is 40mb it seems). PDFs and PPTs works just fine, not sure about mp4 videos though. The rest you mentioned also works and the layout is easy to modify. Setting up a phone dial-in is possible, but needs the server administrator's help for initial configuration.

Due to the use of the modern browser standard WebRTC, the audio quality with BBB is also excellent without the need of special apps.

Sadly I'll not be able to join a testing session in the near future, but timezone wise it might be slightly difficult anyways. But thanks for looking into this.

Hi Kris
I couldn't see whether BBB features dial in capacity, pods for showing text agendas, PDFS, PPTs, MP4s, etc. The various prepared layouts available in Adobe Connect allow for a smooth product. Haven't found a good competitor.

As far as plug-ins or apps are concerned, Adobe Connect does have a plugin to be added to a browser but that is a very minor event that takes a few seconds, and only once. We recommend using MS Internet Explorer.

Android or Iphone Adobe Connect works even better than the browser in a PC or MAC since echo elimination is much more sophisticated on mobile phones.

We can do some testing with various phone and computer platforms next week if you like, Monday afternoon? There may be others interested in participating as well. I can open up a test room if you like.

Regards
--Arno

arno wrote: What did you have in mind regarding "self-hosted video-meeting software (other than Adobe Connect)"?

I guess it is mostly me, but I always have a terrible time getting Adobe Connect to work, first it uses really outdated Flash, which is depreciated on several platforms due to all the security flaws it has, and then it asks you to download huge plugins or app to get it to run with Firefox or on Android etc. which is really a hassle on slow connections.

A modern video conferencing system should just work "as is" in a modern browser, no need to setup anything or install some extra apps.

We discussed this previously, and I still think setting up a SuSanA exclusive version of BigBlueButton would work very well. They recently released their stable version 1.0:
bigbluebutton.org/2016/05/17/bigbluebutton-1-0-released/
And it also has a plugin for Joomla which should allow good integration into the SuSanA website for recordings and scheduling etc. see:
github.com/jibon57/BigBlueButton_for_Joomla

But there are also other open-source video conferencing applications that would probably work better than Adobe Connect.

P.S.: But I have to add that BBB also still needs some limited flash support. They are in the process of removing it, and it works on a much wider range of platforms, but it's still there sadly.