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Comment by nextparadigms | Hacker News Reader

WebRTC.

WebRTC seems comparatively low-level, and I'm not sure it would support the basic use case for webex, gotomeeting, etc.: i.e., conference calls with audio, screen-sharing, and (less importantly) video of participants.

We use GoToMeeting (Citrix), and find we also regularly relay on the ability to call in from a regular phone, so this has become a requirement.

Customers calling in, anyone non-technical who's having issues getting the web client working (even the technical folks sometimes have trouble with it... they have a Java applet install/launch client software), or anyone with a flaky internet connection need this (that last one seems to happen quite frequently whenever anyone is traveling...).

The OpenMeetings API's RoomService could probably be used to create ad-hoc MeetMe or ConfBridge bridges with Asterisk.

I have rarely experienced a web meeting where the first 15 minutes were not spent twiddling thumbs because one or more participants were having issues getting connected, seeing the video, dropping connections, etc. It even happens more often than not on a simple conference call, where all you have to do is dial a number and enter a code or two.

If ANYONE ever figures out a way to make this technology really work, they will be swamped with demand.

Practice has a lot to do with it. We have a lot of telecommuters at work, and their first few meetings are problematic while they figure things out, but eventually the problems die down and things run smoothly.

Most of our meetings run without problem.

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