Project: IP-based Conferencing and Collaborative platform for MEETing and TEACHing Purposes
The goal of MeeTeach project is to develop an innovative video-conferencing and collaborative platform based on emerging open communications standards, with the objective of providing Enterprises, SMEs and even individuals with an high-quality, fully interoperable, easy-to-use product at a competitive price._x000D_MeeTeach platform will offer advanced video-conferencing and collaborative working functionality. It will be fully compliant with the most recent proposals coming from the CO standardization bodies (IETF – Internet Engineering Task Force, 3GPP – 3rd Generation Pship Project). Among the most important features of the planned architecture, we can mention:_x000D_- Support for moderation, through the standard BFCP (Binary Floor Control Protocol), which envisages full control over the various media (floors in IETF jargon) involved in a conference;_x000D_- Support for heterogeneous media:_x000D_ o Audio_x000D_ o Video (through advanced video-mixing facilities) _x000D_ o Chat_x000D_ o Whiteboard_x000D_ o Desktop sharing_x000D_ o Slide presentations_x000D_- Support for heterogeneous protocols:_x000D_ o BFCP (Binary Floor Control Protocol)_x000D_ o SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)_x000D_ o XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol)_x000D_ o Real-time streaming of audio and video flows (through the RTP protocol)_x000D_ o CCMP – Centralized Conferencing Manipulation Protocol (under standardization in the IETF – currently at the “draft” stage)_x000D_- Scalability_x000D_ o The architecture will be conceived at the outset as an extendible one: each conference can be spread across a number of distributed conferencing servers, which transparently communicate in order to manage both media flows and signaling/control data._x000D_MeeTeach will be marketed directly by Epsilon and then integrated into the Exodus elearning platform so to give even richer learning experience to end-users._x000D_The rationals of the project lies in the following thoughts._x000D_The needs for video-conferencing services and internet base collaborative working tools is growing exponentially, driven by many macro-trends:_x000D_1) globalization of the economy and off-shoring of production is increasing the need for collaboration among businesses that are geographically dispersed. While this trend was limited to large companies until few years ago, it is more recentrly involving many small and medium businesses that need to coordinate sourcing, manufacturing and marketing relationships with their Ps with the typical resources restraints of SMEs. This trend is even stronger in Europe, where the openness of trade barriers and the enlargement to the "new Europe" toward East has boosted cooperation among businesses , many of which operate as "pocket multinationals" even if their size and their budget is a fraction of that of Big Corporations;_x000D_2) the widespread use of Internet in any business and the adoption of broadband connections are driving the diffusion of Internet technologies;_x000D_3) the rising cost of energy and the increasing consciousness of the environmental implication of the use of fossil fuels are pushing companies and individuals towards more frugal and environmental friendly behaviours, thus favoring the adoption of technologies that allow significant cost reductions together with lower CO2 emissions, like IP-based video-conferencing and collaboraive working tools based on Intenet._x000D_4) regarding the elearning system, the increasing importance of knowledge in nowadays competitive environment makes elearning a central part of any company or governement strategy for economic growth. And elearning need high-quality video-conferencing and collaborative tools to deliver knowledge and skills to its users._x000D_Epsilon is convinced that the above mentioned trends will contribute to create a huge market for video-conferencing services and internet base collaborative working tools. That is why, having highly skilled resources on such subjects working inside its R&D department , and having made a preliminary market research that has confirmed the big potential of this business, Epsilon has decided to promote MeeTeach project._x000D_Epsilon has decided to do it with Exodus for several reasons:_x000D_- we operate in the same technology enivronment of the IT arena;_x000D_- we have already worked together in a FP7 funded projects (STREAM);_x000D_- Exodus is already an important player in the elearning field, and so it can bring to the Project the software and multimedia skills to help Epsilon develop its platform and also provide a large and differetiated testing base._x000D_Together, Epsilon and Exodus has decided not to enlarge the Consortium to other participants since the strict focus on product development could have been harmed by the involvement of other participants. In fact, we believe that both companies already has the skills to succesfully deliver the project and that the contribution of other entities could have not traded-off the coordination efforts._x000D_
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Acronym
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MeeTeach
(Reference Number: 4694)
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Duration
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01/02/2009 - 01/02/2011
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Project Topic
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MeeTeach project aims at developing an innovative video-conferencing and collaborative platform based on emerging open communications standards, with the goal of providing Enterprises, SMEs and even individuals with a high-quality, fully interoperable, easy-to-use product at a competitive price.
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Network
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Eurostars
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Call
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Eurostars Cut-Off 2
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Project partner
