What is Mconf?

Mconf is an open source web conference system built on top of (and around of) BigBlueButton. Mconf is composed of several components, among them are Mconf-Live, a customized version of BigBlueButton that includes several new features, and Mconf-Web, a web portal where people can collaborate asynchronously, schedule and participate in web conferences.

Mconf started in the end of 2010 as a research project in the University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The project aimed to create a complete web conference system, that could interoperate transparently between computers connected to the web and mobile devices on telephony networks.

After years of development, Mconf grew to become a solid product. The main distinguishing points compared to other similar systems are (1) the possibility of integrating Mconf with practically any existent system, as shown by the several integrations that already exist (for Moodle and WordPress, for instance), (2) the open source nature of the project, and (3) the wide range of customizations that are possible (when used by an institution, Mconf can be modified to work as part of the institution’s infrastructure instead of acting as an external, separate web conference system).

The main open source components of Mconf are:

  • Mconf-Live, a customized version of BigBlueButton.
  • Mconf-Web, a web portal to create web conferences and interact with other people.
  • Mconf-Mobile, a mobile client to access web conferences from Android and iOS devices.

Moreover, Mconf has several other open source projects that collaborate with the ecosystem of both Mconf and BigBlueButton, such as:

  • API Mate, a tool to easily use Mconf’s and BigBlueButton’s API, mostly used by developers.
  • BBBot, a command-line application that is able to join conferences, send and receive audio and video, to simulate a real participant. Mostly used for stress testing and capacity planing.
  • bigbluebutton-api-ruby, a library to use Mconf’s and BigBlueButton’s API on ruby scripts.
  • bigbluebutton-api-js, a library to use Mconf’s and BigBlueButton’s API on javascript.
  • BigbluebuttonRails, a library to integrate Mconf or BigBlueButton with Ruby on Rails applications.
  • Chef recipes used to install Mconf-Live (and that can also be used to install BigBlueButton).

Learn more about Mconf at the following pages:

What is Mconf.org?

Mconf.org is the website you’re visiting right now, that promotes the open source side of Mconf. At Mconf.org you will find all the information you need to get to know Mconf, as well as the resources it has available on the internet.

Conferences at Mconf.org

At Mconf.org there is also a web portal that provides access to free web conferencing. This web portal is connected to the Mconf Academic Network, a web conference network where members provide resources (i.e. servers) and share these resources. You can learn more details about the network at this page.

The web portal at Mconf.org was created as an effort to promote Mconf and bring web conferencing to people that need it but may not be able to afford it. It is also a way of promoting Mconf and letting people test it. There are no restrictions on who can use Mconf.org: anyone can create an account use it as much as they want to.

However, there are no contracts associated with the usage of Mconf.org, so there are no terms of support or any guarantee of quality implied in the usage of the service. It can be considered a “best-effort” service/support: we will hear you and try to help you as much as we can, but we can’t guarantee if your requests will be attended nor how long it will take.

Mconf.org is not recommended for medium or bigger institutions. These institutions, if academic, can join the global network and provide their own support to their users. Institutions can have a customized web portal connected to the network, providing access to their own users. Another option for institutions with more resources is to have their own local network of Mconf servers.

Moreover, Mconf.org does not provide the entire set of features that Mconf has. The most important feature that is not available right now on Mconf.org is the recording of meetings. Even though Mconf allows the recording of meetings and has an infrastructure created for it, on Mconf.org you will not be able to record meetings.