multimedia lecture board

Overview	The multimedia lecture board (mlb) is a sophisticated shared whiteboard, i.e., a tool for presenting and editing documents in videoconferencing scenarios (e.g., distance education, teamwork, etc.) on the Internet. Together with software (e.g., MBone-Tools) or hardware codecs for the transmission of audio and video, the mlb forms a powerful videoconferencing platform. Naturally, the mlb can also be used for local conferencing. Besides general whiteboard functionality (i.e., editing tools and import filters for creating documents), the mlb offers tools to support team collaboration and awareness (e.g., hand-raising, feedback, and telepointer), plus recording services for the production of online and offline courseware. The mlb is the successor of the digital lecture board (dlb) and the Authoring On the Fly whiteboard (AOFwb). Development of the mlb was part of the ANETTE project that was sponsored by the DFN-Verein.
Architecture	The mlb belongs to the class of distributed interactive applications and has a replicated architecture. This means that each session participant runs a complete application instance, including the application state. The application state basically consists of all pages present in a shared mlb document. All local user actions that change the shared state need to be transmitted to all other session members in order to bring their application's state up to date. The communication model of the mlb is based on RTP/I and the reliable multicast protocol SMP (Scalable Multicast Protocol).
Download	The Release 1.1 (29.11.2004) of the mlb is available for MS Windows and Linux. Please be aware that the mlb comes without expressed or implied warranty. As a research project, it might still contain some bugs (even though we are working hard on that). Binaries and Sources of the mlb are released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Interested developers are welcome to contact Juergen Vogel. System requirements If you want to import postscript or PDF files, ghostscript is needed. One important requirement in shared scenarios (i.e., also when using the CBT) is that all system clocks are synchronized (e.g., using NTP or GPS clocks). mlb Download one of the following zip files (Windows , Linux ), and unpack into a directory of your choice. Run mlb. Please have a look at the user manual. Note that the format of the configuration file (.mlb_config) has slightly changed, and you cannot reuse that file from previous installations. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Source Code	The complete sources of the mlb are released here.
User Manual	A short user manual can be found here.
FAQ	Frequently asked questions and solutions to typical problems can be found here.
Research	Publications related to the mlb. Interesting research topics include the application-level protocol for distributed interactive media (RTP/I), support for late-joining participants, consistency control, recording (IMoD), and collaborative services.
Contact	Please send your comments and bug reports to: Juergen Vogel. Email: vogel@informatik.uni-mannheim.de For discussions and for notification about new releases please subscribe to our mailing list. Send a mail to mlb-l-request@pi4.informatik.uni-mannheim.de without header and the body "subscribe" (nothing else). Following, you can send your mails to mlb-l@pi4.informatik.uni-mannheim.de