[Freeswitch-users] Newbie question: can Freeswitch create subconferences on-the-fly & let a moderator speak to all of them?

[Brian Burt]

Sorry, I forgot to a) include the full requirements -- now below, and
b) thank everyone contributing to rockin' open source telephony, and
especially anyone who takes time to answer my naive questions!  THANKS!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Short version: can Freeswitch create subconferences on-the-fly & let a
moderator speak to all of them?

Long version:  We lead live experiential learning workshops, where we are
constantly saying "get a partner and share about x" and then "now get in
groups of 4/6/8" to share about that and then finally we come back to the
"big room" where we take a few shares from the big group.  In particular we
would like to place participants in small groups where they interact with
each other, but all groups can hear the facilitator.

I'd like to do something similar over the phone, and am wondering if a
programmer could fairly easily accomplish this in Freeswitch.

It's critical that the presenter still be able to speak to everyone, even
when they are in small subconferences.

Thinking that Asterisk could do it, I wrote up some requirements below.
They're definitely not all "must-haves".  I heard from several Asterisk
experts that the "one-way" nature of this requirement (subconference hears
presenter but not the other way around) meant that Asterisk really wasn't
suited for it.

Below are the full requirements.  Do people think they're do-able?
Easily?   What platforms would allow that, especially open-source?

ps. If there's a video it's likely always simply the presenter delivering
that.  Ideally would have ability to connect with POTS but if this can be
done in a computer-only method (is there still such a thing?) I'd still love
to know about it.

----------------------------------------



-- 
=====================
Brian Burt, Founding Partner
Financial Circles
Empowerment in Community
www.FinancialCircles.com
415-308-4258 mobile (best)
510-251-1189 office
brianDELETE-ME at FinancialCircles.com
=====================

- - -  "Financial Circles teaches people to master money so that it serves
their dreams.  We offer courses and an active network where people wake up
to possibility, master concrete financial and business skills, and take
action on what truly matters to them."  - - -


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Telephone Subconferencing Features Requirements Outline

Financial Circles



Overview:



I lead live experiential learning workshops, where we are constantly saying
"get a partner and share about x" and then "now get in groups of 4/6/8" to
share about that and then finally we come back to the "big room" where we
take a few shares from the big group.

I'd like to do something similar over the phone.  In particular we would
like to place participants in small groups where they interact with each
other, but all groups can hear the facilitator.  There are simple and more
advanced features related to this, and we would like to find a platform that
can support the advanced features, but start implementing only the simple
features.



We are leaning towards SIP / Asterisk as a platform and are seeking
comments.   Specific questions:

   - We are open to changing these requirements to take advantage of
   existing platforms … what's out there?  (Hosting / software /
   services?)
   - What "easy pieces" can be configured that handle some of these, that
   can be more easily extended later?
   - What contract resources are available for work along these lines?



Base Requirements



#B1 Subconferences by order of entry

   - Participants (say 20-40 people) all call the same call-in # at the
   same time.  (There's a separate facilitator number/code.)
   - We have stipulated subconferences of say 4 participants (could be
   2-8).  Then the first 4 participants to call are put in a
   subconference, the 2nd 4 are then put in the next subconference etc.
   - There are two modes
      - In "small group" mode: Each subconference can hear the
      facilitators when they speak.  However when the subconferences
      talk they only talk to each other.
      - In "big group" mode it's a big conference call where everyone
      can hear each other
   - Ideally we have a "walk-around the room" role/feature, where one of
   the facilitators can decide to "pop in" to the various subconferences to
   interact within a subconference.



#B2  Subconferences Determined Ahead of Time

   - Each participant gets a unique code to dial in with.
   - Similar to #1, but the subconferences are put in subconferences
   according to a pre-determined order, say for example with an XML "set-up"
   file.   This is for when we have groups that for various reasons
   should be grouped together.
   - Ideally the set-up files are configurable for "each way" meaning I
   could configure person A to hear B but not person B to hear A.
   - Ideally we can load in different set-up files and switch them on the
   fly.



Comment:  If we can #2 but #1 is difficult we can usually just provide
unique access codes to each participant, handling the bulk of #1.  Eventually
we might want to do a #1 where we can widely broadcast the dial-in number.



*Advanced Features (related to either #1 or #2)*



A2-A4 Participants in subconferences can "pound out" to join a separate
"help" subconference

   - A2 In one version, hitting say "#2" will take the participant out of
   their subconference and put them in a general help subconference.  This
   has one of the facilitators in it, and everyone can talk and hear each
   other.
   - A3 In another version hitting "#3" would put the entire
   subconference into the general help subconference
   - A4 In other version hitting #4 would notify one of the facilitators
   that this subconferences is "raising it's hand" and the facilitator would be
   able to drop into that subconference by selecting in an interface to drop
   in.
      - A variation of that is that a facilitator could decide to join
      several of the groups that are raising their hand into one subconference





A5 – Queued line for questions

   - By hitting say "#6" a participant in a subconference can "get in
   line" to ask a question in front of everyone
   - The facilitator can take the next "question in line" and then that
   participant's question becomes something sent to all the subconferences
      - Optionally, an assistant in the background can talk to the
      people in line one at a time, and decide say how to order them:
whether to
      put them in the front of the line, bump them out altogether, put
them in a
      special help conference etc



A6- Mute all but facilitator

   - The facilitator when addressing the subconferences can hit a button
   to mute everyone within the subconferences.  So, when muted everyone
   only hears the facilitator.  When unmated the subconferences hear each
   other.



A7 – Reporting

   - See a report showing who came and went when
   - Potentially see what people hit "# codes" when (who hit #2 when)





A8 – Recording

   - It would be good to record the main conference
   - and ideally the subconferences



A9 – voting by number showing instantaneous results

   - Facilitator can ask people to vote on something.  Say it's a
   three-way vote and the choices are "#91, #92, or #93" for the three
choices.
   Then the facilitator can take a vote and the numbers are displayed on
   a facilitator screen.



FEATURES INTEGRATING WEB CONFERENCES



Outside of the telephony approach, there are many features on our "nice to
have" list integrating a web conference (viewing a presentation, and typical
web conferencing features) with the telephony subconferences.  Features
might include:

   1. Enabling chat within the same subconference, especially if a
   moderator can participate in multiple chats simultaneously (a window for
   each subconference, with chat used to "speak to the teacher")
   2. Enabling "white board" for subconferences (so they can write notes
   as they go, and all see them).  Again ideally moderator can see these.
   3. Show a different web page to each subconference group, especially
   when the group is pre-determined (group these 5 people, who you'll recognize
   each by their unique participant code, rather than "first 5" then "next 5")
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