Web-RTC: A Proposed Roadmap for Higher Education & Research

Jan Meijer
SpeakerJan Meijer
TrackTrack 2 -- Lecture Hall IV on the Main Floor
DescriptionWeb-RTC offers browser-based online meeting capabilities without any plugins, based on a set of upcoming IETF and W3C standards.  Web-RTC has all the hallmarks of a distruptive technology.  Predictions are by 2016 a billion endpoints will support Web-RTC delivering the typical functionality we now need separate clients for: high quality audio and video conferencing, document sharing, etc.  With the web as a delivery mechanism unlocking this functionality with new services is going to be trivial compared to today's situation.  
UNINETT is driving a systematic multi-year effort to get a coherent sector-wide and well-used real time communication infrastructure in place.  We assume Web will play a significant part that infrastructure.  During 2014 we investigate the technology, the market and (business)opportunities resulting in a WebRTC roadmap for the Norwegian HE&R  sector which will drive and guide our future WebRTC efforts.  This this talk will feature the preliminary results of our work.  We expect to include thoughts on a roadmap for the Nordic service area and beyond.  The talk will be preceded by a workshop planned on Monday 22 September.
The big promise of WebRTC is truly ubiquitous high quality communication capabilities at a far lower price point than we ever had before: video conferencing at your fingertips.  We expect many new services to pop up.  This is likely to change the real time communication landscape in many ways and the higher education & research sector needs to prepare for that.  We need to know what to do and act in a coordinated systematic way once the market is developed enough.  We need to ensure our community and its core business (research & education) reaps the benefits fully and in a timely fashion.  If not globally than at least in the Nordics.  Noblesse oblige.

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