History: BigBlueButton

Preview of version: 1

BigBlueButton is a free and open-source virtual classroom and web conferencing platform purpose-built for online teaching and learning.

For a live demo, check out https://demo.bigbluebutton.org/.

Here is the source code: https://github.com/bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton

BigBlueButton is released under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).

It can be used stand-alone or integrated into Learning Management Systems such as Moodle, Sakai, Canvas, Drupal, WordPress and Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware.

Key Features

Multi-user whiteboard with real-time annotation and multimedia uploads
Breakout rooms for small-group work
Polls, emoji reactions and raise-hand
Public and private chat
Screen sharing and multi-user webcams
Shared notes (collaborative, Etherpad-based)
Session recording and playback
Closed captioning / live transcription

More info at https://bigbluebutton.org/.

BigBlueButton started in 2007 at Carleton University, originally the "Blindside" project by Richard Alam. Blindside Networks was formed in 2009 to support it, and the BigBlueButton Foundation was later created to oversee community development. BigBlueButton 2.2 (2020) was a full rewrite of the client and server for HTML5, the MongoDB dependency was removed as of 3.0, and the project reached version 4.0 in October 2026.