BigBlueButton

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Open source web conference system

title: "BigBlueButton" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["classroom-management-software", "cross-platform-software", "date-matching-software", "free-groupware", "teleconferencing", "virtual-learning-environments", "web-conferencing", "wordpress"] description: "Open source web conference system" topic_path: "general/classroom-management-software" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BigBlueButton" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Open source web conference system ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]

FieldValue
nameBigBlueButton
logoBigBlueButton logo.png
screenshotItWikiCon 2020 - final greetings.png
developerBigBlueButton Inc.
repo
programming languageJava, Grails/Groovy, Scala (back-end), JavaScript/React (web framework) (front-end client)
latest release version
latest release date
operating systemLinux
genreCollaborative software, Web conferencing
licenseLGPL
websitebigbluebutton.org
::

| name = BigBlueButton | logo = BigBlueButton logo.png | screenshot = ItWikiCon 2020 - final greetings.png | caption = | developer = BigBlueButton Inc. | repo = | programming language = Java, Grails/Groovy, Scala (back-end), JavaScript/React (web framework) (front-end client) | latest release version = | latest release date = | operating system = Linux | genre = Collaborative software, Web conferencing | license = LGPL | website = bigbluebutton.org

BigBlueButton is a free software virtual classroom software program designed for online education. It is primarily accessed through Learning Management Systems, providing engagement tools and analytics which enable educators to interact with their students remotely.

History

The project was started at Carleton University in 2007 by the Technology Innovation Management program. The first version, initially referred to as the Blindside project, was written by Richard Alam under the supervision of Tony Bailetti. BigBlueButton is an affiliate member of the Open Source Initiative. The BigBlueButton name derives from the idea that starting a web conference should be as simple as "pressing a (metaphorical) big blue button".

In 2009, Richard Alam, Denis Zgonjanin, and Fred Dixon uploaded the BigBlueButton source code to Google Code and formed Blindside Networks, a company pursuing the traditional open source business model of providing paid support and services to the BigBlueButton community.

In 2010, the core developers added a whiteboard for annotating the uploaded presentation. Jeremy Thomerson added an application programming interface (API) which the BigBlueButton community subsequently used to integrate with Sakai, WordPress, Moodle 1.9, Moodle 2.0, Joomla, Redmine, Drupal, Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware, Foswiki, and LAMS. Google accepted BigBlueButton into the 2010 Google Summer of Code program. To encourage contributions from others, the core developers moved the source code from Google Code to GitHub. The project indicated its intent of creating an independent, not-for-profit BigBlueButton Foundation to oversee future development.

In 2011, the core developers announced that they were adding record and playback capabilities to BigBlueButton 0.80.

In 2020, the project released BigBlueButton 2.2, a full rewrite of the client and server to support HTML5.

In March 2020, BigBlueButton 2.2 was awarded by the President of the ENTD, Pasquale Aiello, as the best web conferencing system and used in the project UNIOPEN, approved by the European Commission for Digital Skills and Job Coalition action plan.

In 2021, version 2.3 was released. In 2022, BigBlueButton was directly embedded into the Moodle 4.0 core, the largest Learning Management System. It also released two new updates that included BigBlueButton 2.4 in January and BigBlueButton 2.5 in late September. BigBlueButton used a freely licensed version of MongoDB for version 2.2, but unintentionally picked up MongoDB's nonfree license change in 2.3. BigBlueButton worked to remove MongoDB and as of 3.0 no longer uses MongoDB.

In 2025, BigBlueButton 3.0 was released. BigBlueButton continues to be used by organizations including the Ministry of National Education (France), the Air Education and Training Command, not-for-profits such as School on Wheels, and schools throughout the world for remote learning and teaching.

::data[format=table]

VersionRelease date
25 May 2017
11 March 2020
30 April 2021
20 December 2021
9 June 2022
21 March 2023
7 September 2023
February 28, 2025
::

Architecture

As a web page application, the BigBlueButton frontend uses React and the backend uses MongoDB and Node.js. It also uses Redis to maintain an internal list of its meetings, attendees, and any other relevant information. As of version 2.5, the server runs on Ubuntu 20.04 64-bit and can be installed either from packages or an install script.

Adoption among non-profits

In 2020, BigBlueButton was adopted by many FLOSS focused non-profits including Wikimedia Australia, Constant vzw and new FLOSS focused coops like Catalan's The Online Meeting Cooperative. In France it is recommended since May 2020 by the Digital Interministry Direction defining the state's information and communication systems.

Third-party integrations

References

References

  1. (12 July 2010). "''BigBlueButton Foundation''".
  2. "Open Source License | Open Source Project | BigBlueButton".
  3. Nettleton, Rob [http://edc.carleton.ca/blog/index.php/2010/06/04/bigbluebutton/ "BigBlueButton"] {{Webarchive. link. (2010-08-14, ''EDC Blog'', June 4, 2010.)
  4. "Lead Projects". TIM Review.
  5. (22 May 2012). "OSI Affiliate Membership".
  6. Dixon, Fred [http://www.osbr.ca/ojs/index.php/osbr/article/view/1314/1259 "Lessons from an Open Source Business"] {{Webarchive. link. (2012-05-01, ''Open Source Business Resource'', April 2011.)
  7. "BigBlueButton releases activity module integration for Moodle 1.9 & 2.0". lmspulse.com.
  8. "BigBlueButton Integration – Joomla! Extensions Directory". joomla.org.
  9. (8 March 2010). "BigBlueButton - drupal.org". drupal.org.
  10. "GSoC Organization for BigBlueButton". appspot.com.
  11. Dixon, Fred [https://bigbluebutton-blog.blogspot.com/2010/07/bigbluebutton-foundation.html "BigBlueButton Foundation"], ''BigBlueButton Blog'', July 12, 2010
  12. ENTDI, Direzione. "Home".
  13. "Pledge Viewer {{!}} UNIOPEN".
  14. oestean. (2014-10-10). "The Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition".
  15. (16 July 2010). "''bigbluebutton-0-7-is-released''".
  16. (12 September 2011). "''bigbluebutton-0-8-beta-released''".
  17. (16 October 2014). "''BigBlueButton 0.9.0-beta now available''".
  18. (6 October 2015). "''BigBlueButton 1.0-beta Released''".
  19. "Release BigBlueButton 2.4.0 · bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton".
  20. "Release BigBlueButton 2.5.0 · bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton".
  21. "Release BigBlueButton 2.6.0 · bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton".
  22. "Release BigBlueButton 2.7.0 · bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton".
  23. "Release BigBlueButton 3.0.0 · bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton".
  24. "BigBlueButton : Install".
  25. (2 January 2022). "bbb-install".
  26. "VJ13 live {{!}} Prototypes for · pour · voor transmission".
  27. "About – The Online Meeting Cooperative".
  28. "Socle interministériel de logiciels libres".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

classroom-management-softwarecross-platform-softwaredate-matching-softwarefree-groupwareteleconferencingvirtual-learning-environmentsweb-conferencingwordpress