Open Video Chat
Active 2010 - Contributors: Casey DeLorme, Fran Rogers, Justin Lewis, Kevin Granger, Matt Gambogi, Remy DeCausemaker, Taylor Rose
This Activity was downloaded over 20,000+ times for the One Laptop per Child XO laptop Sugar desktop environment.
Open Video Chat is a Video Chat Activity for the XO Laptop.
Overview
Developers sponsored by PEN International were tasked with developing a proof of concept by improving the underlying software stack for video chat accessibility for communication between Deaf and Hard of Hearing students in a classroom environment. The project leaders have expressed a long-term interest in the life of this application that includes release into the open source ecosystem, and eventually porting to other platforms.
The program, called Open Video Chat, is designed for use on One Laptop Per Child computers. One Laptop per Child is a global initiative that seeks to provide low cost, rugged, connected laptops to children across the world. One Laptop per Child users wouldn’t typically have access to other video chat systems.
The program was developed by students who are involved in RIT’s Lab for Technological Literacy’s Free and Open Source Software initiative (FOSS@RIT). Remy DeCausemaker, an alumni fellow in RIT’s Center for Student Innovation, led co-op students Justin Lewis, Fran Rogers and Taylor Rose to create the program.
OVC was accepted as a Google Summer of Code project in 2013.
In the press
- 2010-06-18: Video Chat Program to Facilitate Global Deaf Communication – RIT News
- 2010-06-21: Students create video-chat program for deaf kids – boingboing
- 2011-03-14: Red Hat Partners with Rochester Institute of Technology; Students Develop Open Source Video Chat to Enhance Communication for Deaf Children – Red Hat Inc.