The project's intention is to create simple, cheap and easy video-conferencing. Simple for the user means no install, no setup, just point your browser to a webpage. Simple for the system administrator means easily accessible, low maintenance, and made with Open Source software.

CRD's tight integration with the VoiceRD VoIP server allows MeetMe conferencing rooms to act as communication hubs for users. Anyone with a traditional phone can call in and audio chat with those in the conference room. Anyone using our video-enabled Flash frontend can video-conference with other users in the room.

ConnectRD is the senior "capstone" project of two UC Santa Barbara CS undergrads, Chris Wilcox and Shane Anello.

Because its awesome, duh. But more importantly its useful! Businesses are taking up conferencing technology at an amazing rate. Some very smart people expect the video-conferencing market to grow from the $388 million it was in 2004 to $1.15 billion in 2011.

Its also very timely. Lots of people are working to bring VoIP to the masses, and a popular area of exploration is combining Flash and SIP, the heart of our project.

We built this stuff with an eye to Open Source software, and we stand on the shoulders of giants. Our VoIP backend is the VoiceRD phone system, which itself is built on the hugely popular Asterisk open source phone system. The video backend is Red5, the open source implementation of Adobe's proprietary Flash Media Server.

We could go on and on. For more information, check out how it works.