Do you want to build the next Skype ? In Flex/AIR ?

Submitted by Falken on

If you just said 'yes', you want something Adobe is working on, not even in private beta yet, code named 'CoCoMo'.

CoCoMo will be a set of components, as well as source code, for the foundation classes Adobe used to build the next version of Connect Meeting - it includes both high level components like 'webcam' or 'whiteboard' as well as low level 'a/v stream manager', 'connection manager' etc. etc.
Or you can use it to build add-on pods to Connect Meeting (in the 'Pro' on-site version).
Permissions and role management are all built in too.

t will allow you to add real-time chat, VoIP, web cam etc. etc. straight into any Flex 2 or Flex 3 app. Or you can build your own version of Meeting.
All in three MXML tags (and one of those is mx:Application !). It's 15 lines to build a shared whiteboard with web cams for all the collaborators.
This stuff is bonkers easy.

You don't need to write any server-side code. You just use Adobe Magic Server (name and what it comes with currently undecided).
But that's a pain right ? Who wants to run another server ? So Adobe will be hosting these servers ! There will be some level of free offering there for apps that don't use much bandwidth.
Later you'll be able to deploy your own server for CoCoMo (maybe in ColdFusion 9 I hope).
Talk about low barrier to entry, this is great !

CoCoMo is all built on top of the XMPP (xml) open standard. Or it will be once it's finished.

It all works in AIR as well as Flex which is where the title of the post comes from.

The CoCoMo Blog is http://blogs.adobe.com/collabmethods, and an online presentation is at https://admin.adobe.acrobat.com/_a300965365/p86262461/. View the preso. for code samples, a look at the next Connect they built with CoCoMo and more.
They'll be a private beta by end of year, fingers crossed.

As a last thought, remember you can have a 'connect to online meeting' button in your (say) invoice PDF. And now that button on the invoice can connect the customer right into a nicely branded room with your credit control team or whatever.

Sections

No, what you want is Pacifica. That's much closer to Skype. Peer-to-peer VoIP with the ability to call regular phones. Yes, CoCoMo is very cool but that's about building collaboration around the Adobe Connect hosted services - easy ways to interact with those "rooms".

Always nice to have your input Sean.

Yes, the title was slightly inflammatory - but by 'next skype' I mean offering things beyond 'plain old' VoIP and PSTN integration. But hopefully not all the junk a modern Windows Skype install comes with :-)
It's also probably too early to say how the two projects will be bundled, but there are some similarities.

I'm sure Adobe can make even the most complicated presence, data replication and synchronisation service easy to install and run - it's just a deamon really, as I understand it.
I'm also sure it'll be very very expensive in order to draw people into the ongoing payments of a managed (hosted) service. However, some companies may have problems with off-site data.

As long as we don't see what happened with Flex 1 happen again (where it was initially sold for tens of thousands until someone worked out they'd make more money giving most of it away).

Tom

Anyhow, Adobe is hosting Cocomo services - you won't need to pay expensive licensing to use it. You will be able to use VoIP and WebCam video, as well as robust data messaging, to build any kind of real-time collaboration app you want, not just our meeting rooms. Our meeting rooms are built on Cocomo, not the other way around. You won't need to be a user of Connect. Whether it's P2P or through a server, shouldn't matter to the developer or end user. I do agree that the comparison to Skype goes a little overboard though :-). We're focusing more on collaboration applications, where voice is important, but only one feature.