The Collaborate Roadmap

Today’s webinar from BlackBoard Collaborate gave some detail on the plans for the Collaborate platform over the next few years.

New features promised on the roadmap:

“In the next few months” – the UK will get its own Collaborate servers. This should mean greatly reduced audio and video latency, and probably a more reliable service.

“In 2012” – Echo cancellation in the Collaborate software to remove the echo caused by using loudspeakers. This will remove the requirement for using headsets, although you’ll still need a decent desk microphone, such as the Logitech one.
– MP4 content creation from session recordings without the use of Publish!
– integration of Collaborate with LDAP and Shibboleth authentication
– Local servers running the Server Administration System (SAS) will be able to run Collaborate 11 rather than Eluminate 10 from early 2012

“In 2013” – Ability to participate in Collaborate sessions using tablets and smartphones (iOS first, then Android). But running a Collaborate session from any battery-powered device is NOT recommended.