Does a system exist to facilitate virtual meetings and file sharing?

Question

I'm looking for a system that is similar to an online classroom setup but allows for virtual meeting rooms with video/audio conferencing, and of course file sharing. I'm preferring an open source solution that I can edit/tweak myself as needed, and is of course free.

Ultimately, I guess what I'm looking for is something that we could possibly tweak to give our own "branded" look and feel, if possible, along with full integration within our own servers. Thus the reason I brought up open source solutions.

Do you masters of the web know of such a system available? If so, do you have a preferred one that you would suggest? OR, can such a system be developed by slapping together a couple of open source projects to derive at what is desired?

Thanks for sharing your expertise.

(FYI - I am a developer that is comfortable with PHP and C#. I'm not experienced with Ruby or Python, but a system using them or something else is acceptable. We can figure it out I'm sure.)

Answer 1

I'm not sure about making one, but one solution that you could use is Skype with Google docs.

Skype to talk and chat; then Google docs to live collaborate and share files.

Answer 2

I would suggest using SlideShare to share presentations/documents online and collaborate with others via video-conferencing just like Google Hangouts.

This free account provides all the features you've mentioned but with a cap on the file size you can share. It also allows you to customize your profile page with different themes, plus because you are into online teaching, you might expect a lot of new stuff in to work in collaboration with other people.

Answer 3

Google+ has been released for business users, including virtual meetings and file sharing. A better alternative to Skype which has its own problems with chat sync, privacy, etc.