CU-SeeMe

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CU-SeeMe (also written as CUseeMe or CUSeeMe depending on the source) is an Internet video-conferencing client. CU-SeeMe can make point to point video calls without a server or make multi-point calls through server software first called a "reflector" and later called a "conference server" or MCU. Later commercial versions of CU-SeeMe could also make point-to-point or multi-point calls to other vendor's standards-based H.323 endpoints and servers.

History

CU-SeeMe was originally written by Tim Dorcey of the Information Technology department at Cornell University^[1]. It was first developed for the Macintosh in 1992 and later for the Windows platform in 1994. Originally it was video-only with audio added in 1994 for the Macintosh and 1995 for Windows. CU-SeeMe's audio came from Maven, an audio-only client developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.^[2]

CU-SeeMe was introduced to the public on April 26, 1993 as part of an NSF funded education project called the Global Schoolhouse.^[3] "It is Not About the Technology" tells about Global SchoolNet's Global SchoolHouse Project using the first multi-point Internet-based video conferencing to connect schools in the United States and with schools worldwide. By sending video and audio signals over the Internet using CU-SeeMe software, students were able to see and hear each other while they worked on collaborative assignments. As part of the program they interacted with special guests, such as Vice President Al Gore, the anthropologist Jane Goodall, Senator Diane Feinstein and surgeon general C Everett Koop.

Global Schoolhouse students communicating via CU-SeeMe

Screen capture showing Global Schoolhouse classrooms collaborating via CU-SeeMe

On Thanksgiving morning in 1995, World News Now was the first television program to be broadcast live on the Internet, using the CU-SeeMe interface. Victor Dorff, a producer of WNN at the time, arranged to have the show simulcast on the Internet daily for a six-month trial period. CU-SeeMe was also used in a taped interview segment in which anchor Kevin Newman and Global Schoolhouse director and founder Dr. Yvonne Marie Andres discussed the future of computers in communication.

From freeware to commercial

The commercial licensing rights were bought by White Pine Software in the mid 1990s (approx. 1995); CU-SeeMe was then released as a commercial product.

A nascent market - Quality perceptions and reality

While not directly competing against hardware-assisted video-conferencing companies, it suffered in that the nascent market was expecting hardware quality audio and video when CPUs of that time weren't really ready to support that quality level in software. Early wide acceptance of CU-SeeMe outside of the hobbyist market was limited by its relatively poor audio/video quality and excessive latency. While the commercial and freeware products were useful to hobbyists, CU-SeeMe and its accompanying server product were beginning to build a following in education - with up to 40% of commercial sales in the EDU space. (A spinoff application called ClassPoint which was based on CU-SeeMe and the conference server was released commercially in 1998 as an attempt to leverage the education vertical more directly.)

The United States military was a large customer of the technology, making use of the CU-SeeMe Conference Server MCU for many applications, including leveraging the T.120 server for Microsoft NetMeeting endpoints.

White Pine locked out users of version 1.0 from using its videoconferencing chatrooms. Many users bought an update, only to discover that others were downloading it and passing out registration keys on White Pines chatrooms.

Changing names and changing hands

White Pine Software was briefly renamed CUseeMe Networks, then merged with First Virtual Communications. The commercial standalone client was decommissioned. (An independent company used a version of the embedded commercial CU-SeeMe client renamed "CU" as part of a fee-based video chat service called CUworld) The commercial client and server environment evolved further, was renamed "Click To Meet" and along with an enhanced and more scalable version of the software MCU.

On March 15, 2005, Radvision Ltd. acquired substantially all of the assets and intellectual property of First Virtual Communications (FVC), including its Click to Meet (formerly CUSeeMe) and Conference Server MCU solutions. The descendants of the CU-SeeMe technology live on in part in the Radvision Scopia product line.

There is still a small but active community of users of the original CU-SeeMe releases. Although there have been no releases of software from the various incarnations of White Pine since roughly 2000, freeware alternatives are available for both the Windows and Macintosh platform.

CU-SeeMe as part of the legacy of the early Internet

The CU-SeeMe name and legacy remains important for a number of reasons.

• CU-SeeMe was an early, widely recognized internet brand that pre-dated the web browser^{[citation needed]}.
• CU-SeeMe foretold the wide acceptance of video chat in a number of markets, and was likely the first product to be referenced using that term^{[citation needed]}.
• CU-SeeMe software on the client and server side was one of the first platforms that proved that IP networks could be effectively used for real-time communication and collaboration^{[citation needed]}.

References

External links

• Internet TV With CU-SeeMe (by Mickey Sattler)
• Scientist on Tap (by Yvonne Marie Andres)
• CU-SeeMe web ring
• Hoople's CU-SeeMe Help Site
• Yikes CU-SeeMe links
• (PDF) First Virtual Securities Litigation
• PMRef - a free java based reflector
• Cindy another client for MS Windows
• VChat client for MacOS X
• cuseeme.de