Design and development of an user agent for streaming lectures - a South African case study

The Internet today is recognized as the network that is fundamentally changing social, political and economic structures. Its ability to transcend geographic borders and limitations makes it one of the greatest equalizers this civilization has seen. In this paper we discuss research that takes advantage of the robustness of the Internet by developing a SIP based VoIP application that is used as an interaction tool for rural learners receiving streaming lectures via the Internet. We use open source and standards based software in developing this application.