Features — Technical requirements

Server side

On the server side, CallWeb has the following software requirements:

• Linux operating system
• Apache Web server
• Perl (and a few additional Perl modules)
• MySQL
• Sendmail (for mail management)
• Asterisk (for the telephone interface and the CallWeb robot)

These pieces of software are all open-source and free. They are also extensively tested and continuously maintained.

Hardware-wise, a CallWeb server must be scaled to the load it will be subjected to, A standalone CallWeb computer (for CAPI use) can be a very low power laptop (CallWeb has been successfully installed on a $400CDN Asus eeepc). A busy CallWeb server used to managed hundreds or thousands of concurrent connections must be much more powerful.

Respondent, interviewer, project manager and questionnaire designer side

On the respondent, interviewer, project manager and questionnaire designer side, all that is required is a Web browser. Period. Any one of the graphical Web browsers currently in existence (e.g., Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome) can be used, on any operating system (e.g., Windows, Linux, Mac). All CallWeb-related activities can be conducted with this minimal installation.