VoIP system for cancer support groups

Hello everyone,

I am a Senior, majoring in computer science, at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and my Software Engineering class has been given a project by the R.A. Bloch Cancer Foundation, a charitable group which provides services for those who are fighting against cancer, to create a software package which will allow online support meetings to be held among cancer patients who are unable to physically attend such gatherings. This project is not to be web-based, nor a chat room, but a complete package of interactive audio and video software which will allow the patients to see and hear one another.

We have not received full specifications yet, but already, we are somewhat overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task before us, as none of us has any prior experience with programming for VoIP. With that in mind, we are attempting to learn as much background on the subject as possible, so that once we understand exactly what we are expected to do, we might have a better idea of how to accomplish our objectives.

To that end, I would like to request that anyone who knows any resources (online preferred, but suggestions of book titles will also be useful) that will facilitate our development of such a project please respond to this thread. Further, we would benefit from the experience of more knowledgeable persons than ourselves, and if anyone would be willing to serve as a resource, should we need specific programming and/or design consultation, your help would be invaluable to us. Thank you all for anything you can do to help us to learn and develop this project.

Tom Kessler