Fwd: Fwd: Mock virtual Ubuntu Hour

[Valorie Zimmerman]

Hi folks, this came today to the loco-contacts list. This service
seems interesting. I know we have mumble, but if we need face-to-face,
this is worth considering.

All the best,

Valorie


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bob Jonkman <bjonkman at sobac.com>
Date: Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 10:54 AM
Subject: Re: Fwd: Mock virtual Ubuntu Hour
To: "Ubuntu local community team (LoCo) contacts"
<loco-contacts at lists.ubuntu.com>

On 14-01-04 11:44 AM, José Antonio Rey wrote:
> Why don't we try using G+ Hangouts? I know it may not be an open source
> platform, but it has all the tools we may need, and, to be honest, I
> haven't seen an open source solution that meets the same specs.

Precisely because it's not Free Software, requires additional (non-free)
software to be loaded as a browser plugin, requires a Google account to
participate, and everything is piped through (and stored by) Google servers.

https://chatb.org may not be Free Software either (I haven't been able
to find a license or who provides the service[1]), but it gives the same
functionality as Google Hangouts without the additional plugins or
registrations. The launch page appears to access a TURN server, which
would make it peer-to-peer (so no routing or storage through other servers).

Svetlana and I tried out https://chatb.org and I was amazed with its
simplicity and ease-of-use. The quality of both sound and video was
good, until my limited bandwidth created some lag, and then we switched
to audio-only. I launched a third session on another computer, which did
not appear to support peer-to-peer.

Even if https://chatb.org is not Free Software or P2P it still beats
Google with no registration or plugins required.

There's a growing backlash against closed silos, "services" that turn
user demographics into corporate profits, and snooping, spying,
privacy-invasive services in general.  Google and Facebook are the main
perpetrators; Twitter to a lesser extent. Canonical is also sliding down
that slippery slope.

--Bob.

[1]
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/autonomous-discuss/2013-08/msg00003.html

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