Remote Communication

From LibrePlanet
Revision as of 12:00, 27 March 2020 by Sudoman (talk | contribs) (information about IRC / Freenode in general)
Jump to: navigation, search

This list is work in progress.

As more people are going remote, there is an outbreak of proprietary software happening around the Internet. Many are suggesting to use proprietary video conferencing software as an alternative to meeting in person. Proprietary vendors are hopping to the task by offering free as in cost services (temporarily) that would lock organizations into continuing to use that vendor. Let us work together to promote free software alternatives instead.

  • Chat
    • Video
      • Jitsi Meet
        • Easy to use, and good for a couple of people to video or audio chat with each other. Not always reliable with more than two people. Sometimes it's necessary to reload the page to get audio working in both directions.
      • GNU Jami
        • Tends to be stable if all parties use the same (ideally the latest) version of the client.
      • gstreamer/icecast
        • It's possible to share your camera or desktop screen with many people in a one-way relationship using command line scripts. This method combined with Mumble allows for a school teacher to give a presentation, and to be available for questions via audio.
      • OBS/nginx
        • OBS Studio can be used in conjunction with the nginx web server to screencast or stream via RTMP. Viewers can tune into the RTMP stream on your web server using VLC, mpv, or any other compatible player.
      • BigBlueButton
      • OpenTokRTC
    • Audio
      • Mumble
        • Mumble is pretty easy for end users, and there appear to be free native clients for every major platform. On the server, it has a low memory footprint, but can use a lot of server bandwidth if many people are talking at once in a channel that has many people listening in. Clients would see an increase in downlink bandwidth at these times, which is okay, since most asymmetrical residential connections allow for a larger downlink.
    • Text and possibly document sharing
      • Email and mailing lists
        • Email is a commonly used decentralized social network. By using email, and setting up new mailing lists, you can effectively communicate with coworkers, friends and family.
      • IRC
        • IRC
          • There are free software IRC clients for all major platforms. If you want to create a channel on Freeonode (a popular IRC server), but your channel isn't about free software or broadly licensed creative works, you can still create topical channels that begin with '##'. Note that in this case if you need help from Freenode staff, your request won't be as high priority as requests for help with a free software project's channel. Alternatively, there should be other IRC servers that meet your needs.
        • KiwiIRC
          • Don't add a captcha key in the site config, otherwise it will add a non-free captcha system when users log in. Also the ircd in question needs to have websocket support so Kiwi IRC can connect directly to IRC servers without relying upon the backend for SaaSS.
        • The Lounge
          • This likely requires SaaSS, so is not highly recommended
      • Rocket Chat
      • Wire
      • Mattermost
  • Document Writing and document sharing
    • Etherpad
    • Ethercalc
    • Drawpile
    • CodiMD
    • LibreOffice Online
    • NextCloud
  • Learning Management Solutions (LMS)
    • Canvas
    • Moodle
  • Misc
    • Software Defined Radio (SDR)
      • GNU Radio
        • gqrx