Dear friends,
Once again I am turning to you for advice, comments and help. So far, absolutely every time I ask for your help you have solved my problem, so I hope that this will work again.
First, we need more moderators.
Herb, our webmaster, IT-guru and chief moderators is trying hard to get as close to 24/7 “coverage” as possible and thanks to the dedication of our moderators, your comments usually show up reasonably fast. However, we do have three time slots for which we badly need more moderators. These time slots are:
- Mon-Fri 11:00am for 2 hours
- Sat-Sun 01:00pm for 2 hour
- Sat-Sun 08:00pm-4:00am
These times are in Eastern USA (New York, Miami, currently GMT – 4 due to daylight savings) time. In UTC/GMT time this would be:
- Mon-Fri 0700-0900
- Sat-Sun 0900-1100
- Sat-Sun 1600-0000
If you can help, please email Herb (NOT ME!!!) at herb@thesaker.is.
Next,
I need help with videoconferencing.
Right now, for our own, internal, videoconferencing needs we are using Jisti which we run on our own servers. For our internal purposes, this works great – it is free (as in “free software” or “free speech”), very secure and runs with any browser. However, what we need is a videoconferencing capability to, for example, allow me to have a Q&A session with my Patreon supporters (as described here: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=5898140 under “Hang out with TheSaker – AMA Style“). In practical terms this would mean have a videoconference with 5-20 people at a time with, ideally, everybody seeing everybody or, alternatively, everybody seeing me and the person asking the question.
We now that Google Hangouts offers that kind of capability but, frankly, using even more Google than I already do (and increasingly feel bad about) is not a good idea. Besides, I am quite sure that many of you would hate to have to use Google. There is Skype, but that is also a product which is arguably even worse than Google (owned by Micro$oft).
I think I remember that YouTube offers that kind of capabilities too but, seriously, YouTube?! We might as well stick to Google Hangouts or Skype….
Of course, in an ideal world in which we would have infinite time and money would could try hack something ourselves, but that would be neither practical nor timely. So here are my questions to you
- Can you recommend any good videoconferencing hosting service which we could simply use from time to time or, even better
- Do you (or your company) happen to already have the hardware and software needed to host such such videoconferences and, if yes, would you be willing to allow us to use it for special events such as Q&A with the Saker Community or other Community events?
From my point of view the only restriction would be that any service used by our Community should not be operating system specific, i.e. not only capable of running on Microsoft or Apple products (including browsers). I don’t object to it being based on proprietary software itself as long as what it offers it is platform independent and does not penalize those who, like myself, only run free operating systems and software.
If you can help us with this, please email me at vineyardsaker@gmail.com
Hugs and cheers,
The Saker
hey saker,
i would recommend using slack: – https://slack.com/ – for one, you will have a meeting point for your patreon supporters as it’s a team messaging app. but also, it has built in video conferencing.
we use it at work all the time (mostly up to fifteen of us at any one time) and it’s a cinch. i’m not in any way connected to them.
cheers,
mbotta
Hi,
there is russian VC software that has all functionality on your list: http://www.trueconf.ru , free as server for up to 12 registered users. Supports Linux, Win, MacOS. More than 12 users – you have to pay. Hosted service – you have to pay …
Another option would maybe be ZOHO Meeting that is browser based: http://www.zoho.com/meeting/ – it is quite cheap.
Saker
As recommended by Kaluga, this looks very good for you. Can’t beat free to experiment. And it appears very stable and proven. Then expand as or if needed.
https://trueconf.ru/products/tcsf/besplatniy-server-videoconferenciy.html
Note:
TrueConf looks promising on many aspects. But as far as I understand the docu, it requires windows on the server-side; see https://trueconf.com/support/online-help/server-help.html#system-requirements.
Note sure whether saker / herb will like this.
(just saying …)
Dear Saker,
Please have a look at appear.in, this is from my point of view the most convenient videosoftware solution available. It is stil free for up to 8 people, very stable with nice screensharing and works on any pc and mobile. No log-in, just clicking on a link.
I searched for a good tool for my company and use appear.in for months now without problems. Compared to slack that was recommended by another user it is way better, and it outperforms hangout significantly, especially as you can name claim your own meeting rooms.
Hope that helps,
Regards Oliver
The Saker:
Jitsi seems to support everything you’re asking for. check this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkMjgP40pII (jitsi-meet).
I’ve never tried it myself, so I can’t help with first-hand experience.
P.S.: The “alternative” youtube is owned by Google. So, if you’re really considering using youtube, you can as well stay with Google.
WebRTC:
https://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/webrtc/basics/
Jitsi has already everything.
Meet.jit.si …just provide a link of your choosing to everybody. I think it will be important that every participant has good up and downstream internet spead and takes care of using high quality microphone + headsets. Especially those on cheap laptops with loud fans blazing.
Wire.com is starting to look good as well.
Interesting alternatives in above comments: need to check those out.