This is an excellent initiative. I had some informal chat with Pravin regarding this a few months ago, but that never materialized. At our department, we have been using jitsi meet over an year now virtually without any issue. I would like to only add that recorded lectures are usually good enough but are still secondary to the live lectures in terms of quality because the instructor cannot ask questions before explaining a particular concept. I will also be teaching a class in IISER Pune this time, and even such premier institute has not thought about their own BBB server, and has instead resorted to Google classroom. What I find is that the problems with the non-free softwares are not well appreciated even by the computer literates.
I will think more about the content and will write here so that we all could discuss before finalizing. Thanks so much for the initiative.
Dear All,
We have proposal to publish a statement on fsf.org.in urging especially educational institutes to adopt free software for video conferencing and avoid Zoom, Google Meet and other nonfree software.
We had a meeting about this and created the very rough first draft. We have just collected the points but have not organized them yet. The pad link is here https://pad.disroot.org/p/videoconferencing . Please send your comments/suggestions as a reply in the mailing list or directly in the pad.
Thanks a lot!
Attendees: Praveen, Bady, Ravi, Ashutosh
The draft is also pasted in the mail here:
[Title] Better than Zoom and Google Meet: Try these Free Software powered video conferencing apps and services
Goal
- Raise awareness about dangers of nonfree videoconferencing software
- Suggest alternatives
Article structure:
- Short summary
- Educational institutes are using nonfree software and promoting specific brands
- Problem with nonfree software
- Problem with promoting specific brands
- Alternatives/concepts
- Ways to resist-- what can students do?
- Conclusion
In the pandemic time, our communications are being held via nonfree video conferencing software like Zoom, Google Meet etc. Educational institutes all over the world are conducting lectures/webinars via nonfree software. Students are forced to give away their freedom and privacy to attend classes and build their career.
Any non-free software controls the user while any free software is controlled by its users. When we are talking about free software, we are not talking about price, we are concerned about freedom. Hosting video conferencing via nonfree software gives away control of our communications. Participants are forced to sign EULA(an unjust contract with the developer). This leads to surveillance, censorship etc.
Censorship by Zoom--
Link 1: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/11/zoom-shuts-account-of-us-based-rights-group-after-tiananmen-anniversary-meeting
Link 2: Zoom censored an event with Palestinian activist Leila Khaled and other events criticizing its censorship
https://theintercept.com/2020/11/14/zoom-censorship-leila-khaled-palestine/
Also we need to question the need for live conferences for regular classes. Why can't recorded classes work? Questions can be asked asynchronously.
Why do we limit the numbers when we can actually reach to anyone interested? We are adding artificial barriers to knowledge.
RMS Suggestion:
Students can also set up kludges to avoid running nonfree video chat programs.
For instance, the teacher (or one student) could point a camera at a
screen showing the Zoom call, and stream that camera and mic to the
students who want to stay off Zoom. There can also be a kludge for
them to speak and send their voice to the Zoom call.
With Free Software like Jitsi and BBB, we have a choice of service providers and host the service in countries with better Free Speech laws instead of forced to follow only Chinese law in case of Zoom. This is like dissenters taking refuge in other countries to avoid persecution by oppressive governments.
Educational institutes should not promote specific brands.
Peer-pressure etc.
Features of Big Blue Button: white board, presentations, video streaming
Jitsi instances usually have max capacity of 70 participants at a time. BBB instances have more capacity and instances like meet.nixnet.services can scale up to 270+ Mixed approach of live streaming and using separate text chat for questions can increase the limits.
BBB doesn't need any app on mobiles to work, people can simply join via any web browser.
vc.autisitici.org support recording without using dropbox or any other nonfree software service (other instances usually require a dropbox account) and live stream without using youtube (other services usually support live streaming with youtube only).
jitsi instances like 8x8.vc has an Indian dial in (not toll free but a number in Mumbai) number to join the audio conference. So people with unlimited talk time but not a good internet connection can also join these conferences.
media.ccc.deb and other peertube instances that supports live streaming can be an option. Apps like NewPipe and Fedilab support peertube. OBS can be used to stream classes live.
FSCI and FSFI conducted Free Software Camp (https://camp.fsf.org.in) entirely using Big Blue Button. DebConf and MiniDebconf were also held using jitsi and vogol to live stream the conference and etherpad + irc chat for questions.
https://framapiaf.org/@ChatonsOrg/105633611000307871 - expand with the actual links
--
Ravi Dwivedi
My PGP key https://keys.openpgp.org/vks/v1/by-fingerprint/430F5BE41D681CD30711B9AE4D03223060B98062
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