Quoting Ken Patterson (dpriso...@dvillage.org):
> Lisa
> Last weekend the Mythopedic Society meeting used Jitsi Meet (open
> source) only 13 participants. It has its ups and downs. Working on
> being more like ZOOM, but has only US phone for dial-in. It’s useable.
> No webinar functions.
A few comments about Jitsi Meet[1], to elaborate: Although I certainly
don't speak for CoNZealand, I constructed the videoconferencing 'chat'
function on the Exhibits division's pages using an instance of the Jitsi
Meet software that I constructed & administered for the Worlcon on
Amazon EC2. I learned a lot (quickly) doing this[2], and hope to help
future fannish conventions, in case they have use for such things.
1. Telephone dial-in (an optional extension), to join a 'room' with an
audio-only connection, is available via whatever VoIP (voice over IP)
service you (as a Jitsi Meet administrator) choose, and so the dial-in
numbers _could_ be anywhere in the world, maybe even in diverse parts of
the world at the same time.
Lisa's impression that dial-in is US-only is probably based on using the
Jitsi Project's own free-of-charge public server, meet.jit.si [3], which
is somewhere around Austin and offers dial-in access numbers in area
code 512, which is in that part of Texas. (Presumably, Mythopedic
Society used that particular public server, rather than electing to run
its own.)
2. Webinar ('live streaming') functionality is available, via an
optional extension, sending out video streams to YouTube or any of
various other streaming platforms. This helps skirt one of Jitsi Meet's
design limits, where each room cannot admit more than 75 simultaneous
video participants (and performance starts to flag about about 30).
Live streaming permits scaling to vast numbers of remote viewers -- and
is more realistic than dozens of mutually interacting video
participants, anyway.
3. Likewise, you can have collaborative editing, via an extension to
use Etherpad.
4. It can optionally integrate with Slack, Google Calendar, and Office
365.
> The Physicians of Vilnoc by Lois McMaster Bujold. Not the best of
> series (placeholder?) Recommend if you’re reading the series.
> Available from the usual sources.
LMB's Penric & Desdemona series of novellas (this being #8, comprising a
subseries set in the World of the Five God universe) might be deemed
reliable comfort reading, in this anxious time, in the sense that you can
expect Penric and his co-resident demon Desdemona to walk into some sort
of dreadful trouble, but that things will then work out basically OK by
the end, through intelligent problem-solving and team-work. In this
case, the dreadful trouble is an epidemic disease. Go figure!
[1] The Jitsi Project coders, working with a sponsoring enterprise
called '8x8', produce a number of codebases, each called Jitsi
[something]. Jitsi Meet is best-known, but strictly speaking, calling
it 'jitsi' is non-specific, like, if I say 'Hey, quadruped, it's
breakfast time' and a raccoon then strolls in, instead of our cat.
I.e., outcome meets spec, yet isn't entirely as intended.
[2] I am taking some time to write up lessons learned with tips for
conventions considering the software, for future virtual or hybrid
events. Available 'Real Soon Now' (RSN).
[3] Earlier this year, I finally got a chance to 'meet' my biological
mother on Jitsi Meet, a delightful example of technology enabling a
human connection. (I protect her privacy, so am eliding details.) We'd
intended to get together when she came back to the Bay Area this past
May, but then of course the world blew up -- but I was able to just say
'Please humour me and open meet,jit.si/[her name] in your copy of
Chrome', and it immediately Just Worked[tm]. So, score one for the
Austin Java guys.
And, if I may say, as child of a closed adoption, this business
of resembling one's relatives is a bit freaky, but has good points.
http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/bio-mom.jpeg
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