<div dir="ltr">On Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 1:06 PM, Anish Mangal <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:anishmg@umich.edu" target="_blank">anishmg@umich.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">This will be my last message on this thread, and am cc-ing server-devel (as was originally done), <b>but removing all the quoted text/history. </b>The purpose is to sum all the skype alternatives provided. The server-devel is an open mailing list so there will be a publicly-accessible link unlike xsce-devel. I didn't know where to put this on the wiki.<br><div class="gmail_extra"><div dir="ltr"><div><br></div><div>Alternatives to skype suggested in this thread:<br><br></div><div>1. Tox (<a href="https://tox.chat/" target="_blank">https://tox.chat/</a>) - Generally works well, except bad Android support at the moment. No browser based client afaik.<br><br></div><div>2. Ring (<a href="https://ring.cx/" target="_blank">https://ring.cx/</a>) - Is supported on all platforms including Android. No browser based client.<br><br></div><div>3. Mumble - Widely used, well supported<br><br></div><div>4. SIP - Widely used, well supported. Browser client is available.<br><br></div><div>5. Jitsi (<a href="https://jitsi.org/" target="_blank">https://jitsi.org/</a>) - Apps for Windoze, Linux, OSX, but not Android. Browser client available.<br><br></div><div>6. Firefox hello (<a href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/hello/?v=b" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/hello/?v=b</a>)<br><br></div><div>7. Ventrilo (<a href="http://www.ventrilo.com/download.php" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.ventrilo.com/download.php</a>)<br><br>8. BigBlueButton (<a href="http://bigbluebutton.org/" target="_blank">http://bigbluebutton.org/</a>) - Seems more targeted to distance education<br><br></div><div>9. Hangouts - Widely used, no native clients, proprietary<br><br></div><div><br>Apologies if I missed any!<br></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>A "complete" list is not possible as we know! The following 3 are extremely popular serving very similar roles -- community team-building moving above and beyond just transient anarchist gossip, with human-centric workflows/pacing/searchability for all kinds of people -- one day FLOSS communities might even wake up and demonstrate leadership here: (Hope Springs Eternal!!)<br><br></div><div>a. <a href="http://slack.com">http://slack.com</a> reduces the barrage of pointless emails, by refocusing work on actual collegial teams. Demonstrates an excellent understanding of how small teams actually work together (Margaret Mead meets the 21st century at last?!) Sometimes used in combination with Trello.com for larger/distributed project management that truly need to scale. Slack is described in an excellent 21min "radio" show yesterday @ <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/5/11368864/slack-app-messaging-how-to">http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/5/11368864/slack-app-messaging-how-to</a> -- apparently this is now the fastest-growing enterprise software of all time. And as such is now leaving the enterprise, used by all sorts of civic clubs, non-profits, fraternities/sororities/whatever! Our good friends FLOSS group KidsOnComputers.org (who bring many computers to India, Morocco, Mexico etc) experienced a great increase in productivity when they adopted Slack. Slack integrates shockingly well with most other software, including Skype/irc, upon which some say it is based (similar idea to irc channels anyway). <a href="http://google.com/nonprofits">http://google.com/nonprofits</a> is no doubt feeling the heat from Slack's blow-away success at bringing civic-minded doers together (but cannot say so publicly ;)<br><br></div><div>b. <a href="http://telegram.me">http://telegram.me</a> used by ISIS and human rights groups, seems it does not yet support voice or a GUI buddy-list? Fedora folks seem to love it, and have good success, being heads-down style workers who have less need for sociable media? Recently expanded from a 1000-user limit to a 5000-user limit. Telegram is definitely going somewhere but I'm not sure where. Reports would be awesome from folks who've used it on a long-term basis?<br><br></div><div>c. <a href="http://whatsapp.com">http://whatsapp.com</a> by Facebook that is nearly ubiquitous across the developing world (but not yet the US/Canada/EU, as a result of SMS being so cheap) and supports end-to-end encryption since yesterday for those who care about playing cat+mouse with the NSA (I do, since I believe we must always watch the watchmen, but I admit the vast majority of the planet does not give a damn ;) I could not have been more impressed by teachers who built their own WhatsApp in-school networks in Ghana completely on their own (not unlike a mailing list or GHangout) to build solidarity and exchange lesson plan tips.<br><br></div><div>I should be using all 3 above, but I confess I am not yet. Our growing Haitian team is more than familiar with Skype & GHangouts, and will probably begin experimenting with all 3 above to see what efficiencies (more like it, completely different *qualitative* ways of looking at productivity) we can deliver. OpenStreetMap mentions even more options below, if you can sort out the wheat from the chaff: (warning, endless passive-aggressive bike-shaving / yak-shedding)<br><br><a href="https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2016-March/thread.html#75792">https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2016-March/thread.html#75792</a> (March 2016)<br><a href="https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2016-April/thread.html#75832">https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2016-April/thread.html#75832</a> (April 2016)<br></div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div dir="ltr"><div>--<br></div><div>Anish<br><br>P.S. skype-web is unsupported on Linux. For reference, see the description here - <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/skype/lifbcibllhkdhoafpjfnlhfpfgnpldfl" target="_blank">https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/skype/lifbcibllhkdhoafpjfnlhfpfgnpldfl</a><br>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ <a href="http://unleashkids.org" target="_blank">http://unleashkids.org</a> !</div></div>
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