[Discuss] Zoom Meeting Alternatives

[Shirley Márquez Dúlcey]

Scaling up Brady Bunch mode to a huge number of people may or may not be
generally desirable for attendees. But it's essential for MODERATORS
because they have to watch all the video feeds to check for inappropriate
content. In a closed conference it might not be a big deal, but in a public
one you have to watch for people holding up hate speech signs or getting
naked.

On Wed, Aug 19, 2020 at 8:58 PM Bill Ricker <bill.n1vux at gmail.com> wrote:

> During the monthly BLU meeting, we had a side discussion on what besides
> the JITSI that we were using were available as Zoom alternatives in a
> post-SKYPE world. My notes follow. Additions welcome !
>
> Zoom Meeting Alternatives
>
>    - Zoom, Zoom webinar
>    - Jitsi/8x8 - FLOSS, Freemium, Commercial tiers. Cloud or self-hosted.
>    - BlueJeans (bought by VZ recently) has webinar model, and 1-100.
>    - WhereBy - was formerly FF/Google project
>    - G-Meet (in G-suite; free for COVID)
>    - Social media live modes - FB Live, Twitter:Periscope, etc. Mastodon?
>    - ScreenLeap is more webinar space, screen sharing.
>
> (Many of these require a log-in with the parent app, no anon use,
> unfortunately. A full comparison would need to cross ref which allow
> account-free joining meetings.)
>
> Front-ends
>
>    - OBS - Open Broadcast Studio - Jabr used for YT from MIT.
>    - StreamYard - feeds multiple syndication streaming CDNs, merged chats,
>    host/moderator controls
>    - Twitch does PiP as content-generator for streams.
>
> Notes
>
>    - in general: Android apps can't share screen/app because security;
>    other platforms allow prompt to approve sharing.
>    - If doing more people than would fit around a conference room or
>    seminar room table,
>    you probably want a "Webinar" mode with talking stick and formal
>    presenter/attendee difference,
>    Even if service will scale BradyBunch mode to 100 it doesn't make UX
>    sense to do even tho people used to Zoom think it's desirable.
>    - Jitsi has a bad reputation for scaling - see above re sane size of a
>    brady bunc NxN video meeting.
>    Turn off all cameras but speaker and Jitsi works to larger groups.
>    Especially with FF78+ or any Chrome. (FF77- lacks H.264 Simulcast)
>    - Jitsi private server can be set to default camera-mute, saves much
>    bandwidth, allows more many more folks in meeting. (Jitsi will fall
> over if
>    everyone joins with Camera on which is default on free public
> meet.jit.si
>    server. If they immediately toggle it off it'll be ok.)
>
>
> --
> Bill Ricker
> bill.n1vux at gmail.com
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/n1vux
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