It's a reasonable question and one we should continue to evaluate over time.
One reason we did not always like products like gotomeeting, etc. was cost. While community volunteers could grant access to their organizations resources, the community itself never decided to spend money on platforms. Freenode IRC is free to use. Another reason is cross platform compatibility; some of us used Linux workstations and these did not always play nicely with those applications. After this many years on IRC, it's second nature to me, but I also see the value considering alternative solutions if we can work through all the logistics and continue to keep barriers of access to a minimum. -- Ben Sent from my Nexus 6 On May 9, 2016 12:01 PM, "[email protected]" < [email protected]> wrote: I’d like to ask a general question about this since I am still fairly new to the community. Why has the Evergreen community opted to use IRC chat as an on-line meeting venue? The one time I used it I found it disconcerting in its antiquated look and feel and had difficulty with the etiquette. Why not use GoToMeeting, Blackboard Collaborate, or a similar product? The chat interface in these products is much closer to what most of us are used to and it would add in the possibility of using VOIP and screen sharing. I’ve been curious about this for a while.... Scott Scott Thomas Executive Director *PaILS / SPARK* (717) 873-9461 [email protected] [image: Description: Description: Training | SPARK – Pennsylvania's Statewide Library System] <http://www.palibrary.org/pails/> *From:* Open-ils-general [mailto: [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Barbara Cormack *Sent:* Monday, May 09, 2016 12:46 PM *To:* Evergreen Discussion Group <[email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Should we schedule another IRC practice time? I second what Stuart said; I'd be interested. Thanks! -- Barbara On Mon, May 9, 2016 at 9:04 AM, Forrest, Stuart <[email protected]> wrote: Yes please I missed the last one Stuart *From:* Open-ils-general [mailto: [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Yamil Suarez *Sent:* Monday, May 09, 2016 11:59 AM *To:* Evergreen Discussion Group *Subject:* [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Should we schedule another IRC practice time? Hello, Last week the IRC practice time went well, and we had a good bunch of folks trying out IRC. I wanted to check in if there was interest for a second practice time. I am all for it, but I wanted to verify that there was community interest. Remember to include your colleagues that are not on this list that may want to learn. I tend to pick times after 12 noon EST to allow those on the west coast to join, but I am willing to schedule something in the (east coast) morning too. Thanks in advance, Yamil -- Barbara Cormack Project Manager *Equinox Software - Open Your Library* 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457) [email protected] www.esilibrary.com
