One more thing. While we were testing Jitsi during the meeting, I mentioned I didn't know what this ZRTP security feature is. I've learnt a little about it from:
http://www.lumicall.org/encryption Essentially it's a security feature that allows you to verify that you're speaking to only the person on the other end - no one is sitting in between you listening to your call. Once an initial insecure connection is established, the software does some cryptographic tricks and displays a password on both your screens. If you both speak the password and can recognise the voice of the other person, you can be confident that your call is private. If you weren't able to recognise the other person's voice for some reason (say you hadn't met them in person), you would need to verify their identity using some other trusted method, eg. meet in person and learn their voice or use OpenPGP to send the shared password. Having to use OpenPGP would somewhat defeat the purpose of this quick and lightweight security feature though. Regards, Ben On 24/03/13 16:13, Ben Sturmfels wrote: > Hi Folks, > > Great to see you all last Thursday. Here's a summary of our meeting. > > Free software video calling: are we there yet? > ---------------------------------------------- > > We had an interesting session talking about and playing with video > calling in various free software programs such as Jitsi, Empathy and > Pidgin. Surprisingly these programs do seem to be somewhat compatible, > though recent versions seem to work the best. I learnt that the reason > for this is because they all use the XMPP/Jingle protocol. You just need > an XMPP (aka. Jabber) account and you're good to go. > > We were also able to get three people participating in a call at the > same time with Jitsi. > > The next steps for me are to: > > 1. Try calling a Windows user with Jitsi. > > 2. Try calling someone overseas. > > 3. Try a 3 person video call over the Internet (in our test we were on > the same network). > > I'll let you know how I go. Very exciting technology! > > We also talked a little about SIP audio calls (aka. VOIP) and services > provided by companies like Internode, MyNetFone etc. that serve as a > gateway to the normal telephone network. Many of you may already use a > service like this through a VOIP hardware device built in, or in > addition to your ADSL router. Free Software has supported SIP for quite > a while, but it has been a little unstable. > > > Trisquel 6.0 > ------------ > > I also gave an overview and demo of the new release of Trisquel version > 6.0, the fully-free software distribution of GNU/Linux, endorsed by the > Free Software Foundation. I've been using this distribution for several > years now for all my work and play and recommend it. > > Many GNU/Linux distributions can be used in freedom by avoiding certain > programs and drivers. Trisquel is different, in that it doesn't include > or offer *any* non-free software. I hope you'll consider it next time > you reinstall. > > > Coming up > --------- > > We also discussed some ideas for future meetings including: > > - e-book readers > - DRM in HTML 5 > > Alex also mentioned that the Melbourne Blender Society is planning a > project to make an open movie later this year: > > http://melbourneblender.wordpress.com/2013/03/03/february-meeting-notes-mbs-open-movie-project/ > > > Regards, > Ben > > > On 19/03/13 15:46, Ben Sturmfels wrote: >> Hi Folks, >> >> Sorry for the late announcement. I'm looking forward to seeing you all >> this Thursday night for Free Software Melbourne discussion group and >> dinner. >> >> I had an amazing experience this week; a video call using free software >> that worked beautifully. It's been a long wait for a free software >> equivalent to Skype. Perhaps we're close! I'd love to hear your >> experiences with video calling. >> >> Trisquel 6.0 was also released very recently; the fully-free distro >> endorsed by the FSF. I'll be giving a quick demo. >> >> Join us for all that and more free software chatter. >> >> Regards, >> Ben >> >> ---------------------------------------- >> Free Software Melbourne discussion group >> ---------------------------------------- >> >> Thursday 21 March, 6-9pm >> VPAC Head Office Training Room (see website) >> http://www.freesoftware.asn.au/melb/ >> >> Agenda: >> >> - Free software video calling: are we there yet? (discussion) >> >> - Trisquel 6.0 (demo and discussion) >> >> - Tasty dinner at a nearby restaurant >> > >
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