We have proposal to publish a statement on fsf.org.in urging especially educational institutes to adopt free software for video conferencing and avoid Zoom, Google Meet and other nonfree software.

We had a meeting about this and created the very rough first draft. We have just collected the points but have not organized them yet. The pad link is here https://pad.disroot.org/p/videoconferencing . Please send your comments/suggestions as a reply in the mailing list or directly in the pad.

I forgot to mention that the last date to comment is 9th Feb 2021.

On 2021, ഫെബ്രുവരി 3 5:11:48 PM IST, Snehal M Shekatkar snehal@inferred.co wrote:

This is an excellent initiative. I had some informal chat with Pravin regarding this a few months ago, but that never materialized. At our department, we have been using jitsi meet over an year now virtually without any issue. I would like to only add that recorded lectures are usually good enough but are still secondary to the live lectures in terms of quality because the instructor cannot ask questions before explaining a particular concept. I will also be teaching a class in IISER Pune this time, and even such premier institute has not thought about their own BBB server, and has instead resorted to Google classroom. What I find is that the problems with the non-free softwares are not well appreciated even by the computer literates.

Thanks for sharing your example, I think highlighting Free Software video conferencing solutions already in use in education institutions will encourage more institutions to try it.

I think we should add a case studies section with quotes from students and teachers.

I will think more about the content and will write here so that we all could discuss before finalizing. Thanks so much for the initiative.

Best regards, SS

Hi Ravi, to be very honest, the deadline was announced too late. Is there any possibility of extending it? Most academicians are super busy these days but would certainly like to contribute.

Regards, SS

Thanks! Would 18th Feb work? I had asked some people I know about this and some of them have asked me one more week. Again, I am not sure how much they will contribute, but even for me at least 2-3 days more will allow me to add things which we have been using (Moodle, Nextcloud, simplescreenrecorder, xournal, signalapp) that have not been mentioned in the document so far.

If it is fine, I would also like to include a 2-3 line statement from our head that can go under "examples" or a similar heading. This is not intended as an advertisement for our department, but I know no other institute that has successfully run all educational activities (live lectures, recorded lectures, exams, interviews and vivas) solely using Free software since last year. This can become a positive impetus for others since many seem to think that this is a next to impossible task.

Thanks and regards, SS

I seem to have misunderstood the purpose of the article then. Apologies. If the article intends to focus only on videoconferencing, then I think pretty much everything is already there. Perhaps we should only add "simplescreenrecorder" which lets one to record the whole screen with audio. This is very useful when one doesn't want to connect with services like Dropbox or Google drive to record. I am not sure whether this should go in the document, but if this sounds useful, I request Ravi to include it at appropriate place.

Thanks and Regards, SS

That's an extremely valuable information Ravi. Many thanks for these. I think there is nothing further to add from my side. Also, once again I would like to thank you for taking this initiative. I would be happy to participate in future meetings related to the use of free software in academia.

Thanks and regards, SS

Hi Ravi,

Sorry for the late reply. What I have in mind is similar to what we were discussing on this thread. Software requirements for teaching a course online involves much more than videoconferencing. Although some people may realize that using a proprietary software for conducting a live class is harmful, they may still keep using non-free softwares for other activities. My teaching experience during the lockdown and afterwards has made me aware of several such things:

1. One needs a platform where course material (recorded videos, notes, assignments etc) could be put. Students would then access the material from their. Fortunately, our dept has been using Moodle for this since 2012 or so. However, most teachers I know use Google drive, Google docs, Dropbox or something similar and also force the students to use these.

2. One also needs a way to conduct short exams. Again, although we use Moodle for this as well, people tend to use services like Google classroom.

3. For recording the videos, one may need a recorder that either records the whole screen independently of the videoconferencing service being used (Like simplescreenrecorder). Some people even in our department tend to use dropbox + jitsi combo.

4. A digital writing pad has become a regular thing since often a teacher needs to quickly draw or write something (similar to writing on a whiteboard). For many such pads, there needs to be something on the screen to "draw on". I have seen people using Microsoft Paint or similar non-free programs. (People at our place use a Free Software called Xournal. I am sure people on this group know better options.)

5. Although a sizeable fraction of teachers uses GNU-Linux for teaching related activities, most don't. This goes beyond videoconferencing. For example, for subjects that need programming, teachers always tend to recommend the use of non-free IDEs that are developed specifically for operating systems like Microsoft Windows or MacOS. While I agree that most students learn one of these as their first OS, there is no reason to continue the use of these even for advanced coding courses. Added to this, there are OS specific browsers (our university specifically recommends Google chrome at several places including filling exam forms).

6. Seldom student consent is taken when it comes to contacting them using instant messengers, and WhatsApp seems to be the de facto choice. In many colleges, no other option is even provided. It is simply assumed that everybody uses it, and it is fine to use it. Even important announcements (exam dates, change of schedule) are communicated through it. A free software option like Signalapp, or even better Quicksy is not used at most places. A student either joins the WhatsApp group or misses everything. The same can be said about Google forms, YouTube and so on.

I feel that it is important to raise awareness about such issues apart from Videoconferencing tools being used. I hope that people on this list would agree with these points, and we will collectively come up with a document similar to the one that was recently prepared.

Thanks and regards, SS

The article Better than Zoom and Google Meet: Try these Free Software powered video conferencing apps and services has been published here https://fsf.org.in/article/better-than-zoom/