Free communications with Free Software
Is there any credible way to build a trustworthy communications platform without using free software?
- Track: Communications
- Room: K.1.105 (La Fontaine)
- Day: Sunday
- Start: 10:00
- End: 10:50
At FOSDEM 2013, leading developers of free real-time communications software dared to get up on stage and ask the question "Can we replace Skype, Viber, Twitter and Facebook?". Was this the right question and how does it relate to free software development today and in the future? Pocock talks about what has changed since then and where things are going in this domain in the year ahead, especially with the emergence of WebRTC and the ubiquity of browsers that support it and the opportunities this has created for the world of web development and interaction with other open systems.
Can you imagine a world where phone communication works with all the benefits of email (but without spam)? Per-minute charges eliminated, flexibility for developers to customize the experience with standard scripting languages like Python or JavaScript and organizations of any size able to assert their identity and brand securely using SIP and XMPP addresses?
Is this a worthwhile vision? What do each of us - developers, sysadmins and end users - need to do to make it happen? What will be the alternative outcome - for both society in general and fans of free technology in particular - if we stand back and allow proprietary solutions to run rampant?
This session will survey some of the free software solutions that exist today and ways you can participate in their improvement and deployment to help realize this vision.
Speakers
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Daniel Pocock |