Jekyll2024-03-18T13:05:08+01:00https://danielpocock.com/feed/webrtc.xmlDaniel Pocock’s personal blog | WebrtcSoftware engineer, Free, Open Source Software Consultant, Innovator, Fedora & Debian Developer
Mollamby, Conflicts of Interest vs Privacy2019-07-31T22:21:00+02:002019-07-31T22:21:00+02:00https://danielpocock.com/mollamby-conflict-of-interest-privacy<p>As the <a href="https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/2019-July/020878.html"><em>Mollamby</em></a> affair has emerged, some people have rushed to defend the privacy of Chris Lamb and Molly de Blanc or dismissed it as mere innuendo without understanding the ethical issues.</p>
<p>What is the difference between innuendo and incrimination? Evidence.</p>
<p>Privacy is a valid consideration, but it is not the only one. I delayed publishing my own blog about the subject while weighing the privacy implications against the ethical issues.</p>
<p>Let's consider some of the evidence backing up the <a href="https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/2019-July/020878.html">facts about <em>Mollamby</em></a>. Parts of the evidence have been redacted for the privacy of third parties but the material presented here accurately reflects the situation.</p>
<p>This is the opening comment sent by a student applying for GSoC in 2018 (<a href="https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/2019-July/020878.html">Fact 2</a>):</p>
<blockquote><pre>
Date: 14 March 2018
I am [redacted/student name], ... from [redacted/country].
I’m [redacted/relationship] of [redacted/full name]
</pre></blockquote>
<p>The student clearly identified a conflict of interest, giving the name of the other party and the type of relationship. The other party had also sent a similar email:</p>
<blockquote><pre>
Date: 12 March 2018
... there are some students who might be interested
in [redacted/project]. Even my [redacted/relationship] has been ....
</pre></blockquote>
<p>As they were honest and transparent from the outset, there is no question over their integrity and no need to discuss their identities.</p>
<p>This is the statement I made when agreeing to be a GSoC admin in 2018:</p>
<blockquote><pre>
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Re: Google Summer of Code 2018
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2018 08:41:49 +0100
From: Daniel Pocock <daniel@pocock.pro>
To: mollydb <deblanc@riseup.net>
On 22/01/18 02:25, mollydb <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-outreach/2018/01/msg00026.html">wrote</a>:
> I mmissed this on the application before! We need 2-5 administrators for
> the application. Who else wants to be one?
>
You can use my name temporarily while looking for other people to help
you in this role.
... [redacted/name of other community] ...
However, I can't officially commit to help with the duties of an
administrator right now.
Regards,
Daniel
</pre></blockquote>
<p>No volunteer is under any obligation to provide details of their personal life. This statement alone was made honestly and in good faith, that is what teamwork is all about.</p>
<p>A selection meeting was scheduled for 16 April 2018 and I was the one who reminded people about the conflict of interest (<a href="https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/2019-July/020878.html">Fact 3</a>). I was not a party to this conflict of interest. de Blanc both acknowledged and agreed with the way it was handled (<a href="https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/2019-July/020878.html">Fact 6</a>):</p>
<blockquote><pre>
<pocock> yes, but [redacted] is not involved in the
selection process because one candidate is [redacted]
<pocock> that could be one reason we are waiting
until the last minute to confirm the selections
[redacted/other mentor acknowledgement]
<mollydb> nice responsibile decision making :)
<mollydb> thanks for being so consciencious
</pre></blockquote>
<p>People had been reminded about it in a number of emails at each stage of the selection process, it wasn't sprung on people at the last minute. de Blanc had simply left the GSoC emails to other team members:</p>
<blockquote><pre>
Date: 12 July 2018
From: Molly de Blanc <deblanc@riseup.net>
As an additional note, I generally check my email once a week. For
anything immediate, -please- ping me on IRC as I'll be responsive there
(and can know to dive into my email).
</pre></blockquote>
<p>When alerts were sent about the conflict of interest in March and April, other team members were unaware that de Blanc wasn't reading them.</p>
<p>Technically, it was a special case that was not strictly covered by Google's official rules. Given the huge effort volunteers make interacting with students, nobody had made the extra effort to seek Google clarification.</p>
<p>Now let's look at the complaint that Stephanie Taylor from Google sent to Debian on 13 July 2018 (yes, that was Friday the 13th):</p>
<blockquote><pre>
Subject: Concerns around Debian GSoC students and conflict of interest
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2018 08:23:36 +0200
From: Stephanie Taylor <sttaylor@google.com>
To: [redacted/private gmail addresses of all Debian GSoC admins]
Hello Debian Org Admins,
It has come to our attention that [redacted/position in Debian],
[redacted/full name], is the [redacted/relationship] of [redacted/name], ...
This is incredibly disturbing as the Debian folks have been valued
members of the GSoC community for many years and this threatens the
integrity of the program.
</pre></blockquote>
<p>Taylor is complaining about conflicts of interest in Debian, this confirms <a href="https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/2019-July/020878.html">Fact 7</a>.</p>
<p>Who would investigate Taylor's complaint? Chris Lamb and Molly de Blanc. <em>Mollamby</em>.</p>
<blockquote><pre>
Subject: Re: Concerns around Debian GSoC students and conflict of interest
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2018 14:49:50 +0200
From: Molly de Blanc
To: Daniel Pocock
Just as a quick heads up, I'll be talking with the DPL later today to
get on the same page -- I know he also contacted Stephanie off-channel.
If you'd like to ping me on IRC, I can try to be online and accessible
(today turned into quite a busy day for me) at a time that works for you.
Cheers,
Molly
</pre></blockquote>
<p>Notice that de Blanc does not mention her conflict of interest (romantic relationship with the DPL, Chris Lamb) in that email. Lamb never mentioned it either. Neither of them recused themselves (<a href="https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/2019-July/020878.html">Fact 8</a>). I was travelling that weekend and couldn't make time to join a hastily organized meeting. As boyfriend and girlfriend, they had a meeting without the rest of the Debian GSoC admin team. When the boyfriend is also the leader of the project and when the girlfriend's conduct is in question, is it any surprise that another volunteer is blamed and the girlfriend takes over the team?</p>
<p>That email is the smoking gun: two people at the very top of the free software ecosystem (Debian and OSI) using a volunteer as a scapegoat for a communication breakdown that one of them had been party to.</p>
<p>This farce is further compounded by the fact the original complaint was about conflicts of interest.</p>
<em>Mollamby hid their own conflict of interest while investigating a conflict of interest.</em>
<p>Is this a new style of <em>disruptive</em> leadership? Or is it simply good old fashioned <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronyism">cronyism</a>?</p>
<p>Even this hidden conflict of interest may not be enough to justify discussing the relationship publicly. However, they have meted out severe punishments on other parties. de Blanc even went to FOSDEM and gave a talk boasting about demoting somebody and putting volunteers behind bars. If these people want to take on leadership positions and preach about harming other volunteers they also need to accept that their own conduct will come under public scrutiny. It is clearly not possible to talk about the way they both concealed and benefitted from a conflict of interest without also making their relationship a public matter. In this situation, the ethical transgressions heavily outweigh the concerns about their privacy.</p>
<p>What's more, I <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-outreach/2018/08/msg00108.html">announced my resignation from the Debian GSoC team in August 2018</a>, if people had not acted inappropriately after that, it is unlikely any of these facts would be under public scrutiny right now.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2019/07/msg00109.html">non-apology email</a> sent by the new DPL Sam Hartman, Debian confirms there were conflicts of interest and that Debian is completely unprepared for these situations:</p>
<blockquote><pre>
I regret that we didn’t have better tools for dealing with conflict of interest and hope we will develop those tools going forward.
...
The conflict of interest issue had no easy answer... There was not a
clear conflict of interest policy. Sometimes in situations like that
you don’t have good options.
</pre></blockquote>
<p>The GNOME community have also done an excellent job of reducing this complicated situation into a concise query to their own leadership. From the <a href="https://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-list/2019-July/msg00046.html">GNOME Foundation mailing list</a>:</p>
<blockquote><pre>
Nobody appears to be asking about Molly.
People are asking about you (Neil McGovern). You and Lamb
both come from this Debian Cambridge grouping.
You are the Executive Director.
How long did you know that your new hire
was also your friend Lamby's girlfriend?
Please respond transparently, we would all like
to see this cleaned up so there will be
no discomfort or embarrassment at <a href="https://2019.guadec.org/">GUADEC</a>.
</pre></blockquote>
<p>It is interesting to see that a student applying to GSoC appears to be demonstrating more integrity than the leader of the Debian Project and the OSI board president combined.</p>
<img src="https://danielpocock.com/assets/osi-board-2019-mollamby.jpg" alt="OSI Board, Chris Lamb, Molly de Blanc, Mollamby, Microsoft"/>
<em>Conflict of interest? OSI board meeting, Spring 2018, Microsoft, San Francisco</em>As the Mollamby affair has emerged, some people have rushed to defend the privacy of Chris Lamb and Molly de Blanc or dismissed it as mere innuendo without understanding the ethical issues.Leadership and gossip in Debian2019-07-27T03:09:00+02:002019-07-27T03:09:00+02:00https://danielpocock.com/leadership-and-gossip-in-debian<p>On a daily basis now, people ask me questions that remind me about the leadership problems in Debian. When I visit a free software event or another free software community, it comes up frequently.</p>
<p>It is a horrible situation. When people remind me about the emails sent by Chris Lamb in September 2018, there is nothing positive to say. It puts me in a position where there is no response other than asking them to question Lamb's credibility. This inevitably rubs off on Debian as a community.</p>
<p>When people realize that this issue relates to my private life and has nothing to do with my competence as a Debian Developer, they quickly apologize for intruding. On those occasions when I've explained the situation to people in any detail, the colour of their face has visibly changed, demonstrating an acute combination of sadness and anger at the way certain people in the Debian community, including the former leader, have behaved.</p>
<p>People have asked me why I didn't try to speak to Lamb. In fact, I tried. He lives in London, I visit there almost every month. I wrote to him numerous times and he always refused. Stonewalling.</p>
<p>Between September and December 2018, I also wrote to a number of other members of the project to try and set up a meeting. They either didn't respond or declined. Yet I kept hearing more and more reports of Lamb's gossipmongering.</p>
<p>In another blog, I revealed that one of the challenges my family faced was the death of my father. People simply can't understand why Lamb and his sidekicks would be undermining another Debian Developer, involved in the community for more than 20 years, at such a difficult time.</p>
<p>It is not easy to reduce a subject like that to a blog post. No cat picture can come close to explaining it. I don't intend to write more, nor can I, without violating the privacy of other people. Yet one of Lamb's missed opportunities as a leader is that he expected everything to be reduced to email or IRC. So he never actually knew any of this.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, somebody suggested taking a month off from Debian. It really misses the point. I never chose to have my private life and my professional life interconnected in this way. It was imposed on me by somebody who had the title of leader in an organization of 1,000 Developers but had dedicated more time to some people than others.</p>
<p>That brings me to another point: is everybody who has a public profile in the free software community going to be subject to similar attacks and criticism at a time of personal tragedy? Having mentored in GSoC and Outreachy for many years, I've frequently observed the challenges people go through making their first commit on a public repository or their first post to a mailing list. Many of them would never have done so if they saw what my family has been put through by rogue elements of the Debian community. The whole model of free, open source software development is predicated on working in a public and transparent manner. When people discover that collaborating publicly has such horrible side-effects for their family life, many may decline to work this way.</p>
<p>Ultimately, as the leader created a state of hostility through inappropriate gossip, the only real solution is for the current leader of the project to publicly denounce the gossip and put the issue to rest for once and for all.</p>On a daily basis now, people ask me questions that remind me about the leadership problems in Debian. When I visit a free software event or another free software community, it comes up frequently.Arrival at CommCon 20192019-07-08T12:24:00+02:002019-07-08T12:24:00+02:00https://danielpocock.com/commcon-2019-arrival<p>Last night I arrived at <a href="https://2019.commcon.xyz">CommCon 2019 in Latimer, Buckinghamshire</a>, a stone's throw from where I used to live in St Albans, UK. For many of you it is just a mouseclick away thanks to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe_eAP4ToqFLSxzvkTlNzUQ">online streaming</a>.</p>
<p>It is a residential conference with many of the leaders in the free and open source real-time communications and telephony ecosystem, together with many users and other people interested in promoting free, private and secure communications.</p>
<p>On Wednesday I'll be giving a talk about packaging and how it relates to RTC projects, given my experience in this domain as a Fedora, Ubuntu and Debian Developer.</p>
<img src="/assets/2019-07-08-commcon-dome.jpg"/>
<p><a href="https://letthegeekspeak.com/free-report/">David Duffet</a>, author of <em>Let the Geek Speak</em>, gave the opening keynote, discussing the benefits and disadvantages of free, open source software in telecommunications. This slide caught my attention:</p>
<img src="/assets/2019-07-08-commcon-david-duffet.jpg"/>
<p>where he talks about the burden of</p>
<blockquote><em>ruthless ungrateful expectations for continued service and evolution</em></blockquote>
<p>on developers and volunteers. This reminded me of <a href="https://danielpocock.com/google-influence-free-open-source-software-community-threats-sanctions-bullying/">some of the behaviour recently documented on my blog</a>.</p>
<p>CommCon organizers and sponsors, however, have found far more effective ways to motivate people: welcome gifts:</p>
<img src="/assets/2019-07-08-commcon-welcome-gift.jpg"/>
<p>There is some great wildlife too:</p>
<img src="/assets/2019-07-08-commcon-wildlife.jpg"/>Last night I arrived at CommCon 2019 in Latimer, Buckinghamshire, a stone's throw from where I used to live in St Albans, UK. For many of you it is just a mouseclick away thanks to online streaming.WebRTC and communications projects in GSoC 20162016-06-20T17:02:13+02:002016-06-20T17:02:13+02:00https://danielpocock.com/webrtc-sip-xmpp-projects-gsoc-2016<p>This year a <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/RTCProjects">significant number of students are</a> working on RTC-related projects as part of <a href="http://danielpocock.com/tags/gsoc">Google Summer of Code</a>, under the umbrella of the <a href="https://www.debian.org">Debian Project</a>. You may have already encountered some of them blogging on <a href="http://planet.debian.org">Planet</a> or participating in mailing lists and IRC.</p>
<h3>WebRTC plugins for popular CMS and web frameworks</h3>
<p>There are already a range of pseudo-WebRTC plugins available for CMS and blogging platforms like WordPress, unfortunately, many of them are either not releasing all their source code, locking users into their own servers or requiring the users to download potentially untrustworthy browser plugins (also without any source code) to use them.</p>
<p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/StudentApplications/MesutCanGurle">Mesut</a> is making plugins for genuinely free WebRTC with open standards like SIP. He has recently created the <a href="http://wpcall.org">WPCall</a> plugin for WordPress, based on the highly successful <a href="http://drucall.org">DruCall plugin for WebRTC in Drupal</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/StudentApplications/KeerthanaKrishnan">Keerthana</a> has started creating a similar plugin for MediaWiki.</p>
<p>What is great about these plugins is that they don't require any browser plugins and they work with any server-side SIP infrastructure that you choose. Whether you are routing calls into a call center or simply using them on a personal blog, they are quick and convenient to install. Hopefully they will be made available as packages, like the <a href="http://danielpocock.com/improving-drucall-and-jscommunicator-user-interface">DruCall packages for Debian and Ubuntu</a>, enabling even faster installation with all dependencies.</p>
<p>Would you like to try running these plugins yourself and provide feedback to the students? Would you like to help deploy them for online communities using Drupal, WordPress or MediaWiki to power their web sites? Please come and discuss them with us in the <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/free-rtc">Free-RTC mailing list</a>.</p>
<p>You can read more about how to run your own SIP proxy for WebRTC in the <a href="http://rtcquickstart.org">RTC Quick Start Guide</a>.</p>
<h3>Finding all the phone numbers and ham radio callsigns in old emails</h3>
<p>Do you have phone numbers and other contact details such as ham radio callsigns in old emails? Would you like a quick way to data-mine your inbox to find them and help migrate them to your address book?</p>
<p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/StudentApplications/Jaminy">Jaminy</a> is working on Python scripts to do just that. Her project takes some inspiration from the <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/telify/">Telify plugin for Firefox</a>, which detects phone numbers in web pages and converts them to hyperlinks for click-to-dial. The popular <a href="https://github.com/googlei18n/libphonenumber">libphonenumber</a> from Google, used to format numbers on Android phones, is being used to help normalize any numbers found. If you would like to test the code against your own mailbox and address book, please make contact in the <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/debian-data"><em>#debian-data</em></a> channel on <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/IRC/">IRC</a>.</p>
<h3>A truly peer-to-peer alternative to SIP, XMPP and WebRTC</h3>
<p>The team at <a href="https://www.savoirfairelinux.com/">Savoir Faire Linux</a> has been busy building the <a href="https://ring.cx/">Ring</a> softphone, a truly peer-to-peer solution based on the <a href="https://blog.savoirfairelinux.com/en/2015/ring-opendht-a-distributed-hash-table/">OpenDHT distribution hash table technology</a>.</p>
<p>Several students (<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/StudentApplications/SimonD%C3%A9saulniers">Simon</a>, <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/StudentApplications/OlivierGr%C3%A9goire">Olivier</a>, <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/StudentApplications/NicolasReynaud">Nicolas</a> and <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/StudentApplications/AlokAnand">Alok</a>) are actively collaborating on this project, some of them have been fortunate enough to participate at SFL's offices in Montreal, Canada. These GSoC projects have also provided a great opportunity to raise Debian's profile in Montreal ahead of <a href="https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf17">DebConf17 next year</a>.</p>
<h3>Linux Desktop Telepathy framework and reSIProcate</h3>
<p>Another group of students, <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/StudentApplications/MateusBellomo">Mateus</a>, <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/StudentApplications/UditRaikwar">Udit</a> and <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/StudentApplications/BalramP">Balram</a> have been busy working on C++ projects involving the <a href="https://telepathy.freedesktop.org">Telepathy framework</a> and the <a href="https://www.resiprocate.org/">reSIProcate SIP stack</a>. Telepathy is the framework behind popular softphones such as <a href="https://live.gnome.org/Empathy">GNOME Empathy</a> that are installed by default on the GNU/Linux desktop.</p>
<p>I previously wrote about starting a new <a href="http://danielpocock.com/enterprise-grade-sip-coming-to-telepathy">SIP-based connection manager for Telepathy based on reSIProcate</a>. Using reSIProcate means more comprehensive support for all the features of SIP, better NAT traversal, IPv6 support, NAPTR support and TLS support. The combined impact of all these features is much greater connectivity and much greater convenience.</p>
<p>The students are extending that work, completing the buddy list functionality, improving error handling and looking at interaction with XMPP.</p>
<h3>Streamlining provisioning of SIP accounts</h3>
<p>Currently there is some manual effort for each user to take the SIP account settings from their Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP) and transpose these into the account settings required by their softphone.</p>
<p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/StudentApplications/PranavJain">Pranav</a> has been working to close that gap, creating a JAR that can be embedded in Java softphones such as <a href="https://jitsi.org">Jitsi</a>, <a href="http://lumicall.org">Lumicall</a> and <a href="http://www.csipsimple.com">CSipSimple</a> to automate as much of the provisioning process as possible. ITSPs are encouraged to test this client against their services and will be able to add details specific to their service through Github pull requests.</p>
<p>The project also hopes to provide streamlined provisioning mechanisms for privately operated SIP PBXes, such as the <a href="http://rtcquickstart.org/guide/multi/pbx.html">Asterisk and FreeSWITCH servers</a> used in small businesses.</p>
<h3>Improving SIP support in Apache Camel and the Jitsi softphone</h3>
<p><a href="http://camel.apache.org/sip.html">Apache Camel's SIP component</a> and the widely known <a href="https://jitsi.org">Jitsi softphone</a> both use the <a href="https://jsip.java.net/">JAIN SIP library for Java</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/StudentApplications/NikVaes">Nik</a> has been looking at issues faced by SIP users in both projects, adding support for the <a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6914">MESSAGE method</a> in <em>camel-sip</em> and looking at why users sometimes see multiple password prompts for SIP accounts in Jitsi.</p>
<p>If you are trying either of these projects, you are very welcome to come and discuss them on the mailing lists, <a href="http://camel.apache.org/mailing-lists.html">Camel users</a> and <a href="https://jitsi.org/Development/MailingLists">Jitsi users</a>.</p>
<h3>GSoC students at DebConf16 and DebConf17 and other events</h3>
<p>Many of us have been lucky to meet GSoC students attending DebConf, <a href="https://fosdem.org">FOSDEM</a> and other events in the past. From this year, Google now expects the students to complete GSoC before they become eligible for any travel assistance. Some of the students will still be at <a href="https://debconf16.debconf.org">DebConf16</a> next month, assisted by the regular travel budget and the <a href="https://debconf16.debconf.org/about/bursaries/#diversity">diversity funding initiative</a>. Nik and Mesut were already able to travel to Vienna for the recent <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/MiniDebConf">MiniDebConf</a> / LinuxWochen.at</p>
<p>As mentioned earlier, several of the students and the mentors at Savoir Faire Linux are based in <a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Montreal">Montreal, Canada</a>, the destination for <a href="https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf17">DebConf17</a> next year and it is great to see the momentum already building for an event that promises to be very big.</p>
<h3>Explore the world of Free Real-Time Communications (RTC)</h3>
<p>If you are interesting in knowing more about the Free RTC topic, you may find the following resources helpful:</p>
<ul>
<li>Come and join the <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/free-rtc">Free-RTC mailing list</a>.</li>
<li>Debian community members are encouraged to <a href="https://rtc.debian.org">set up your SIP/XMPP/WebRTC account</a> and join the <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-rtc">debian-rtc list</a> to discuss your experiences using these services.</li>
<li>Start reading the <a href="http://rtcquickstart.org">RTC Quick Start Guide</a> or consider printing <a href="http://rtcquickstart.org/guide/RTCQuickStartGuide.pdf">the PDF version</a> to read on your commute</li>
<li>Try <a href="http://lumicall.org">Lumicall</a> and <a href="https://ring.cx/">Ring</a> apps for Android with your freinds</li>
</ul>
<h3>RTC mentoring team 2016</h3>
<p>We have been very fortunate to build a large <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/Projects#SummerOfCode2016.2FProjects.2FVoice_Webcam_and_Chat_Communication.Mentoring_team">team of mentors around the RTC-themed projects for 2016</a>. Many of them are first time GSoC mentors and/or new to the Debian community. Some have successfully completed GSoC as students in the past. Each of them brings unique experience and leadership in their domain.</p>
<h3>Helping GSoC projects in 2016 and beyond</h3>
<p>Not everybody wants to commit to being a dedicated mentor for a GSoC student. In fact, there are many ways to help without being a mentor and many benefits of doing so.</p>
<p>Simply looking out for potential applicants for future rounds of GSoC and referring them to the <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-outreach">debian-outreach mailing list</a> or an existing mentor helps ensure we can identify talented students early and design projects around their capabilities and interests.</p>
<p>Testing the projects on an ad-hoc basis, greeting the students at DebConf and reading over the <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/StudentApplications">student wikis</a> to find out where they are and introduce them to other developers in their area are all possible ways to help the projects succeed and foster long term engagement.</p>
<p>Google gives Debian a USD $500 grant for each student who completes a project successfully this year. If all 2016 students pass, that is over $10,000 to support Debian's mission.</p>This year a significant number of students are working on RTC-related projects as part of Google Summer of Code, under the umbrella of the Debian Project. You may have already encountered some of them blogging on Planet or participating in mailing lists and IRC. WebRTC plugins for popular CMS and web frameworks There are already a range of pseudo-WebRTC plugins available for CMS and blogging platforms like WordPress, unfortunately, many of them are either not releasing all their source code, locking users into their own servers or requiring the users to download potentially untrustworthy browser plugins (also without any source code) to use them. Mesut is making plugins for genuinely free WebRTC with open standards like SIP. He has recently created the WPCall plugin for WordPress, based on the highly successful DruCall plugin for WebRTC in Drupal. Keerthana has started creating a similar plugin for MediaWiki. What is great about these plugins is that they don't require any browser plugins and they work with any server-side SIP infrastructure that you choose. Whether you are routing calls into a call center or simply using them on a personal blog, they are quick and convenient to install. Hopefully they will be made available as packages, like the DruCall packages for Debian and Ubuntu, enabling even faster installation with all dependencies. Would you like to try running these plugins yourself and provide feedback to the students? Would you like to help deploy them for online communities using Drupal, WordPress or MediaWiki to power their web sites? Please come and discuss them with us in the Free-RTC mailing list. You can read more about how to run your own SIP proxy for WebRTC in the RTC Quick Start Guide. Finding all the phone numbers and ham radio callsigns in old emails Do you have phone numbers and other contact details such as ham radio callsigns in old emails? Would you like a quick way to data-mine your inbox to find them and help migrate them to your address book? Jaminy is working on Python scripts to do just that. Her project takes some inspiration from the Telify plugin for Firefox, which detects phone numbers in web pages and converts them to hyperlinks for click-to-dial. The popular libphonenumber from Google, used to format numbers on Android phones, is being used to help normalize any numbers found. If you would like to test the code against your own mailbox and address book, please make contact in the #debian-data channel on IRC. A truly peer-to-peer alternative to SIP, XMPP and WebRTC The team at Savoir Faire Linux has been busy building the Ring softphone, a truly peer-to-peer solution based on the OpenDHT distribution hash table technology. Several students (Simon, Olivier, Nicolas and Alok) are actively collaborating on this project, some of them have been fortunate enough to participate at SFL's offices in Montreal, Canada. These GSoC projects have also provided a great opportunity to raise Debian's profile in Montreal ahead of DebConf17 next year. Linux Desktop Telepathy framework and reSIProcate Another group of students, Mateus, Udit and Balram have been busy working on C++ projects involving the Telepathy framework and the reSIProcate SIP stack. Telepathy is the framework behind popular softphones such as GNOME Empathy that are installed by default on the GNU/Linux desktop. I previously wrote about starting a new SIP-based connection manager for Telepathy based on reSIProcate. Using reSIProcate means more comprehensive support for all the features of SIP, better NAT traversal, IPv6 support, NAPTR support and TLS support. The combined impact of all these features is much greater connectivity and much greater convenience. The students are extending that work, completing the buddy list functionality, improving error handling and looking at interaction with XMPP. Streamlining provisioning of SIP accounts Currently there is some manual effort for each user to take the SIP account settings from their Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP) and transpose these into the account settings required by their softphone. Pranav has been working to close that gap, creating a JAR that can be embedded in Java softphones such as Jitsi, Lumicall and CSipSimple to automate as much of the provisioning process as possible. ITSPs are encouraged to test this client against their services and will be able to add details specific to their service through Github pull requests. The project also hopes to provide streamlined provisioning mechanisms for privately operated SIP PBXes, such as the Asterisk and FreeSWITCH servers used in small businesses. Improving SIP support in Apache Camel and the Jitsi softphone Apache Camel's SIP component and the widely known Jitsi softphone both use the JAIN SIP library for Java. Nik has been looking at issues faced by SIP users in both projects, adding support for the MESSAGE method in camel-sip and looking at why users sometimes see multiple password prompts for SIP accounts in Jitsi. If you are trying either of these projects, you are very welcome to come and discuss them on the mailing lists, Camel users and Jitsi users. GSoC students at DebConf16 and DebConf17 and other events Many of us have been lucky to meet GSoC students attending DebConf, FOSDEM and other events in the past. From this year, Google now expects the students to complete GSoC before they become eligible for any travel assistance. Some of the students will still be at DebConf16 next month, assisted by the regular travel budget and the diversity funding initiative. Nik and Mesut were already able to travel to Vienna for the recent MiniDebConf / LinuxWochen.at As mentioned earlier, several of the students and the mentors at Savoir Faire Linux are based in Montreal, Canada, the destination for DebConf17 next year and it is great to see the momentum already building for an event that promises to be very big. Explore the world of Free Real-Time Communications (RTC) If you are interesting in knowing more about the Free RTC topic, you may find the following resources helpful: Come and join the Free-RTC mailing list. Debian community members are encouraged to set up your SIP/XMPP/WebRTC account and join the debian-rtc list to discuss your experiences using these services. Start reading the RTC Quick Start Guide or consider printing the PDF version to read on your commute Try Lumicall and Ring apps for Android with your freinds RTC mentoring team 2016 We have been very fortunate to build a large team of mentors around the RTC-themed projects for 2016. Many of them are first time GSoC mentors and/or new to the Debian community. Some have successfully completed GSoC as students in the past. Each of them brings unique experience and leadership in their domain. Helping GSoC projects in 2016 and beyond Not everybody wants to commit to being a dedicated mentor for a GSoC student. In fact, there are many ways to help without being a mentor and many benefits of doing so. Simply looking out for potential applicants for future rounds of GSoC and referring them to the debian-outreach mailing list or an existing mentor helps ensure we can identify talented students early and design projects around their capabilities and interests. Testing the projects on an ad-hoc basis, greeting the students at DebConf and reading over the student wikis to find out where they are and introduce them to other developers in their area are all possible ways to help the projects succeed and foster long term engagement. Google gives Debian a USD $500 grant for each student who completes a project successfully this year. If all 2016 students pass, that is over $10,000 to support Debian's mission.GSoC 2016 opportunities for Voice, Video and Chat Communication2016-03-23T04:55:11+01:002016-03-23T04:55:11+01:00https://danielpocock.com/gsoc-2016-voice-video-chat<p>I've advertised a GSoC project under Debian <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/Projects#SummerOfCode2016.2FProjects.2FVoice_Webcam_and_Chat_Communication.Improving_voice.2C_video_and_chat_communication_with_free_software">for improving voice, video and chat communication with free software</a>.</p>
<p>Replacing Skype, Viber and WhatsApp is a big task, however, it is quite achievable by breaking it down into small chunks of work. I've been <a href="https://project.freertc.org/issues?per_page=100">cataloguing many of the key improvements needed to make Free RTC products work together</a>. Many of these chunks are within the scope of a GSoC project.</p>
<p>If you can refer any students, if you would like to help as a mentor or if you are a student, please come and introduce yourself on the <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/free-rtc">FreeRTC mailing list</a>. If additional mentors volunteer, there is a good chance we can have more than one student funded to work on this topic.</p>
<h3>The deadline is Friday, 25 March 2016</h3>
<p>The student application <a href="https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/timeline">deadline</a> is 25 March 2016 19:00 UTC. This is a hard deadline for students. Mentors can still join after the deadline, during the phase where student applications are evaluated.</p>
<p><em>The Google site can be very busy in the hours before the deadline so it is recommended to try and complete the application at least 8 hours before the final deadline.</em></p>
<p>Action items for students:</p>
<ul>
<li>Register yourself on the <a href="https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/get-started/">Google Site</a> and submit an application. You can submit applications to multiple organizations. For example, if you wish to focus on the <a href="http://drucall.org">DruCall module for Drupal</a>, you can apply to both Debian and Drupal.</li>
<li>Join the <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/free-rtc">FreeRTC</a> mailing list and send a message introducing yourself. Tell us which topics you are interested in, which programming languages your are most confident with and which organizations you applied to through the Google site.</li>
<li>Create an application wiki page on <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2016/StudentApplications">the Debian wiki</a>. You are permitted to edit the page after the 25 March deadline, so if you are applying at the last minute, just create a basic list of things you will work on and expand it over the following 2-3 days</li>
</ul>
<h3>Introducing yourself and making a strong application</h3>
<p>When completing the application form for Google, the wiki page and writing the email to introduce yourself, consider including the following details:</p>
<ul>
<li>Link to any public profile you have on sites like <a href="https://github.com">Github</a> or bug trackers</li>
<li>Tell us about your programming language skills, list the top three programming languages you are comfortable with and tell us how many years you have used each</li>
<li>other skills you have or courses you have completed</li>
<li>any talks you have given at conferences</li>
<li>any papers you have had published</li>
<li>any conferences you have attended or would like to attend</li>
<li>where you are located and where you study, including timezone</li>
<li>any work experience you already have</li>
<li>any courses, exams or employment commitments you have between 22 May and 24 August</li>
<li>anybody from your local free software community or university who may be willing to help as an additional mentor</li>
</ul>
<h3>Further reading</h3>
<p>Please also see my other project idea, <a href="http://danielpocock.com/gsoc-2016-ham-radio-sdr">for ham radio / SDR projects</a> and my blog <a href="http://danielpocock.com/getting-selected-for-google-summer-of-code-2016">Want to be selected for Google Summer of Code 2016?</a>.</p>
<h3>If you are not selected in 2016</h3>
<p>We try to make contact with all students who apply and give some feedback, in particular, we will try to let you know what to do to increase your chances of selection in the next year, 2017. Applying for GSoC and being interviewed by mentors is a great way to practice for applying for other internships and jobs.</p>I've advertised a GSoC project under Debian for improving voice, video and chat communication with free software. Replacing Skype, Viber and WhatsApp is a big task, however, it is quite achievable by breaking it down into small chunks of work. I've been cataloguing many of the key improvements needed to make Free RTC products work together. Many of these chunks are within the scope of a GSoC project. If you can refer any students, if you would like to help as a mentor or if you are a student, please come and introduce yourself on the FreeRTC mailing list. If additional mentors volunteer, there is a good chance we can have more than one student funded to work on this topic. The deadline is Friday, 25 March 2016 The student application deadline is 25 March 2016 19:00 UTC. This is a hard deadline for students. Mentors can still join after the deadline, during the phase where student applications are evaluated. The Google site can be very busy in the hours before the deadline so it is recommended to try and complete the application at least 8 hours before the final deadline. Action items for students: Register yourself on the Google Site and submit an application. You can submit applications to multiple organizations. For example, if you wish to focus on the DruCall module for Drupal, you can apply to both Debian and Drupal. Join the FreeRTC mailing list and send a message introducing yourself. Tell us which topics you are interested in, which programming languages your are most confident with and which organizations you applied to through the Google site. Create an application wiki page on the Debian wiki. You are permitted to edit the page after the 25 March deadline, so if you are applying at the last minute, just create a basic list of things you will work on and expand it over the following 2-3 days Introducing yourself and making a strong application When completing the application form for Google, the wiki page and writing the email to introduce yourself, consider including the following details: Link to any public profile you have on sites like Github or bug trackers Tell us about your programming language skills, list the top three programming languages you are comfortable with and tell us how many years you have used each other skills you have or courses you have completed any talks you have given at conferences any papers you have had published any conferences you have attended or would like to attend where you are located and where you study, including timezone any work experience you already have any courses, exams or employment commitments you have between 22 May and 24 August anybody from your local free software community or university who may be willing to help as an additional mentor Further reading Please also see my other project idea, for ham radio / SDR projects and my blog Want to be selected for Google Summer of Code 2016?. If you are not selected in 2016 We try to make contact with all students who apply and give some feedback, in particular, we will try to let you know what to do to increase your chances of selection in the next year, 2017. Applying for GSoC and being interviewed by mentors is a great way to practice for applying for other internships and jobs.FOSSASIA 2016 at the Science Centre Singapore2016-03-18T08:37:31+01:002016-03-18T08:37:31+01:00https://danielpocock.com/fossasia-2016-singapore-1<p><a href="http://2016.fossasia.org">FOSSASIA 2016</a> is now under way. <a href="https://www.debian.org">Debian</a>, <a href="http://www.redhat">Red Hat</a> and <a href="http://ring.cx">Ring (Savoir-Faire Linux)</a> teams are situated beside each other in the exhibit area.</p>
<img src="http://danielpocock.com/sites/danielpocock.com/files/DSC_5332_cropped.JPG"/>
<em>Thanks to Hong Phuc from the FOSSASIA team for helping produce these new Debian banners</em>
<h3>Google Summer of Code 2016</h3>
<p>If you are keen to participate in GSoC 2016, please feel free to discuss it at the Debian or Ring tables or attend any of the sessions run by potential mentors at FOSSASIA this weekend. Please also see <a href="http://danielpocock.com/getting-selected-for-google-summer-of-code-2016">Getting selected for GSoC</a>, attending a community event like FOSSASIA is a great way to distinguish yourself from the many applications who apply each year. (<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Outreach">Debian Outreach / GSoC information</a>).</p>
<img src="https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/resources/downloads/GSoC2016Logo.jpg" width="540"/>
<h3>Real-time communications, WebRTC and mobile VoIP at FOSSASIA</h3>
<p>There are a number of events involving real-time communications technology throughout FOSSASIA 2016, please come and join us at these:</p>
<table>
<tr><th>Event</th><th>Time</th></tr>
<tr><td>Hands-on workshop with WebRTC and mobile VoIP (1 hr)</td><td>Saturday, 14:30</td></tr>
<tr><td>Talk: Free Communications with Free Software (20 min)</td><td>Saturday, 17:40</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ring: a decentralized and secure communication platform</td><td>Sunday, 13:00</td></tr>
</table>
<p>and the full program details, including locations, are <a href="http://2016.fossasia.org/schedule/">in the schedule</a>.</p>FOSSASIA 2016 is now under way. Debian, Red Hat and Ring (Savoir-Faire Linux) teams are situated beside each other in the exhibit area. Thanks to Hong Phuc from the FOSSASIA team for helping produce these new Debian banners Google Summer of Code 2016 If you are keen to participate in GSoC 2016, please feel free to discuss it at the Debian or Ring tables or attend any of the sessions run by potential mentors at FOSSASIA this weekend. Please also see Getting selected for GSoC, attending a community event like FOSSASIA is a great way to distinguish yourself from the many applications who apply each year. (Debian Outreach / GSoC information). Real-time communications, WebRTC and mobile VoIP at FOSSASIA There are a number of events involving real-time communications technology throughout FOSSASIA 2016, please come and join us at these: EventTime Hands-on workshop with WebRTC and mobile VoIP (1 hr)Saturday, 14:30 Talk: Free Communications with Free Software (20 min)Saturday, 17:40 Ring: a decentralized and secure communication platformSunday, 13:00 and the full program details, including locations, are in the schedule.FOSSASIA 2016, pgDay Asia 2016 and MiniDebConf Singapore2016-02-16T17:39:25+01:002016-02-16T17:39:25+01:00https://danielpocock.com/fossasia-2016-pgday-asia-minidebconf-singapore<p>The <a href="http://2016.fossasia.org">FOSSASIA 2016 conference</a> is taking place next month, 18-20 March at the <a href="http://www.science.edu.sg/">Science Centre Singapore</a>. The FOSSASIA community has also offered to host a <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FOSSASIA/MiniDebConf2016">MiniDebConf Singapore 2016</a> and <a href="http://2016.pgday.asia/">pgDay Asia 2016</a>. With sufficient interest from volunteers and participants, these events could do a lot to raise the profile of free software in the region.</p>
<p>Applications from speakers and exhibition tables are still possible <a href="http://2016.fossasia.org/speaker-registration">using the form</a>.</p>
<h2>Real-time communications technology at FOSSASIA 2016</h2>
<p>We are currently discussing a <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/free-rtc/2016-February/000191.html">Real-time lounge and demo area</a> for FOSSASIA, hopefully with a live linkup to the FSF's <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2016/">LibrePlanet 2016 in Boston</a>.</p>
<p>FOSSASIA have invited a number of developers to speak about SIP, XMPP, WebRTC and peer-to-peer communications solutions. Hopefully exact attendance and scheduling can be publicised soon.</p>
<h2>Sponsors needed</h2>
<p>Bringing leading free software developers to Singapore is not easy and further sponsorship is needed to ensure all the speakers who would like to participate can get there. If you or your organization can help with funding or accommodation <a href="mailto:contact@fossasia.org?subject=FOSSASIA%20sponsorship&cc=daniel@pocock.pro">please make contact</a>.</p>
<h2>Google Summer of Code</h2>
<p>If you <a href="https://danielpocock.com/getting-selected-for-google-summer-of-code-2016">want to be selected for Google Summer of Code 2016</a> and you live in Singapore or a neighbouring country, FOSSASIA could be a great opportunity to meet potential mentors, hack on things together and talk about project ideas. Free software development is a community activity and the more you engage with the community, the more confident mentors are likely to be about selecting you.</p>
<h2>Questions and contact</h2>
<p>For general questions about FOSSASIA 2016 and Singapore, please ask the <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/fossasia">FOSSASIA mailing list</a>. For questions about the MiniDebConf, see <a href="http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-discuss">debconf-discuss</a> and for pgDay Asia, please join the <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/pgday-asia">pgday-asia mailing list</a> or otherwise try <a href="http://www.postgresql.org/community/lists/subscribe/">pgsql-general or the seasiapug regional list</a>.</p>The FOSSASIA 2016 conference is taking place next month, 18-20 March at the Science Centre Singapore. The FOSSASIA community has also offered to host a MiniDebConf Singapore 2016 and pgDay Asia 2016. With sufficient interest from volunteers and participants, these events could do a lot to raise the profile of free software in the region. Applications from speakers and exhibition tables are still possible using the form. Real-time communications technology at FOSSASIA 2016 We are currently discussing a Real-time lounge and demo area for FOSSASIA, hopefully with a live linkup to the FSF's LibrePlanet 2016 in Boston. FOSSASIA have invited a number of developers to speak about SIP, XMPP, WebRTC and peer-to-peer communications solutions. Hopefully exact attendance and scheduling can be publicised soon. Sponsors needed Bringing leading free software developers to Singapore is not easy and further sponsorship is needed to ensure all the speakers who would like to participate can get there. If you or your organization can help with funding or accommodation please make contact. Google Summer of Code If you want to be selected for Google Summer of Code 2016 and you live in Singapore or a neighbouring country, FOSSASIA could be a great opportunity to meet potential mentors, hack on things together and talk about project ideas. Free software development is a community activity and the more you engage with the community, the more confident mentors are likely to be about selecting you. Questions and contact For general questions about FOSSASIA 2016 and Singapore, please ask the FOSSASIA mailing list. For questions about the MiniDebConf, see debconf-discuss and for pgDay Asia, please join the pgday-asia mailing list or otherwise try pgsql-general or the seasiapug regional list.FOSDEM RTC Dev-room schedule published2016-01-11T07:09:11+01:002016-01-11T07:09:11+01:00https://danielpocock.com/fosdem-2016-rtc-dev-room-schedule<p>If you want to help <a href="https://danielpocock.com/want-free-rtc-for-christmas-2016">make Free Real-time Communication (RTC) with free, open source software surpass proprietary solutions this year</a>, a great place to start is the <a href="http://danielpocock.com/fosdem-2016-free-rtc-dev-room-and-lounge">FOSDEM RTC dev-room</a>.</p>
<p>On Friday we published the <a href="https://fosdem.org/2016/schedule/track/real_time/">list of 17 talks accepted in the dev-room</a> (times are still provisional until the FOSDEM schedule is printed). They include a range of topics, including SIP, XMPP, WebRTC and peer-to-peer Real-time communication.</p>
<p>RTC will be very prominent at FOSDEM this year with <a href="https://danielpocock.com/fosdem-2016-rtc-main-track">several talks on this topic, including my own, in the main track</a>.</p>If you want to help make Free Real-time Communication (RTC) with free, open source software surpass proprietary solutions this year, a great place to start is the FOSDEM RTC dev-room. On Friday we published the list of 17 talks accepted in the dev-room (times are still provisional until the FOSDEM schedule is printed). They include a range of topics, including SIP, XMPP, WebRTC and peer-to-peer Real-time communication. RTC will be very prominent at FOSDEM this year with several talks on this topic, including my own, in the main track.Want to use free software to communicate with your family in Christmas 2016?2016-01-06T13:25:07+01:002016-01-06T13:25:07+01:00https://danielpocock.com/want-free-rtc-for-christmas-2016<p>Was there a friend or family member who you could only communicate with using a proprietary, privacy-eroding solution like Skype or Facebook this Christmas?</p>
<p>Would you like to be only using completely free and open solutions to communicate with those people next Christmas?</p>
<h3>Developers</h3>
<p>Even if you are not developing communications software, could the software you maintain make it easier for people to use <em>"sip:"</em> and <em>"xmpp:"</em> links to launch other applications? Would this approach make your own software more convenient at the same time? If your software already processes email addresses or telephone numbers in any way, you could do this.</p>
<p>If you are a web developer, could you <a href="http://danielpocock.com/is-webrtc-one-of-your-goals-for-2016">make WebRTC part of your product</a>? If you already have some kind of messaging or chat facility in your website, WebRTC is the next logical step.</p>
<p>If you are involved with the Debian or Fedora projects, please give <a href="https://rtc.debian.org">rtc.debian.org</a> and <a href="https://fedrtc.org">FedRTC.org</a> a go and share your feedback.</p>
<p>If you are involved with other free software communities, please come to the <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/free-rtc">Free-RTC mailing list</a> and ask how you can run something similar.</p>
<h3>Everybody can help</h3>
<p>Do you know any students who could work on RTC under <a href="http://danielpocock.com/getting-selected-for-google-summer-of-code-2016">Google Summer of Code, Outreachy</a> or any other student projects? We are particularly keen on students with previous experience of Git and at least one of Java, C++ or Python. If you have contacts in any universities who can refer talented students, that can also help a lot. Please encourage them to contact me directly.</p>
<p>In your workplace or any other organization where you participate, ask your system administrator or developers if they are planning to support SIP, XMPP and WebRTC. Refer them to the <a href="http://rtcquickstart.org">RTC Quick Start Guide</a>. If your company web site is built with <a href="http://www.drupal.org">the Drupal CMS</a>, refer them to the <a href="https://www.drupal.org/project/drucall">DruCall module</a>, it can be installed by most webmasters without any coding.</p>
<p>If you are using Debian or Ubuntu in your personal computer or office and trying to get best results with the RTC and VoIP packages on those platforms, please feel free to join the new <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-rtc/">debian-rtc</a> mailing list to discuss your experiences and get advice on which packages to use.</p>
<p>Everybody is welcome to <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/free-rtc">ask questions and share their experiences on the Free-RTC mailing list</a>.</p>
<p>Please also come and talk to us at <a href="http://danielpocock.com/fosdem-2016-rtc-main-track">FOSDEM 2016, where RTC is in the main track again</a>. FOSDEM is on 30-31 January 2016 in Brussels, attendance is free and no registration is necessary.</p>
<p>This <a href="http://danielpocock.com/mission-statement-for-free-rtc">mission</a> <em>can</em> be achieved with lots of people making small contributions along the way.</p>Was there a friend or family member who you could only communicate with using a proprietary, privacy-eroding solution like Skype or Facebook this Christmas? Would you like to be only using completely free and open solutions to communicate with those people next Christmas? Developers Even if you are not developing communications software, could the software you maintain make it easier for people to use "sip:" and "xmpp:" links to launch other applications? Would this approach make your own software more convenient at the same time? If your software already processes email addresses or telephone numbers in any way, you could do this. If you are a web developer, could you make WebRTC part of your product? If you already have some kind of messaging or chat facility in your website, WebRTC is the next logical step. If you are involved with the Debian or Fedora projects, please give rtc.debian.org and FedRTC.org a go and share your feedback. If you are involved with other free software communities, please come to the Free-RTC mailing list and ask how you can run something similar. Everybody can help Do you know any students who could work on RTC under Google Summer of Code, Outreachy or any other student projects? We are particularly keen on students with previous experience of Git and at least one of Java, C++ or Python. If you have contacts in any universities who can refer talented students, that can also help a lot. Please encourage them to contact me directly. In your workplace or any other organization where you participate, ask your system administrator or developers if they are planning to support SIP, XMPP and WebRTC. Refer them to the RTC Quick Start Guide. If your company web site is built with the Drupal CMS, refer them to the DruCall module, it can be installed by most webmasters without any coding. If you are using Debian or Ubuntu in your personal computer or office and trying to get best results with the RTC and VoIP packages on those platforms, please feel free to join the new debian-rtc mailing list to discuss your experiences and get advice on which packages to use. Everybody is welcome to ask questions and share their experiences on the Free-RTC mailing list. Please also come and talk to us at FOSDEM 2016, where RTC is in the main track again. FOSDEM is on 30-31 January 2016 in Brussels, attendance is free and no registration is necessary. This mission can be achieved with lots of people making small contributions along the way.Real-Time Communication in FOSDEM 2016 main track2015-12-29T20:12:29+01:002015-12-29T20:12:29+01:00https://danielpocock.com/fosdem-2016-rtc-main-track<p><a href="http://fosdem.org">FOSDEM</a> is nearly here and Real-Time Communications is back with a bang. Whether you are keen on finding the <a href="http://danielpocock.com/the-gold-standard-in-free-communications-technology">perfect privacy solution</a>, innovative new features or just improving the efficiency of existing telephony, you will find plenty of opportunities at FOSDEM.</p>
<h3>Main track</h3>
<p><em>Saturday, 30 January, 17:00</em> Dave Neary presents <a href="https://fosdem.org/2016/schedule/event/telco_on_free_software/">How to run a telco on free software</a>. This session is of interest to anybody building or running a telco-like service or any system administrator keen to look at a practical application of cloud computing with OpenStack.</p>
<p><em>Sunday, 31 January, 10:00</em> is my own presentation on <a href="https://fosdem.org/2016/schedule/event/free_communications/">Free Communications with Free Software</a>. This session looks at the state of free communications, especially open standards like SIP, XMPP and <a href="http://danielpocock.com/tags/webrtc">WebRTC</a> and practical solutions like <a href="http://www.drucall.org">DruCall (for Drupal)</a>, <a href="http://lumicall.org">Lumicall (for Android)</a> and much more.</p>
<p><em>Sunday, 31 January, 11:00</em> Guillaume Roguez and Adrien Béraud from Savoir-faire Linux present <a href="https://fosdem.org/2016/schedule/event/universal_network/">Building a peer-to-peer network for Real-Time Communication</a>. They explain how their <a href="https://ring.cx/en/documentation/about-ring">Ring</a> solution, based on <a href="https://blog.savoirfairelinux.com/en/2015/ring-opendht-a-distributed-hash-table/">OpenDHT</a>, can provide a true peer-to-peer solution.</p>
<h3>and much, much more....</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://wiki.xmpp.org/web/Summit_19">XMPP Summit 19</a> is on January 28 and 29, the Thursday and Friday before FOSDEM as part of the <a href="https://fosdem.org/2016/fringe/">FOSDEM Fringe</a>.</li>
<li>The FOSDEM Beer Night on Friday, 29 January provides a unique opportunity for Real-Time Communication without software</li>
<li>The Real-Time Lounge will operate in the K building over both days of FOSDEM, come and meet the developers of your favourite RTC projects</li>
<li>The Real-Time dev-room is the successor of the previous XMPP and Telephony dev-rooms. The Real-Time dev-room is in K.3.401 and the schedule is <a href="http://danielpocock.com/fosdem-2016-rtc-dev-room-schedule">discussed here</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Volunteers and sponsors still needed</h3>
<p>Please come and join the <a href="https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/free-rtc">FreeRTC</a> mailing list to find out more about ways to participate, the Saturday night dinner and other opportunities.</p>
<p>The FOSDEM team is still fundraising. If your company derives benefit from free software and events like FOSDEM, please <a href="https://fosdem.org/2016/about/sponsors/">see the sponsorship pages.</p>
<a href="http://fosdem.org"><img src="https://fosdem.org/2016/support/promote/wide.png"/></a>FOSDEM is nearly here and Real-Time Communications is back with a bang. Whether you are keen on finding the perfect privacy solution, innovative new features or just improving the efficiency of existing telephony, you will find plenty of opportunities at FOSDEM. Main track Saturday, 30 January, 17:00 Dave Neary presents How to run a telco on free software. This session is of interest to anybody building or running a telco-like service or any system administrator keen to look at a practical application of cloud computing with OpenStack. Sunday, 31 January, 10:00 is my own presentation on Free Communications with Free Software. This session looks at the state of free communications, especially open standards like SIP, XMPP and WebRTC and practical solutions like DruCall (for Drupal), Lumicall (for Android) and much more. Sunday, 31 January, 11:00 Guillaume Roguez and Adrien Béraud from Savoir-faire Linux present Building a peer-to-peer network for Real-Time Communication. They explain how their Ring solution, based on OpenDHT, can provide a true peer-to-peer solution. and much, much more.... XMPP Summit 19 is on January 28 and 29, the Thursday and Friday before FOSDEM as part of the FOSDEM Fringe. The FOSDEM Beer Night on Friday, 29 January provides a unique opportunity for Real-Time Communication without software The Real-Time Lounge will operate in the K building over both days of FOSDEM, come and meet the developers of your favourite RTC projects The Real-Time dev-room is the successor of the previous XMPP and Telephony dev-rooms. The Real-Time dev-room is in K.3.401 and the schedule is discussed here. Volunteers and sponsors still needed Please come and join the FreeRTC mailing list to find out more about ways to participate, the Saturday night dinner and other opportunities. The FOSDEM team is still fundraising. If your company derives benefit from free software and events like FOSDEM, please see the sponsorship pages.