90 euro seems like a bargain if it provides an avenue to becoming independent from Zoom and getting a videoconferencing tool that doesn’t break every 10 minutes. But that’s just me.
How about we pick this up when we do the budget for Q3-4?
Yeah, that we can only know when we try. We did a test with 5 people on the call, worked well. But then so does OpenTalk.
for the record. this is the answer from open talk regarding our hickup on the meeting of the 15 april.
We had a partly broken network connection in the data-center that made the switches to use another network and causing the interruptions. These switches happened a few times until we replaced the connection.
It fits in the time frame you described.
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my 0.2 cents. I tried whereby on call many times on another project, with about 10-15 people and never had an issue.
although, if it was only me i would, save those 90 eur and go decentralized: try to find another org that host us and let’s use their jitsi instance or whereby subscription. but this requires some search.
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Jitsi we tried in all possible set-ups with Team Building at the time. Never worked to satisfaction.
It works well if you run your own server and optimize it. The free version is a bust.
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Hello @reef-it
Having read through the topic I just want to check if i understand correctly:
We are looking for functional video conferencing software that is ethical and cheap.
In general people like how Zoom functions but it doesn’t meet the ethics criteria.
from an ideological point of view Jitsy is a good solution but the free version isn’t that performant as a result of it’s very limited server capacity.
Considering there isn’t a good solution available right now we are using Ugne’s professional Zoom account making us very dependent on her availability.
If what I am saying so far makes sense: I have some friends working for a Belgian web hosting firm. They have their own servers in Belgium and the Netherlands. The company is named Cloudstar or Nomeo depending on the service you want.
I could look into the pricing with them for a server that can run Jitsy for us (30 - 40 simultaneous connections). I don’t have any experience setting up a platform like that but I can look into it. Maybe try to set something up and test it for a month or so to see if we are happy with the result.
Another quick fix I can offer, probably similar to Ugne’s: I have access to a Microsoft Teams enterprise account through work so I can also create online meetings. Time and participants won’t be an issue. I don’t like Microsoft but this at least reduces the dependency on a singular Zoom account that only one person can manage.
Thoughts?
Regards
Gaultier
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This would work as a test.
This would also work, but indeed as a quick fix.
The second solution seems available regardless, if it is true that Microsoft offers Teams for free to ASBLs.
The first solution – beyond the testing phase, which is good regardless – could turn put to depend on your decision on whether to join The Reef as full members. It would be inconvenient if we were to depend on a technology that no permanent member understands!
But OK, anything that you can test quickly and cheaply is a win.
thanks Gaultier, this is the company you are mentionning. Cloud Servers & multi-datacenter infrastructuur via Cloudstar. just putting it here for the record
I have installed once a self-hosted jitsi instance on my own servers hosted on contabo. it’s a great idea but in order to make this work we also need someone who knows how to do the installation and maintenance and it’s not so easy to do. you need an orchestra of docker containers. it seems to me like an overkill for us.
for me the way to go is to find a jitsi instance or an organization that lets us use their own instance.
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Thanks for the feedback @manuelpueyo, @alberto!
I am still interested in trying to host it ourselves but I understand i might be too complicated. I will have a talk with some friends tomorrow to get their insights and consider it as a research project for now 
I will keep you posted!
I don’t immediately know anyone who has their own instance but I will try and ask around via LinkedIn. Maybe I will find a lead 
Regarding free Teams for ASBL, I am not aware of this but I don’t mind looking into it as well. Knowing Microsoft they will probably train their A.I. on our content in exchange or something. I will see what I can find out.
Regards!
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Good point. Grateful for what you can find out.
hi @reef-it
don’t know where we are at with the online meeting tool: continue with opentalk or not…
in case you are not aware (also saw a mail in the proton mailbox):
No, I cancelled the subscription after i was told in no uncertain terms we cannot continue, and budgeted 90 EUR for a Whereby subscription in Q3-4.
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@Alberto, can I subscribe for Whereby with the reef account and ask a refund to the asbl, or what is the correct way of working?
That is the correct way of working.
- If they accept bank transfers (domiciliation) that’s preferred, as we can then pay directly from the ASBL’s bank account. If not, credit card, and we will reimburse you every year.
- Remember to save the login credentials in the usual place.
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We no longer use Opentalk as an online video conferencing tool but Whereby.
Login credentials can be found in the IT folder on nextcloud.
Basically they work with rooms (we can have up to 3) which have fixed links, not with seperate meetings. I defined two rooms, the links are in the login credentials.
(alberto: it was with credit card, i will introduce it in FreeAgent as soon as it’s deducted from my account)
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@reeflings we have been using Whereby for a little while and it works flawlessly, except for one thing: our Pro account will only support 12 video feeds at a time. The 13th person that joins a meeting needs to stay off camera.
(Partial) solution: upgrade to Business. This gives us 24 simultaneous video feeds, plus some other perks. It costs an extra 30 USD a year – 120 instead of 90 USD.
Shall we upgrade? What do people think?
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We start to use the hand signals more and more and hope this will continue. So absolute in favour of the upgrade.
It still has a limitation to 24 video feeds, but we will be 22 households max so this should be ok normally.
For the future online presentations, i guess i will be unlikely that there will be more than 24 participants so no problem either and less of a need to have here video feeds for everyone.
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Update about this: the upgrade costs a lot more than we thought.
- The yearly cost of a Business account is USD 119.90 per host, and the minimum number of host that a client has to purchase is 3. So we would pay USD 360 per year.
- Whereby does not issue refunds. So, until the end of July next year, we would have two accounts, the current one and the new Business one.
Do we still want to do it? @reeflings
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Can we not simply rotate the camera moment? If someone has something really urgent or important to say and needs/ wants to be seen they can get their camera moment by having others disconnecting momentarily. I wonder if it’s worth paying more for a function that people might decide to not use intentionally because they simply want to attend a meeting from the comfort of their pajamas or dirty hair and not be judged by it.
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