Re: [GnomeMeeting-devel-list] Interest for GM 2.00

[Damien Sandras <dsandras seconix com>]

Le mercredi 30 novembre 2005 à 16:29 +0100, Conrad Beckert a écrit :
> Hi Damien
> 
> >There are today 4 categories of users :<
> You forgot:
> 5) Companies which run commercial Vidoconferencing systems like Polycom or
> Tandberg and want to extent it's reach to include the desktop.
> 
> OK - not many do this today. Neither did the bank I'm working with - though
> they have some Polycom collecting dust. The reason is that to schedule a
> videoconference one has to announce it some days in advance to the IT
> department guys (that they have time to swipe the dust off :-)  ) So bank
> employees use the standard voice only phone instead
> 
> What a pity!! Desktop Videoconferencing would offer:
> 1. One actually can see, who e.g. is in the meeting room at the other end and
> is listening.
> 2. Often it is hard to distingush voices on the phone - especially if a) you
> don't know them well, b) they talk mixed (and are streamlined and cloned
> standard employees fond in so many large organisations :-)  ) c) talk in e.g.
> English rather than their/our mother tongue. - Even a flickering QCIF image
> would make a huge difference.
> 3. Though the video is sometimes crude, it's enough to show a quickly drawn
> sketch to the other side which says more then a 5 minute explanation.
> 4. Both specialisation/segmentation and travel cost rose at the same time
> increasing the need for light weight, easy to manage, well integrated
> colaboration tools.
> 
> My "dream" tool would:
> - be robust and easy to install
> - integrate with Polycoms (they still mostly H323 but feature higher Video
> Codecs)
> - integrate with the normal phone system for i.e. one can call someone on one
> number and the call gets routed to a) Video Softphone b) standard (IP??) phone
> at the desk c) home or cell phone. Asterisk can handle this.
> 
> Gnomemeeting in conjunction with other Open Source tools such as Asterisk or
> GnuGK OpenMCU 1.x comes close in most aspects. (I don't know much of the
> Polycoms and Tandbergs)
> Desktop video is a market that is around for some years but still not really
> developed.
> 
> >I have some doubts about the future of the project. I know that it is a
> recurrent subject with me since I started it back in 2000...<
> Please don't go away - we need you :-)
> 
> > GnomeMeeting was the first "easy-to-use" multi-platform softphone.<
> Well, it is still the only decent one on the Market that reached a certain
> level of maturity. Lets compare:
> - Netmeeting - not a good citizen on the Net (uses random ports, NAT hell)
> Windows only
> - Skype - call other skypers or POTS. All calls routed through Skype servers
> abroad (i.e. away from local legislation - so how to trust them your corporate
> data. While this is not an issue when you say "hello, I'm fine, see you
> tomorrow" it is when it comes to industrial espionage. And this starts at low
> level nowadays - small hightech startup is enough to appear within their
> reach)
> - Messengers like Yahoo and MSN - same privacy issues as with Skype. You're at
> mercy of those companies - no integration at all.
> - Other proprietary tools such as Maratech etc. -> same as skype, bad
> integration
> - xten - hard contenter but a) relatively hard to set up b) prohibitive
> pricing (no demo version available, focus mainly on SIP providers and telcos)
> c) SIP only
> - Neos (http://www.neosmt.com) - nice integration of H323, instant messenger
> and whiteboard - something I'd like to see Gnomemeeting to develop (at least a
> module of it which provides the voip/video part and integrates well with other
> components) Anyway, I use Neos for those endpoints who cannot be convinced to
> convert to Linux and can't use Netmeeting for firewalling issues.
> - everything else is immature or "experimental" (e.g. Java sip-communicator)
> 
> > I insist on the "multi-platform" aspect, as the code is portable.<
> You forgot to mention "multi-protocol"  once sip is ready for prime time.
> 
> >(However, nobody is maintaining the MacOSX port, nobody is maintaining
> the FreeBSD port, and we have to do the WIN32 port ourselves (thanks
> Julien)).<
> Thank you guys to do that. I'm looking so much forward to have the Windows
> port to reduce complexity.
> 
> >However, few people are using Asterisk, or a corporate IPBX supporting
> SIP AND a softphone running on GNU/Linux. So I think few people really
> need SIP.<
> Well, don't be too impatient. H323 is nuts when it comes to networking. SIP
> behaves a lot better. So it's worth converting. (problem: Windows client, qcif
> issue)
> 
> Asterisk definitely has its place in the small business, soho and even midcap
> world as it offers a lot of features and integrates well with existing ISDN
> and pots infrastructures. Gnomemeeting can be a nice building block in this
> model.
> 
> >That means that GnomeMeeting has a small "market share" (the GNU/Linux
> Desktop users) and that "market share" is even smaller if we think to
> the market share represented by the fraction of those users who want a
> softphone.<
> Well see "softphone" as part of a supplent (video/presence/whiteboard) to your
> desktop phone. It can extend the reach of both common "desktop items" - the
> telephone and the PC by integrating them into a multimedia communication
> platform.
> 
> >Things would be so different on WIN32...<
> Indeed! BTW: Is there a alpha or even beta yet one could download and test?
> 
> >So you, GnomeMeeting users, what do you think of that?
> Should I start another project and develop slowly on GnomeMeeting, or should I
> continue full-speed?<
> I hope I could raise your spirit and convince you to stay at the ball :-)
> 
> You (or better "we" :-)  ) should try to position Gnomemeeting as a module for
> interaction and integrated communication. This would require to be more
> present in Asterisk or Yate (http://yate.null.ro/pmwiki/) circles and focus on
> consultants etc.
> 
> I'd like to know, if my points are rasonable :-) So please answer and post
> your opinion
> 

I think they are. But very much is relying only on me or Julien, which
is bad. We would need more developers to see more "new" features. 
-- 
 _      Damien Sandras
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