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

["Conrad Beckert" <conrad_b iname com>]

>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. <
Well, probably there would be more if we could atract consultancies which
actually offer Gnomemeeting as part of their portfolio.

Just to give you an impression of what I mean: Check out
http://www.egroupware.org and see who is behind the project. The main
exponents seem to be folks from companies offering integrated communication
and colaboration solutions (and Gnomemeeting is nothing else)

At events such as the Linuxtag (my German prospective - there should be
similar events in the Benelux or France as well) one always sees a lot of
companies offering some Asterisk solutions - mostly hook it up with
traditional PBXes using the ISDN protocol -so popular here. The trick is to
widen their minds to consider everything be building blocks of the same issue:
how to make people work together despite of geographic distances.

When I tell my VoIP / video stories, I usually get good feedback: People are
interested to have something like what I mentioned above. I could probably
convince one or two to deploy something and even pay for it. (though it would
be a tough job to convince people to convert to desktop Linux first - that's
why Windows Gnomemeeting is so important)

But, given my experience with all the issues of a) Windows clients, such as
the mediocre Netmeeting b) the unfriendly H323 protocoll, c) firewalls and NAT
routers d) unresolved, unspecific issues such as dropped calls or dreadful
noise,I know in advance, such a presentation would end up in a desaster.

So what I try to set up is a demonstration platform that actually works: send
someone a CD, say "install this and open port x,y and z on your firewall) and
give me a call" and it works! Beeing able to convince e.g. the client whom I
develop a website for to drop MSN (as it is "dangerous" :-) ) would provide me
the means to run all the hurdles, to brush up my C++ skills, learn the tool
chain etc.

So before starting this we should develop a vision where it is going to and
which features would be missing. (btw: OpenOffice has a section in their
website on how to participate and develop - probably Gnomemeeting would need
that as well - some links to "developping in 30 days" would be a start at
least)

What do you think?
Conrad

PS: I could certainly do some testing - actually I've done a lot to get it
work in the previous couple of months. Meanwhile I'm on a videoconference for
1-2 hours each day. :-)
Probably I could make the results more helpful for you by providing feed back.
I'm still with version 1.2.2 -thank God it can coexist.


PPS: Some guy in my Linux club whose Girl friend is deaf looks for an
application to replace their aging ISDN picture phone which she uses to "talk"
in gesture language. He asked me to give him an introduction to Gnomemeeting.
That's probably a market as well. (i.e. promote it to the respective
institutions such as "The National Association Of The Deaf and Hearing
Impaired")

Conrad