Human communications approach, VOIP improvement, was- Re: [clue-talk] BerkeleyTIP Great progress VOIP...

[Nate Duehr]

john_re wrote:

> My main personal goal is to create a monthly meeting that people all
> over the world can easily have voice communications ability with.  So
> I'm looking for some combination of implementation ease &
> inexpensiveness [free is nice  ;)  ].

When we were a smaller company (or should I say, not owned by a large 
public one) we used to have demo systems and the people in "charge" of 
them were a lot more local.

I wish we still had that, special "deals" could be made.  Back then, I 
could offer up the ability for you to hit up one of the big boxes with 
SIP traffic during specified times when it wasn't busy/was not being 
used for customer demos.

Oh well, simpler times...

> I'd actually looked at either wengo, or something like it.  In
> discussions with a friend, we concluded Ekiga & the free VOIP conference
> server was a likely good solution.  So, the ProgrammingParty part of the
> Nov meeting was to give it a try - & it worked out fantastically well! 
> :)

Cool!  Which conference server software is it?

> One improvement we noted that we'd like to make came from the fact that
> with that service there was no way to tell who was actually _in_ the
> conference.  That prompted the goal of trying to figure out a way to
> accomplish that for this next meeting, as the "ProgrammingProject" part
> of the Dec 6th meeting.

Ahhh... what we call a "Moderator" interface.  Something that allows you 
to see what's going on, and/or maybe even control it.  (Mute the person 
with tons of background noise, etc.)

> (So, the current plan will be to discuss at the meeting various options,
> one being to learn about & set up an Asterisk server, & learn to
> configure it so we can get a way to see who is logged into the voip
> conference.)
> 
> So, Nate, ;) , since you seem to know some stuff about VOIP systems, if
> you'd care to join the VOIP conference for this meeting (we have an IRC
> channel too) & help us work up to a higher level of technical VOIP
> conferencing ability, I'm sure your contributions would be appreciated. 
> :)

Hmmmm... tempting.

> Maybe you know a way to get one of the free conferencing services to
> show who is logged into a channel???

I can't say that I do.  All the systems out there usually do have some 
kind of "Moderator" interface, but whether or not the company has 
exposed it to the Net, or wants to offer it to "customers" is another 
question altogether.  Some of us also have API's (we do) to write your 
own Moderator/Operator interfaces by.

> David & Nate (& everyone on this list) - I hope you both/all can join
> with us for at least part of the meeting.  :)  Just stop by & say "hi"
> on irc if you're really busy this saturday.  People can participate from
> home, or wherever.  No need to get a group together - one can merely
> connect up individually.  Anyone wanting to try the VOIP stuff, get a
> mic & headphones, & use a VOIP client (Ekiga was what I think everyone
> used in November).  Do a "loop back" server test, to make sure your VOIP
> system is working properly.

That was going to be my next question:  When is it?  Every Saturday?

> Join us on IRC if you haven't used VOIP before, & all the friendly
> people here will try & help out anyone who needs advice or help in
> getting their VOIP going.  :)

If nothing else, I may try to do that.  I need to go look at Saturday on 
the calendar and see what's up.  This time of year fills up so quickly 
with "holiday" stuff...

> I hope BerkeleyTIP gets a contingent from the Colorado Linux Enthusiasts
> this Dec 6 meeting!  :)

That'd be interesting!

Nate