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<div class="moz-forward-container">-------- Missatge reenviat
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<td>Better than Zoom: Try these free software tools for
staying in touch</td>
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<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT">Data: </th>
<td>Fri, 03 Apr 2020 16:16:39 -0400</td>
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<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT">De: </th>
<td>Greg Farough, FSF</td>
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<p><em>Please consider adding <a
href="mailto:info@fsf.org"
moz-do-not-send="true">info@fsf.org</a>
to your address book, which
will
ensure that our messages
reach you and not your spam
box.</em></p>
<p><em>Read and share online: <a
href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/better-than-zoom-try-these-free-software-tools-for-staying-in-touch"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/better-than-zoom-try-these-free-software-tools-for-staying-in-touch</a></em></p>
<p>Dear *****,</p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has
caused an enormous amount of
changes in how people
work, play, and communicate.
By now, many of us have
settled into the
routine of using remote
communication or
videoconferencing tools to
keep in touch with our friends
and family. In the last few
weeks we've
also seen a number of lists
and guides aiming to get
people set up
with the "right" tools for
communicating in hard times,
but in almost
every case, these articles
recommend that people make a
difficult
compromise: trading their
freedom in order to
communicate with the
people they care about and
work with.</p>
<p>In times like these it
becomes all the more important
to
remember that tools like Zoom,
Slack, and Facebook Messenger
are not
benign public services, and
while the sentiment they've
expressed to
the global community in
responding to the crisis may
be sincere, it
hasn't addressed the
fundamental ethical issues
with any piece of
<a
href="https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/"
moz-do-not-send="true">proprietary
software</a>.</p>
<p>After taking the <a
href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/libreplanet-2020-in-person-component-canceled-but-well-see-you-online"
moz-do-not-send="true">LibrePlanet
2020</a> conference online,
we received
a number of requests asking us
to document our streaming
setup. As the
pandemic grew worse, this gave
way to more curiosity about
how the
Free Software Foundation (FSF)
uses free tools and free
communication
platforms to conduct our
everyday business. And while
the stereotype
of hackers hunched over a
white on black terminal
session applies to
us in some ways, many of the
tools we use are available in
any
environment, even for people
who do not have a lot of
technical
experience. We've started
documenting ethical solutions
on the
<a
href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Remote_Communication"
moz-do-not-send="true">LibrePlanet
wiki</a>, in addition to
starting a <a
href="https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/remotecommunication"
moz-do-not-send="true">remote
communication
mailing list</a> to help
each other advocate for their
use.</p>
<p>In the suggestions that
follow, a few of the tools we
will recommend
depend upon some
"self-reliance," that is,
steering clear of
proprietary network services
by hosting free software
solutions
yourself, or asking a
technical friend to do it for
you. It's a
difficult step, and the
benefits may not be
immediately obvious, but
it's a key part of preserving
your autonomy in an age of
ubiquitous
digital control.</p>
<p>To those who have the
technical expertise and
available
infrastructure, we urge you to
consider hosting instances of
free
communication platforms for
your friends, family, and your
community
at large. For example, with a
modest server and some
GNU/Linux
knowledge, you could help
local students learn in
freedom by
volunteering to administer an
instance of one of the
programs we'll be
recommending below.</p>
<p>The need to self-host can be
an uncomfortable reminder of
our
dependence on the "cloud" --
the network of someone else's
computers
-- but acknowledging our
current reliance on these
providers is the
first step in making new,
dependable systems for
ourselves. During
dangerous and stressful times,
it's tempting to sideline our
ethical
commitments for easier or more
convenient ways to get things
done, and
software freedom is no
exception. We hope these
suggestions will
inspire you to inform others
about the importance of their
freedom,
privacy, and security.</p>
<h2>Chat</h2>
<p>When we can no longer
communicate face-to-face,
tools for voice and
video calling often come to
mind as the next best thing.
But as
evidenced by the size and
success of the proprietary
software
companies that sponsor these
tools, their development isn't
easy.
Promoting <a
href="https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/"
moz-do-not-send="true">real-time
voice and video chat clients</a>
remains a High
Priority Project of ours.
Though we may still be waiting
for a truly
perfect solution, there are
some projects that are far
enough along in
their development that we can
recommend them to others.</p>
<h3>Audio calls</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong><a
href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Mumble"
moz-do-not-send="true">Mumble</a></strong>:
Mumble is a real-time, low
latency program for
hosting
and joining audio
conversations. Clients are
available for every major
operating system, and even
large rooms tend not to
put too much
stress on the network.
When it was time for us to
go fully remote,
the FSF staff turned to
Mumble as a way to have
that "in-office"
feel, staying in touch in
rooms dedicated to each of
our teams and a
general purpose "water
cooler" room.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong><a
href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Asterisk"
moz-do-not-send="true">Asterisk/SIP</a></strong>:
When we give tours of the
FSF office, people
often think we're joking
when we mention that even
the FSF's
<em>conference phones</em>
run free software. But
through Asterisk and our
use of the SIP protocol,
it's entirely true.
Although it can be
difficult to set up, it's
worth mentioning that free
software can
manage your traditional
phone lines, and even
transfer calls
seamlessly to digital
extensions or SIP clients
like <a
href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Jami"
moz-do-not-send="true">Jami</a>
and
<a
href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Linphone"
moz-do-not-send="true">Linphone</a>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Video calls and
presentations</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong><a
href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Jitsi"
moz-do-not-send="true">Jitsi</a></strong>:
Jitsi was a key part of
LibrePlanet 2020's
success.
Providing video and voice
calls through the browser
via WebRTC, it
also allows for presenters
to share their screen in a
similar way to
Zoom. And unlike Zoom, it
doesn't come with serious
<a
href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/k7e599/zoom-ios-app-sends-data-to-facebook-even-if-you-dont-have-a-facebook-account"
moz-do-not-send="true">privacy
violations</a> or
threats to user freedom.
The connection between
callers is direct and
intuitive, but a central
server is still required
to coordinate callers and
rooms. Some of these, like
the Jitsi
project's own "Jitsi Meet"
server, recommend
proprietary browser
extensions and document
sharing tools. If you're
able, hosting your
own instance is the most
free and reliable method.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>OBS</strong>:
Another much-used software
program this LibrePlanet
was
<a
href="https://obsproject.com/"
moz-do-not-send="true">OBS
Studio</a>. Illness,
different timezones, or
unforeseen travel
were no match for the
solutions that OBS Studio
offered. It's a flexible
tool for streaming video
from multiple inputs to a
Web source,
whether that's combining
your webcam with
conference slides, or even
your favorite free
software game. At
LibrePlanet, OBS allowed
our
remote speakers to record
their presentations while
speaking in one
screen, and sharing
audiovisual materials in a
second window.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Text chat</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong>XMPP</strong>: If
you've ever used "Jabber,"
older iterations of Google
Talk or Facebook
Messenger, then you've
used XMPP. XMPP is a
flexible and extensible
instant messaging protocol
that's lately
seen a resurgence from
clients like <a
href="https://f-droid.org/en/packages/eu.siacs.conversations/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Conversations.im</a>
and
encryption schema like <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OMEMO" moz-do-not-send="true">OMEMO</a>.
XMPP is the instant
messaging
method we prefer at the
FSF when we need to
discuss something
privately, or in a secure
group chat, as everything
is sent through
servers we control and
encrypted against
individual staff members'
private key. Also, access
to the FSF XMPP server is
one of the many
benefits of our <a
href="https://fsf.org/join"
moz-do-not-send="true">associate
membership program</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong><a
href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Irc"
moz-do-not-send="true">IRC</a></strong>:
Messaging services have
become all the rage in
office
atmospheres, but nothing
about Messenger or Slack
is new. In fact,
Slack (and its counterpart
for video games, Discord)
takes more than
a few cues from the
venerable Internet Relay
Chat (IRC). IRC remains
an enduring way to have a
text-based chat in
real-time, and as
evidenced by Web clients
like <a
href="https://thelounge.chat/"
moz-do-not-send="true">The
Lounge</a>, or desktop
clients
like <a
href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Pidgin"
moz-do-not-send="true">Pidgin</a>,
it can be as stripped down
or feature-rich as you
like. For a true hacker
experience, you can also
log into IRC using
<a
href="https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/erc/index.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">Emacs</a>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Long-form discussion</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong>Encrypted email</strong>:
While it's asynchronous
and maybe the most "old
school" item on our list,
GPG-encrypted email is a
core part of the
FSF workflow, and helps
guard against prying eyes,
whether they're
one room over or in an NSA
compound across the
country. The initial
setup can sometimes be a
challenge, which is why we
provide the
<a
href="https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org"
moz-do-not-send="true">Email
Self-Defense Guide</a>
to get you up and running.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Discourse</strong>:
<a
href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Discourse"
moz-do-not-send="true">Discourse</a>
is the message board
software that powers
the <a
href="https://forum.members.fsf.org/"
moz-do-not-send="true">FSF
associate member forum</a>,
and we couldn't be happier
to
recommend it. While the
concept may seem a little
antiquated,
message boards remain a
good way to coordinate
discussions on a
particular topic.
Discourse's moderation
tools are intuitive and
easy to use, and it even
includes achievements for
users to earn!</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Document Sharing</h2>
<p>If you're unused to working
remotely, finding ways to
collaborate with
others on a document or
presentation can be a
challenge. At the FSF,
<a
href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Etherpad"
moz-do-not-send="true">Etherpad</a>
is the main tool that we use
to keep live meeting notes
and work together on other
documents. It provides all the
features you
need for quick collaboration,
including comments, revision
tracking,
and exports to a variety of
formats. You can host your own
instance,
or you can select an instance
<a
href="https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite/wiki/Sites-that-run-Etherpad-Lite"
moz-do-not-send="true">made
available</a> by others and
start
sharing.</p>
<h2>File Sharing</h2>
<p>At the FSF office, we have a
common server to store our
files. Not
everyone has the luxury of a
setup like that, and
especially not due
to the fast changeover from
office to home. To avoid using
proprietary
"solutions" and disservices
like Dropbox, you can turn to
the widely
popular <a
href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Nextcloud"
moz-do-not-send="true">Nextcloud</a>
to synchronize your text and
email messages,
share calendars with
coworkers, and exchange files
privately with your
friends.</p>
<p>If you need something
temporary, there's always <a
href="https://github.com/Upload/Up1" moz-do-not-send="true">Up1</a>. Up1
is a
temporary, encrypted text and
image sharing program you can
host
locally, making sure those
files you need to exchange are
only there
for just as long as it takes
for your friend to download
them. And
while we don't use it
ourselves, we've heard good
things about the
<a href="https://riseup.net"
moz-do-not-send="true">Riseup</a>
network's <a
href="https://share.riseup.net"
moz-do-not-send="true">instance</a>
of Up1, and will occasionally
suggest it to those wanting a
quick and easy way to share
files while
retaining their freedom.</p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>This is just a small
selection of the huge amount
of free software out
there, all ready to be used,
shared, and improved by the
community.
For more suggestions on both
local and Web-based programs,
visit the
FSF's <a
href="https://directory.fsf.org"
moz-do-not-send="true">Free
Software Directory</a>, our
volunteer-run wiki which aims
to be a comprehensive list of
the thousands of free programs
available
for everyday use.</p>
<p>As always, free software is a
moving target. We reap as much
as
the community puts into it,
and as more and more attention
shifts to
the crisis caused by the novel
coronavirus, the tools
themselves are
likely to see an increased
amount of development. Please
collaborate
with us on the <a
href="https://libreplanet.org"
moz-do-not-send="true">LibrePlanet
wiki</a>'s entry on <a
href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Remote_Communication"
moz-do-not-send="true">remote
communication</a> to help
people find ways of
communicating that put
user freedom as a priority.</p>
<p>In solidarity,</p>
<p>Greg Farough<br>
Campaigns Manager</p>
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