[pp.int.general] PPI GA Prague / Video Conference System for remote delegates

[Richard Stallman]

    The issue is not streaming - it is participating. And you cannot
    participate, if you are just listening to a stream.

There are many ways to enable remote people to participate without
requiring nonfree software.  Here are a few:

* The most basic is -- use IRC.  It is not highly desirable, but it
works.

* Use an audio conference call.  Those systems let people call in from
any telephone.  I have used such systems; they work.

People would send messages to ask for the floor.  When you get the
floor, you can speak.  This will be orderly, and remote people will
have as much chance of getting the floor as local people.

* Ekiga works, and is free.  It will do two-person calls.
You could rig up a computer that can make many Ekiga contacts
and display one of them at a time.  Whoever gets the floor,
gets displayed.

That screen can be streamed so everyone not local can see it.  They
would not be looking at their Ekiga video connections.  Perhaps the
Ekiga video connections can be made one-way, or "muted" except for the
person who has the floor.


-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org  www.gnu.org
Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.
  Use free telephony http://directory.fsf.org/category/tel/