[NCUC E-team] XMPP on ncuc.org

Fri Mar 21 23:17:02 CET 2014

 Might Singapore be a good opportunity to launch this?

On Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 5:07 AM, Pranesh Prakash <pranesh at cis-india.org>wrote:

> Dear E-Team,
> This is a long mail. TL;DR: I've installed a new chat service on ncuc.organd would like us to test it out.  Motivations and details below.
>
> I've just installed Prosody, an Jabber/XMPP client on the NCUC server, and
> I've
>
> * created test accounts for all of us,
> * with a shared roster (meaning there is no need to add me or the others
> to your friends list: we'll all be able to see each other by default),
> * and a few chatrooms (ncuc at chatroom.ncuc.org, ec at chatroom.ncuc.org,
> e-team at chatroom.ncuc.org for now for testing purposes, with ec@ being
> members-only, while anyone can join the other two).
>
> I see some clear benefits over Skype, of which #1 & #2 add greatly to
> member convenience:
>   1. These chatrooms can be accessed through the web, without installing
> any software.  No NCUC member has to register to any external service to
> gain access to this.  Nor does this require any special software to be
> installed on your browser like the ICANN's Adobe Connect service does.
>   2. When an NCUC member signs on, she get to automatically see all other
> online NCUC members. One won't need to send out an email asking people for
> their Skype, Google Talk, etc. IDs, since every NCUC member will already be
> on this.  Members don't need to individually add people to their friends
> lists as everyone will automatically show up on each others lists.  (If X
> doesn't want Y to be able to see her online, she can block Y too.)
>   3. XMPP supports both permanent and ad-hoc chatrooms, and not only
> ad-hoc ones as Skype, afaik, does.
>   4. The chatroom conversations can be automatically logged by the server
> and published publicly on our website, if desired.
>   5. XMPP is an open standard developed by the IETF, unlike the
> proprietary Skype network, and is decentralised and federated (like e-mail,
> and the WWW).  For some this may not matter much, but I personally believe
> this matters a lot.  (This also means that they can chat from an
> user at ncuc.org account with user2 at gmail.com and user3 at jabber.ccc.de, since
> there are a great many XMPP services that support federation.)
>
> Could we please test this?  I've appended a list of all the current users
> to the end of this mail.[1]
>
> I don't foresee us requiring members to use this.  Members will end up
> choosing whatever is most convenient.  If internally in the E-Team we
> decide this is idiotic, all I have to do is "sudo apt-get purge prosody",
> and it's gone.  If we feel it's a good idea, but it doesn't get any uptake
> from the larger group, we can decide to bury it or to keep it running since
> it costs nothing to keep it running.  The only cost involved is that of an
> admin adding users to it when new members are added to NCUC.
>
> If we want to test this:
>
> ## Login Details
>
> username        : firstname.lastname    (example: brenden.keurbis)
> domain          : ncuc.org
> password        : $NCUC{firstname}$     (example: $NCUCbrenden$) (that's
> DollarSign+NCUC+lowercasefirstname+DollarSign)
> (Apologies to those with non-US layout keyboards: you can copy paste the
> sign it from this e-mail)
>
> Please change the password after logging in, using your client.  This mail
> is going out to a public mailing list!  (If we decide to roll this out to a
> larger set, we can automate randomized passwords that will be emailed out
> individually.)
>
> ## Recommended Clients
>
> I will be setting up a web client next week, once I have a bit more time
> on my hands.
>
> If you're using Windows, I'd recommend either Pidgin or Gajim or Swift.
> If you're using a Mac, I'd recommend either Adium or Swift.
> If you're using Android I'd recommend one of these: Yaxim, ChatSecure,
> Xabber
> If you're using iOS, I'd recommend ChatSecure.
>
> ## Chatrooms
> If you use Swift/Gajim as your client, the chatrooms will be auto-added.
>
> The E-Teams and NCUC chatrooms should automatically show up for all of us,
> while the EC chatroom should show up for Bill, Roy, Stefania, and me.
>
> Just as any NCUC member can join the E-Teams mailing list, any NCUC member
> can join the E-Teams chatroom.  Thus Tapani, for instance, will be able to
> join e-team at chatroom.ncuc.org, but won't be able to join
> ec at chatroom.ncuc.org.
>
> If you use Pidgin/Adium you'll need to join chatrooms manually.[1]
>
> Joining a chatroom is dead simple. In each client, there ought to be a
> simple menu item for joining a "chat" or "chatroom" or "MUC". The required
> fields:
>
> chatroom name   : {ncuc,ec,e-team}
> chatroom server : chatroom.ncuc.org
>
> I've not enabled a password for any of the chatrooms, and don't see any
> need for them.  Non-EC
>
> ## Logging
> I've added logging so that all chatroom conversations are logged (private
> ones aren't).  This is, in my opinion, an improvement over Skype, if we
> wish to have transparency of public chats.  This can be disabled too.
>
> # TODO
> * Most importantly, for those who can't be arsed installing an XMPP
> client, I'll be adding a web client which people can use through their
> browser.  There's a good chance that the chatroom client will end up being
> "Candy".  See http://candy-chat.github.io/candy/ where you can try out a
> demo version.
> * At a later date, we have to decide whether to selectively display logs
> for specified chatrooms on our website.
> * Once the latest list of members (individuals not groups) is available, I
> can create more user accounts.  This I would only want to do once the three
> of us have tested it through and then the E-Team has tested it out.
> * I've set the requirement of client-to-server encryption off for now till
> we sort out the certs.
>
> Cheers,
> Pranesh
>
>  [1]: List of current users:
> brenden.keurbis at ncuc.org
> david.cake at ncuc.org
> joly.macfie at ncuc.org
> kim.pham at ncuc.org
> pranesh.prakash at ncuc.org
> rafik.dammak at ncuc.org
> roy.balleste at ncuc.org
> stefania.milan at ncuc.org
> tapani.tarvainen at ncuc.org
> william.drake at ncuc.org
> wilson.abigaba at ncuc.org
>
>  [2]: This depends on whether your client supports XEP-0048, which most
> do, but Pidgin doesn't, and Adium only supports using as a plugin which
> needs to be separately added.
>
> --
> Pranesh Prakash
> Policy Director, Centre for Internet and Society
> T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org
> -------------------
> Access to Knowledge Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School
> M: +1 520 314 7147 | W: http://yaleisp.org
> PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: https://twitter.com/pranesh_prakash
>
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>
>

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