[NCUC E-team] XMPP on ncuc.org

Sat Mar 22 02:26:12 CET 2014

Yes, it worked. Fortunately I hadn't changed the default password.

On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 6:42 PM, Pranesh Prakash <pranesh at cis-india.org>wrote:

> Could you try out www.NCUC.org/chat ? You'll need to sign in using your
> full jid (joly.macfie at ncuc.org).
>  On 22-Mar-2014 6:17 am, Joly MacFie <joly at punkcast.com> wrote:
>
>  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
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> E-team mailing list
>> E-team at lists.ncuc.org
>> http://lists.ncuc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/e-team
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
> WWWhatsup NYC - http://wwwhatsup.com
>  http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com
>  VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - http://isoc-ny.org
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
>

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------
Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
WWWhatsup NYC - http://wwwhatsup.com
 http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com
 VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - http://isoc-ny.org
--------------------------------------------------------------
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