thoughts_on_free_communication
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Table of Contents
Thoughts on Free Communication
Mithat Konar
Copyright © 2012 Mithat Konar. All rights reserved.
Motivation
- Mobile data is almost ubiquitous.
- Makes it possible to contemplate a free (as in speech) alternative to telecoms.
- Communication means should be:
- decoupled from the data provider(s).
- controlled by the user, not the provider.
Criteria
- You should have the option to self-host the service.
- Ideally FOSS.
- If self-hosting not possible, then an open API is possibly acceptable.
- Open standards very much preferred.
- End-to-end encryption arguably mandatory.
Criteria
- The service should offer:
- voice communication
- text messaging
- video communication
- Until critical mass is attained, incoming/outgoing POTS bridge is arguably mandatory.
Possibilities
- XMPP+Jingle
- SIP
- Integrated providers (Skype, TruPhone, Google Voice, etc.)
Evaluation
- XMPP+Jingle
- Self-hosting: yes
- Voice: yes
- Text: yes (not SMS)
- Video: yes
- POTS: no (I think)
Evaluation
- SIP
- Self-hosting: ?
- Voice: yes
- Text: ?
- Video: ?
- POTS: yes (provider dependent)
Evaluation
- Integrated providers
- Self-hosting: no
- Voice: yes
- Text: yes (some providers offer SMS as well)
- Video: yes
- POTS: yes
- Additional comments: Skype uses closed-standard and proprietary codecs. Others may also.
Summary
- XMPP+Jingle
- Limited by lack of POTS bridge
Summary
- SIP
- ?
Summary
- Integrated providers
- Not free
- No self-hosting, much less FOSS.
- Open APIs available for some.
- Some (most? all?) use closed/proprietary codecs.
thoughts_on_free_communication.1330667211.txt.gz · Last modified: 2012/03/02 05:46 by mithat