Sandbox

I've been mulling over communication ideas.  There's a lot out there: aim, msn, skype, yahoo.. etc. etc. The problem with these is that it doesn't give a persistent meeting spot that can be easily accessed.

Louis had mentioned in dev.joomla.org the use o IRC.  It's as old as dirt, but it works well and gives a persistent location that people can meet.  There's also a lot of great features, and I think it would be the best way to give people a place to go while we start firming up our plans to move forward.

I've used IRC on and off for years, and always liked it.  There are a whole slew of clients out there; even some web enabled (although hosts these days tend to shy away from allowing them because of the resources they can horde).

In any case, just wanted to get some feedback on using IRC.  If we get a consensus, we can work on setting up a channel, and work a quick faq or those who may be unfamiliar or use it rarely.  If it's agreeable, I'd like to take the weekend to get a channel set up and some documentation on what clients are out there and see if we can get it rolling by Monday.

If we use IRC, Chatzilla is a good Firefox solution.

I stopped using IRC years ago because I got tired of how much abuse channels would get. I got PM'd by some pretty shady individuals. Not sure I'd want to use IRC for anything serious, but then I haven't used it in years. Perhaps things have improved. If we do use IRC, I believe Pidgin has a plug-in for it and I know Trillian Pro does. I rather like using the newer IM clients such as YM and MSN, some of which support using voice in chat rooms. Webcams are still for one-to-one chats only.

I've played around a bit with Flash Chat, which integrates nicely into a Joomla site and access in the Joomla environment is membership-based. Any member can setup a chat room, and rooms are persistent. The GUI is written in Java, so no client is needed. Flash Chat is only $5 per install. It can be setup to log conversations, though I don't know a way to get a conversation posted in a forum other than to copy/paste it from the log file (stored on the server).

There are pros and cons for using an IM (real time) forum. The obvious upside to IM is that the participants become a close-knit group; that is, those who can actually be in chat at the same time. The main downside with any IM forum is that the information, the conversation itself, is not persistent. That's the benefit of using forums. I think IM might be useful when small groups are working on a project simultaneously (in real time), but otherwise I am not sure how useful they will be for this venture.

Regarding the subject of online courses or classes, what tools are needed for this? Are there free webcasting services? Does joomla.org have bandwidth they can donate for this sort of thing? Or was the idea more along the lines of self-paced courses in a slide show format? Where's all this stuff going to live?

Sorry...it seems I am asking more questions than I am helping to answer. But we have to start somewhere.

Perhaps having a shout box along with an IRC channel would be of some use?  Any major discussions could be held in the IRC channel, but if someone just needs to pop in and ask a quick question, and no one in the channel can answer, just type it into the shout box, so the next person to come along can see it.  It works better than an IRC channel by itself, because IIRC, you only see messages that occurred after you log in in an IRC channel.

Maybe its a dumb idea, but just on the off chance its not, I'm posting it anyways

Well shoutbox is a nice idea because it is more persistent, but you still can't search too much the history of it like in a forum. And maybe can't use it as extensively as a Chatroom.
bascherz is right in that the main discussions that are potentially interesting for everyone should be in a forum where you can search and come back to it even months after to find your answer.
But on the other side, other discussions like the ones to take decisions are more productive in a Chat.
So maybe the Chat should be used lightly and when it comes to really something that is interesting for everybody, one could make a short summary in the forum?
I am not sure about all this, just giving a few thoughts.
In another Joomla-component related testteam group, we use PSI which allows to make group chat maybe it could be an alternative to an IRC Channel.
Ok Good luck!

I've used shoutboxes, but it's more of just that: a place to give a shout out to people, but not really good for any kind of historical reference.

The forum itself is going to stand as is, and I'm going to say it may be added to down the road as the need arises.  IRC can be a bit on the shady side at times, but with proper moderation, you can block most of the unwanted queries.  MSN is nice, but not everyone is interested in it.  It does have some collaborative tools (I've heard about a white board type feature and I know it does voice / video conference).  I actually have a ventrillo server for voice chat, but we use it for keeping in touch while gaming.  Great program though.

I use Trillian myself, so I have AIM, MSN, IRC and ICQ (which got too laden with spam to be useful).  Plus I use Skype, have done a little with Yahoo's IM... etc. etc.

Keep in mind this really is just a point of communication; something a little more real-time than the forum.  I think the more features, the more useful it will be, but not at the expense of using something that people would rather not use.

IRC
AIM
MSN
Skype
Y!

Perhaps a poll will be helpful.

Yes I go for the poll!
One question: msn can have a chat with more than 2 people ( I don't know if there is a limit).
but can you with yahoo skype and all?

Skype can have multiple people.

I vote Skype... a lot of J! users already have it and they have nice "bookmark" features for chat rooms, so even if you are offline, you will not miss a beat.

So, Skype...

Another Vote for Skype
Shall we start an offical vote?

I didn't know about the bookmark feature in skype, but that seem really good. So I put my vote on skype.

About skype groupchat see: http://www.skype.com/download/features/groupchat/

Poll is up if you want to cast your 'official' vote.

Rogue4ngel wrote:Poll is up if you want to cast your 'official' vote.

at the top level, jommla.org needs to have its own chat/voide/video conferencing facility.
maybe that's asking too much, but at least a chat web based chat that anyone can use without the need to install addtional software.

otherwise people with old pcs and old OSs will have problems not being able to skype. i have tried skype, but it does take up quite some resources on my pc, which is already heavy.

not having a web chat or some sort of chat facilty is a severe handcap. i'm sure it is easy to setup one ?

Skype is the "Unofficial" Official one. At least that is my experience.

I will give one vote for msn just because that's the one that is open most often on my computer and because it is more convivial and shares files much faster (although skype improved recently on that point).
But I am fine with skype.

ChiefGoFor wrote:I vote Skype... a lot of J! users already have it and they have nice "bookmark" features for chat rooms, so even if you are offline, you will not miss a beat.

So, Skype...

The bookmark feature seems to work great but I've noticed that the offline history seems a little flakey.  Seems that the next time I log in, the history goes from my last post to the middle of a new conversation.  I guess if something important is said/discovered, we should make it a point to repeat in in the forums for a more permanent record.