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meet.wmcloud.org

Experiences with Jitsi server setup �for the Wikimedia community

(User:Fuzheado)

Content licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0

Wikimedia Hackathon 2020

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Background

A longstanding need for supporting remote participation within the movement

Commercial options like Google, Zoom, et al. have issues: privacy, cost, stability

COVID-19 increased the demand for a solution that scales

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Possibilities

Open source options limited:

  • Big Blue Button
  • Jitsi

Phabricator project - Wikimedia Meet

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Solutions

Created Telegram group Conference Remote Options for Wikimedians

https://t.me/joinchat/FE0P5FlfxzREOMlLljnNcA

Created WikiProject remote event participation

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiProject_remote_event_participation

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Implementation

Thanks to @Ladsgroup (Amir) for taking lead on implementation!

Testers: Fuzheado, SuperHamster, Gamaliel, Pharos, Rosiestep, Ainali, and more

CROW, WikiProject remote event participation and Wikiconference North America tested many options �(2020-02 to 2020-04)

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Implementation

  • BBB stability an issue, but full featured (breakout rooms, whiteboarding, etc)
  • BBB harder to implement using a containerized/scripted install
  • Jitsi simpler in function and installation

Jitsi selected for meet.wmcloud.org

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Experiences - Features of Jitsi

Upsides

  • Easy to use, browser based
  • Join with link possible
  • Performance up to 20 people seems good

Downsides

  • No recording capabilities currently
  • Mobile users need app
  • Security/login management unusual

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Experiences - General use - Nature walk

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Experiences - General use - Nature walk

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Experiences - General use - Hackathon

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Metrics

12-20 users, load average seems reasonable for three events on meet.wmcloud.org

  • Testing
  • Women's Tea
  • Tabular Data

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Metrics

12-20 users, CPU load seems reasonable

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Metrics

Max bandwidth of ~9 Mbytes/sec, or 80 megabits/second

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Future work