[emacs-berlin] Software ideas for our remote MeetUp

[DiesDas]

Hi everyone,

inspired by the memories of our more offline MeetUps back in the days
and the past remote MeetUp on last wednesday (I had great fun btw.), I
thought if we can bring in some additional features. My goal would be to
implement things, that kinda replace situations and features, I miss online.

So what I miss in comparison:
- Little smaller chat groups talking about anything ( mostly occured at
the beginning, or in between talks)
- A method to gibe everyone the chance to say sth. without interrupting
or long waiting
- Listening in to other topics others currently speak about

Features that also might support the needs of participants:
- A list of speakers?
- Collaborative notes?

The two software solutions that I came upon are
WorkAdventure/Fediventure [1] and BigBlueButtion [2].

WorkAdventure is the basis for Fediventure, which aims to create a
server network wiht interconnected instances of the software. You find a
Demo of WorkAdventure below [3].

During the rC3 event the software provided a world map and avatars to
navigate within. Little chat groups emerged between the avatars (4
max.), as soon as a defined distance was undercut. A Jitsi-Overlay
displayed the participants and associated text chat on tha sides of the
screen. The map was still visible in the middle. Other places indicated
by tables and chairs or special carpets led to dedicated jitsi-rooms for
more peole. The visual experience was similar to the small ad-hoc chat
groups. It is possible to implement such a connection as well to a BBB
room [4].

Other media, like collabo whiteboards, media streams and other things
could be integrated into the 2D world.

I like BBB because you can get notifications if someone raises a hand
(currently in Dev-release), a integrated pad, a collaborative whiteboard
and breakout rooms. It is possible to give any participant moderation or
presentation status and the hand-raised note seems a good way to
implement a speakers list (probably by a bot?). You can try BBB here [5].

If we connect the main get together space in the a 2D world with a
dedicated Jitsi or BBB, the advantage would also be, that one could
decide wether to join via the 2D world or just through the provided link.

New content for the 2D world

Downsides:
- I have no idea so far how good BBB or Jitsi work with a screen reader
for visually impaaired people.
- The 2D world is missing features to navigate as a visually impaired
person. (There is gather.town working with a similar approach with a 2D
overworld. It has a "follow other avatar" function. You can select an
other avatar out of a list, to follow. This is kind of a workaround and
I hope it could be implemented into WorkAdventure [8]).
- The WorkAdventure thing seems to run only in chromium (and alike)
browsers.

Thanks for reading this thing, Questions and feedback is welcome.

Best regards,
Niclas

[1]
  - FediVenture: https://fediventure.net/ <https://fediventure.net/>
  - WorkAdventure: https://github.com/thecodingmachine/workadventure
<https://github.com/thecodingmachine/workadventure>
  - WorkAdventure2:
https://github.com/thecodingmachine/workadventure-map-starter-kit
<https://github.com/thecodingmachine/workadventure-map-starter-kit>

[2] - BigBlueButton (Offical Website): https://bigbluebutton.org/
<https://bigbluebutton.org/>
[3] - Demo-Room: https://nitori.itch.io/touhou-luminous-strike
<https://nitori.itch.io/touhou-luminous-strike>
[4] - BBB-Branch (WorkAdventure):
https://github.com/thecodingmachine/workadventure/pull/602
<https://github.com/thecodingmachine/workadventure/pull/602>
[5] - Try out BBB: https://senfcall.de/ <https://senfcall.de/>
[6] - Aseprite: https://www.aseprite.org/ <https://www.aseprite.org/>
[7] - Tiled: https://www.mapeditor.org/ <https://www.mapeditor.org/>
[8] - gather.town: https://gather.town/ <https://gather.town/>