Meeting Place

Many video conferences these days use a Google or Microsoft solution. The two providers stand out primarily because they are user friendly and have very good video and audio quality; however, the downside is obvious: The data moves through a foreign server. The Jitsi project [1] provides an open source, encrypted, and sustainable alternative. In addition to the messenger available for Linux, Windows, and OS X desktops, the developers also provide a web application called Jitsi Meet [2].

Two components – Jitsi Videobridge and Jitsi Meet – work together to help images and sound reach the users' computers. Videobridge is a web real-time communication (WebRTC)-compatible Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU) that expands the Jitsi Messenger desktop client to add videoconferencing capabilities. Jitsi Meet is the front end to Videobridge and is implemented in JavaScript. The Nginx web server [3] and the Prosody XMPP server [4] are also required on the server side. (See the "Test Environment" box for a description of the server on which Jitsi Meet was run and the computer and Internet connections of the participants.)

Users can take part in meetings with WebRTC-enabled browsers. The current versions of Opera, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox already support the standard; additional functions such as desktop sharing require browser add-ons. Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari browser do not currently include this technology.

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