Linux, online confrences, and IRC portals?

[Karen Lewellen]

Hi chuck,
I think you are working from the idea that i need a major long term 
solution, and that the owners intend to change their protocol to exclude 
whatever third party option I discover.  None of this is firmly true.  In 
fact I have  a feeling they do not even know of the problem.

I will have to go back and look for the names of those third party 
options, but as the agency's site is hosted there until that host tells me 
they do not wish to help us, i cannot suggest that they move their chat.
Interestingly enough even the  less vision challenged to sighted windows 
and  mac users have problems with 
this  host's client, so it is not just me.  I want to be certain I cannot 
on the one hand, find a short term solution, the conference is only once a 
month, and on the other see if we can find a solution that helps more 
people, without as sean said, reeventing the wheel.
I am going to speak to the host company myself tomorrow.  what i really 
hope to have by then  are the options that can be integrated if possible, 
or the options that may be workable that they have not considered.
The company is called webcrossing and they are based in the bay area.
I believe you would better understand why i just cannot have the entire 
nonprofit international broadcasting group  move if you visit the agency's 
site. airmedia.org

Thanks,
Karen

On Tue, 13 Sep 2005, Charles Hallenbeck wrote:

> Karen,
>
> I did not mean to suggest that anything I said could solve your problem,
> but I hoped it might add to the context of text mode conferencing in
> Linux. If your folks are using a proprietary protocol that relies on
> java, you might very well be obliged to use a proprietary client that
> their service supports. As others have said, the problem with
> proprietary formats and protocols is that their owners do not want
> others to be able to use them, and so the only Linux solutions you will
> find will be those that have been reverse engineered without the
> permission of the owners. And such solutions are guaranteed to become
> outdated and inoperable as soon as the owners of the protocol decide to
> change their specs to exclude them.
>
> I think the bottom line of my earlier post would be that text mode
> conferencing works in Linux with open source GPL tools, but the issue of
> interacting with proprietary formats is iffy at best. I am not sure why
> you are hesitant to recommend to the AIR people that they switch to an
> open protocol that does not dictate which OS and which client their
> participants must use. Jabber would be one such open service, and it is
> all free for the asking.
>
> Chuck
>
> -- 
> The Moon is Waxing Gibbous (73% of Full)
> But you can still get downloads from http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh
> or you could Jabber me, using JID chuckh at hhs48.com
>
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