This is a collaborative effort, hosting CommunityBridge and providing access to events, meetings and conferencing tools, powered by BigBlueButton.
The BigBlueButton video conferencing software is a feature-rich Free/Libre Software designed with the specific focus of online learning. It is built specifically for higher education, but works exceptionally well for other purposes like a small/large classroom or a presentation. BigBlueButton basic features work well for a variety of collaborative uses:
- Stream and share movies from multiple sources like Youtube, Vimeo, DailyMotion and more.
- Breakout rooms
- Presentation sharing
- Screen sharing
- Private messaging
- Multi-user Whiteboard
- Multiple Language choices
- Recording
- Polling
- Shared Live Notes
- Public Chat
- Closed Captions
- More details below >>>
BBB is similar to Zoom, and it is encrypted. There are many better features provided in BBB, and it protects our privacy. A few examples of things BBB has over Zoom — like Shared Live Notes … These examples are based on using Zoom in a browser and opting NOT to download and install the Zoom client APP.
Even more new features have been added to BBB in v2.6 To keep up with what is new in BBB, check out the BBB Test Server.
Why not just use Zoom, or Skype or any popular proprietary chat?
Since the Coronavirus pandemic hit the Earth in 2020, most of our social interactions have transitioned onto the Internet. Many people have chosen Skype or Zoom as their video conferencing platform of choice. Skype hackers were able to spoof messages on the system after using lists of stolen usernames and passwords to gain access to accounts. This is just one incident in a pretty long list of breaches. Note that a Corporation may have verbiage in their privacy policy that allows them to keep it a secret when their/your data is stolen or hacked. Since Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd, the visibility of police brutality along with a proliferation of authoritarian laws has increased. In addition, the usage of racist surveillance technologies is on the rise. In a public statement, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan shared that “Zoom will work together with the FBI and local law enforcement, in case some people use Zoom for a bad purpose.” Our question would be: Who determines the meaning of ‘bad purpose’?
By blocking activists accounts, Yuan is suggesting that activists are criminals and might be using Zoom for a bad purpose. Might that bad purpose be to disrupt the status quo? To upend patriarchy? To demand rights for the oppressed in a society that provides them no mechanism to be heard or affect change?
There was a small outcry, but it died down swiftly and people happily continue to pay money to Zoom. We now have an alternative solution with BigBlueButton and no longer need to be held hostage…
Zoom is a proprietary Software, a black box, that the public is not allowed to peer inside of. We do not know what information it is saving about our usage of the software. A Zoom user installs the software on their computer and they do not know entirely what it does: what it collects from your computer or phone, what it shares, with whom it shares, and what they do with that information. What we do know for sure is that Zoom has access to your camera and microphone and is prepared to give as much data to the police and the FBI as they can without being noticed.
Our intention is to render invasive and insecure surveillance technologies extinct by providing an alternative service that entirely respects your privacy.
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