One of my dreams for Fedora came true today. Free audio conference service is being tried out in anticipation of the upcoming Virtual FUDCon.
I remember asking the infrastructure group six or seven months ago if something like this was possible, not having any idea what the technical solution was, but asking if it was possible. People said it was, but naturally there were other things that were more important at the time. It was impressive to see how quickly the Infrastructure team put this together when a VOIP service was suggested as a way to make a better Virtual FUDCon.
I have long wondered if there was a better way to have community meetings with something other than IRC. I think IRC is a great collaboration tool for some things, but I don’t think it always works well for meetings. I’ve been to some Fedora IRC meetings that went well past the one and a half hour mark that could have easily been moved along and finished in thirty minutes in an audio setting.
I would like to think that we can collaborate better when we understand each other as people better too. In my experience working with people thousands of miles away, it is easier to get to know a person and understand how they think by talking with them verbally. Sometimes language differences make this hard, but I have always found persistence to pay off.
I haven’t done a search yet, but I wonder if there are other community projects doing audio conferences that anyone can participate in.
