Covid-19 has made tremendous changes in our lifestyles. The very way of our working is changed. Lockdown, Contentment Zone, Red/Orange/Green Zones, Pandemic and many more words are added in our daily routine which we hardly cared to notice. Online Meeting is one of the major changes we have encounter in the Covid-19 pandemic. China is widely blamed for Corona Virus and added fuel by Chinese PLA in the present situation in Ladakh resulted in nationwide #BoycottChina movement.
Zoom Meeting was introduced to us in the early Lockdown period by various sources. We have started using it and got very much comfortable with the functionalities of the Zoom. But the #BoycottChina movement has striked Zoom like anything. As the owner of the Zoom Software Company is a US based Chinese person people started opposing Zoom so, a huge vacuum is created in the filed of Video Conferencing Software segment. Google, Reliance and other giant players of the technology field grabbed this opportunity by introducing their solution for the same.
The company is known by the solution they provide (and vice versa!).
Hence, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, WebEX and Jio Meet like solution are started to be adopted by brand loyal peoples. Same way they have to face opposition for their brand image too. There are people in India who don’t want to use particularly Reliance or Microsoft Products. One thing is for sure that people don’t want to use zoom anymore.
I have tried to convince people who are in my touch about the legalities of Zoom ownership. But they seems very rigid and don’t want to give even a single paisa to Chinese person (it’s possible that they are unknowingly using/will use many Chinese products). So, I tried to search for Open Source Alternative to Zoom. I have been working on Open Source Platform for more than 15 years now so I knew that there has to be one solution suitable to our need.
During my search I got dropped at a website “jitsi.org” which is an open source project specially designed for the video conferencing need of the people. I have checked entire project and found it identical to zoom and to my surprise it is 100% free! There is no limitation of users or meetings. Some premium features, provided by most market players, like Meeting Recording, Live Streaming are provided with free subscription in JITSI! And the person who initiated this project is a French citizen. Isn’t it good enough?
Using JITSI is dam easy.
- Go to https://meet.jit.si
- Provide Meeting code to Create your meeting or to Join Meeting
- That’s it.
Meeting recording and Live Broadcast by JITSI
Recording meeting or broadcasting meeting is an essential feature. Most free version of popular commercial software charge heavily for these basic features. With JITSI we can use these features with greater ease. All you need is a DropBox account and a YouTube channel. Meetings are recorded and stored in your DropBox account and your YouTube channel is used to broadcast your meeting live online.
Open Source is a platform managed by worldwide community which is working day and night to promote license free software solutions. Adoption of such technology is highly recommended. I will write more about JITSI if I encounter with any issue or a new feature is added.
You can contact me if you are facing any issue in using JITSI. I will try to help you. I am available on almost all the famous social media platform with @vikrantbpandya username.