Review of existing solutions (platforms and individual components to bolt together)

the idea came up while searching for a name for the OHBM virtual posters setup (now called GallOP): https://github.com/datalad-datasets/ohbm2020-posters/issues/135#issuecomment-652486445, and then briefly discussed in the OHBM OSR crowdcast on establishing an **open source conferencing platform** which would fit wide range of needs. Here ATM I would like not really to carry the discussion of what we should aim for but research components and already existing platforms which could provide a backbone for the con/ference solution which could be used for various online and/or hybrid conferences.

## Existing solutions

### Integration platforms:

- [GallOP](https://github.com/datalad-datasets/ohbm2020-posters) - visit https://datalad-datasets.github.io/ohbm2020-posters/ . Minimalistic quick&dirty solution with jitsi + etherpad rooms per each poster
- [DebConf (Debian Conference) 19 platform](https://salsa.debian.org/debconf-team/public/websites/dc19) - visit https://debconf19.debconf.org . DebConf AFAIK has been a pioneer in open "hybrid" conferencing: online casting + IRC chats since forever. Thanks to the DebConf video team videos has been provided for a good number of years from https://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/ (git-annex of it is hiding somewhere)
- [BrainWeb](https://brain-web.github.io/) - ongoing effort by @r03ert0 and @katjaq to establish "a permanent virtual space for online collaborations".
- [MiniConf](https://github.com/Mini-Conf/Mini-Conf) (thanks @emdupre) - "manages the papers, schedules, and speakers for an academic conference run virtually. It can be easily integrated with interactive tools such as video, chat, and QA". ([I chimed in](https://github.com/Mini-Conf/Mini-Conf/issues/78))
- ... ? ...

### Individual tech

- [Jitsi](https://jitsi.org/) became a savior of OHBM 2020 posters sessions. We used central free https://meet.jit.si/ deployment which is good for small (<20) groups. For large groups or casting jitsi provides various additional components: it cast cast to Youtube, or https://jitsi.org/jitsi-videobridge/ could be deployed for server-side mixing (like zoom); paid support could be sought after in the jitsi community https://community.jitsi.org/c/users/paid-work
- [Calla (formerly lozya)](https://github.com/capnmidnight/Calla) -- gather.town like environment, 1 man fun project, which I discovered before I knew about gather.town. It is much leaner overlay on top of jitsi than gather.town. That might have its pros (more convenient larger video screens, easier to integrate with other tech, etc).
- [Mozilla hubs](https://hubs.mozilla.com/#/) -- an alternative for socializing environment (thanks @katjaq and @satra IIRC for referencing). Yet to investigate in detail.
- ... ? ...

### External (closed source) services we liked

- [crowdcast](https://www.crowdcast.io/) for casting talks/discussions. See pros/cons (#2), open alternatives: #3
- [gather.town](https://gather.town/) for socials. See Calla above as for an open (less polished yet) alternative
- [zoom](https://zoom.com) provided superior audio quality needed for disco events, and also better than default meet.jit.si for video conferences with > 10 participants (could be mitigated, issue TODO)

### External services worth delegating to

Instead of deploying and maintain service servers and CDN (would cost money anyways), some aspects probably better to delegate to external services to pay for the duration of the conference:

- **Video Casting**
- https://vimeo.com/ - Analysis TODO in particular to the parallel rooms etc
- ~~https://www.youtube.com/~~ since in case of any hint of copyright infringement the whole channel could be blocked jeopardizing the entire meeting. Also probably would be proliferated with Ads. Could be used though as a supplementary sink for the casts and archival.
- See above about DebConf video setup

Also attn to @vsoch @nicholst @effigies @rmarkello @adswa @bpoldrack @emdupre @soichih ;)