I think collective.tools integrate BBB and NextCloud - @petter @Andreas ? So might want to be in the chat?
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Yes we’re planning to do that but haven’t got around to it yet…
Hi folks, thanks for all the input, I’d be happy to jump on a call to look at integrations and what the current challenges and opportunities are.
This week is looking pretty stacked due to Bank Holiday but next week looks much better.
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Right now we have a server that is outsourced reliably with a friend that has shown interest in meet.coop - he has servers around the world and hosts millions of users, we are seeking people to use our instance hosted in Maine, US and share the costs of hosting. It is costing us $450 -$900 monthly for 1000 chatters and I am happy to sponsor most of that as long as it is being used. Sorry to be out of the loop lately, but I would welcome a meeting to share info and see what can happen. Eventually, we would love to host our own server, but that does not seem like a good idea unless we have enough people using it to make it worth the effort.
We are working on customizing GreenLight so anyone can add their logo, text, background colors etc as well as get some analytics. Our hosted BBB servers are connected to Canvas right now, but we will have GreenLight as an option soon. We are also working on updating the Drupal 8/9 BBB module as it only has a dev. release now.
We are using the BBB secret to integrate with Canvas and with Wordpress on a smaller BBB server running on CommunityBridge.com - this is a totally separate site/server that is good for about 100 concurrent chatters.
I should have the stats available for our hosting of the Boston Public school summer courses soon so will be able to tell how much gas we used at peak times.
@mikemh @Yasuaki @osb
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How about we have a call on September 18? I am available anytime after 2 pm CEST (8 am ET).
I think a joint call between Meet.coop, Agaric, and Outlandish could be useful. The purpose is to clarify:
- Meet.coop current status and our Q4 roadmap
- what each party needs and can offer
- technical aspects of BBB relevant to our use cases
Then we can make some plans together?
I think @aaronhirtenstein @freescholar and myself are required, plus whoever y’all want to invite + hopefully one more person from Meet.cop Product team.
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Count me in this loop. I’ve an interest in how meet.coop develops and packages this capacity for integration and front-end functions. On Sep 22nd I’ll meet w @freescholar and members of Synergia Institute, discussing Canvas front-end possibilities. Good timing 
I’ve a sense some more widepread sharing of server capacity might be emerging? As well as developments in front-end capability, including admin analytics currently absent in Greenlight. Agenda might also include
- identifying shortcomings in the BBB api? Other routes (eg on-server patches) that can improve access to and administration of BBB roomspace.
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I’d also like to know more. @freescholar Are you renting a BigBlueButton cluster?
I think this offer should first be discussed by tech and product circle with Agaric before we bring members/clients into the loop? Tech circle so far was quite critical of using BBB servers outside of our control from a commercial provider, so that concern would need to be resolved before we can proceed.
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Exactly. Yes, as stated before, we are renting space on a BBB server. We need to have clients before building our own servers etc. I was looking for info on that. Thank you. I do think it is important and could not find info.
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There seems to be two conversations here:
This is to clarify Meet.coop offerings and BBB capabilities, and to discover the needs of prospective User members.
Agaric also has an offer of server capacity sharing, but that is kind of a different conversation relating to an Operational member or server vendor relationship. @hng is right that the latter needs to be discussed with Tech circle. My intention is to capture what actually is the offer, and take that back to Tech circle to discuss, and potentially schedule a second meeting.
That info is something we are trying to work out internally, so is not yet available on the website.
We are actually scaling back on server fragmentation, making plans to centralize management of access and use more similar servers with identical configurations. Otherwise we will always run into the “Safari doesn’t work on this particular instance last Thursday” and we’d have no way of debugging it bc we cannot control the software running on the box or the network environment running around the box. We actually gave up some servers from contributors already, because using them is more costly on labour and reliability.
I think it’d be useful to capture what features people are finding useful in different frontends.
Depending on what “developments in front-end capability” means, we may or may not have a plan to address it. If it means running a BBB instance and give the secret to the client so they can pop into Wordpress, Moodle, then yes we have a roadmap for that. If it means software development on top of Greenlight, that is not a current focus of Meet.coop, and I don’t expect it to happen for a while.
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Is a call scheduled for this, tomorrow? Hope so - but I haven’t a time noted in my diary. @benhylau @freescholar @aaronhirtenstein
No I didn’t hear back about preferred times.
What’s the status of this? Would be really interesting to Collective Tools.
The thing with only one unrestricted secret key per server is really annoying, would be so happy to see a solution to that in the future.
This would probably be a large and complicated project.
A short-term possibility could be that meet.coop members that trust each other and don’t give away the secret to other actors could share bbb servers.
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It’s essential polling together money for a dedicated server right? @petter you can see our preliminary pricing here 2020 Q4 Roadmap with our dedicated services.
What if we make a fork of the bbb plugin for Nextcloud that doesn’t show the api keys in the admin interface and only put them in the Nextcloud config file? That way our Nextcloud users and admins can’t access them (they have admin access but not server/ssh access). Would that be okay for integrating multiuser accounts? Our could it be exploited?
What I’m after is trying to find a way to sell meet.coop as an addon to CT’s existing (and future) customers without it being super pricey…
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What if we make a fork of the bbb plugin for Nextcloud that doesn’t show the api keys in the admin interface and only put them in the Nextcloud config file?
This could work for the case of NC instances operated by Collective Tools or other operational members, so I’d agree to do this as a short term solution. However it still requires distributing the single API secret of a shared backend service, which is always a Bad Idea™. If we do this I think we should:
- Restrict access to the API to the known integrations to prevent unauthorized access in case the key is leaked.
- Monitor requests to the BBB API from each integration to ensure fair use.
- Work on a better option (see below).
For the more general case of other parties integrating their services with meet.coop, there are only 2 options as mentioned above:
- A dedicated BBB (available right away, but too expensive for many).
- An API gateway/proxy as suggested by @patcon (works for shared BBB, requires development).
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Thanks @dvdjaco that would be great. We will keep the keys safe and can keep the tech circle updated about new integrations.
Would it be possible for us to get the api keys now to test with our internal Nextcloud installation? (I’m p-jo at element If that’s safe enough for sending them)
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So - Agaric has setup 3 ways to get to BigBlueButton
- WordPress
- GreenLight
- Canvas
Agaric is also working on customizing GreenLight so people can create a conference with a group of rooms and some other features - let me know if you would like an invite to the repo and issue queue - https://gitlab.com/wolcen/greenlight-local/
Also - anyone that wants an invite to our Canvas or Wordpress integrations to take a look around is welcome - shoot me an email - micky@agaric.coop
I am happy to give a tour/overview
Sorry to be out of the loop - severe health issues got to me over the past month - recovering well now!
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Good to hear!
May well take you up on a little tour 
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Hi Aaron -
Sorry I missed this - we have a WP integration setup, but not with a meet.coop instance of BBB… if you want access just email me and I will make an account in WP for you to take a look!
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