# Zinc.coop looking to join forces on video infrastructure
**URL:** https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453
**Category:** Platform tools
**Tags:** board, prod, time-deliberating
**Created:** [6 December 2020 03:13 UTC](https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453 "2020-12-06T03:13:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@anaulin](https://forum.meet.coop/u/anaulin)
#### Post date: [6 December 2020 03:13 UTC](https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453/1 "2020-12-06T03:13:23Z")
I’m a software engineer contributing to [Zinc.coop](https://www.zinc.coop/), where we’re working on a product called [Convene](https://github.com/zinc-collective/convene), which we envision as digital collaboration spaces containing, among other features, video conferencing.
We’ve been hosting our own video infrastructure (using Jitsi) but we’d love to share the costs of operating the video infra with like-minded folks (be it by paying with $$$, with elbow grease, or a mix of both). Seems like [Meet.coop](http://Meet.coop) could be a good way for us to join forces with others running video conferencing infrastructure. I’m here to explore what is possible.
Right now my two big questions are:
- What would it look like for Zinc to join [Meet.coop](http://Meet.coop) in a way that lets us build on top of shared video infra? Is that becoming an “operational member”? What would be involved?
- What are the technical possibilities for building on top of BBB? In particular, what does it afford in terms of being able to embed the video chat functionality into other sites / apps? (I browsed the BBB docs but they weren’t immediately illuminating. Happy to get pointers to integration docs, if those exist.)
Who is the right person to contact about this? 🙏🏼
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### Author:  [@Yasuaki](https://forum.meet.coop/u/Yasuaki)
#### Post date: [7 December 2020 02:17 UTC](https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453/2 "2020-12-07T02:17:57Z")
Hi Ana!
I respect your licensing decision and wish you best of luck - but this would be obviously incompatible with free software and we won’t be able to incorporate this directly into the comprehensive free software packaging system such as GNU Guix… (But I guess it would still be possible to create an independent proprietary addon that can be incorporated by end-users 😄)
Maybe in the future you can reconsider the licensing scheme 😄
Cheers,
Yasu
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### Author:  [@benhylau](https://forum.meet.coop/u/benhylau)
#### Post date: [7 December 2020 16:43 UTC](https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453/3 "2020-12-07T16:43:34Z")
Hi @anaulin welcome to the forum, I am an Operational Member here.
> [@anaulin](#):
>
> What would it look like for Zinc to join [Meet.coop](http://Meet.coop) in a way that lets us build on top of shared video infra? Is that becoming an “operational member”? What would be involved?
Our process is to schedule a discovery call to learn about each other. Usually it makes sense to invite an Operational Member if there is a clear fit with our [areas of work](https://hackmd.io/dvwznF1HTc6XuiLXZ5Sgaw?view) that need more hands. At other times we find ways to work together that is mutually supportive, not necessarily as an Operational Member.
> [@anaulin](#):
>
> What are the technical possibilities for building on top of BBB? In particular, what does it afford in terms of being able to embed the video chat functionality into other sites / apps? (I browsed the BBB docs but they weren’t immediately illuminating. Happy to get pointers to integration docs, if those exist.)
Some of us have experience embedding BBB to other places. For example, in [this thread](https://forum.meet.coop/t/planning-of-meet-coop-xmas-party/356/27). @Yurko may speak to this better technically, but I understand it as pretty straightforward.
As for @Yasuaki’s comment re: license, while BBB is GPL licensed, I think there are ways to interface with a BBB instance via APIs from non-GPL compatible software that is GPL compliant, so I don’t see that as a particular concern. I also feel that asking a maintainer of another project to “[maybe] reconsider the licensing scheme” is inappropriate in this context as it falls out of scope of the original question.
@anaulin I can take a discovery call this week with Convene if you’d like to proceed this week, just to learn about where each other is at. Tagging in @wouter @dvdjaco @osb if they’d like to join. I am ET but they are EU time.
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### Author:  [@benhylau](https://forum.meet.coop/u/benhylau)
#### Post date: [7 December 2020 16:52 UTC](https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453/4 "2020-12-07T16:52:55Z")
@georgiamoon @bumbleblue there could be some user design convo here wrt how we relate to third-party UI, so cc’ing you. Feel free to involve now or at later stage once we have more info.
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### Author:  [@anaulin](https://forum.meet.coop/u/anaulin)
#### Post date: [8 December 2020 02:45 UTC](https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453/5 "2020-12-08T02:45:25Z")
Hi @benhylau good to meet you! (I attended your and Oli’s talk last week, it was great, thanks for doing that!)
A discovery call sounds like a great next step. Are you available this Thursday (Dec 10th) before 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET?
(We are mostly around the US West Coast, so we’re on Pacific time. But we can be early risers as needed.)
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### Author:  [@benhylau](https://forum.meet.coop/u/benhylau)
#### Post date: [8 December 2020 05:35 UTC](https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453/6 "2020-12-08T05:35:19Z")
Great to meet you and thanks for attending the talk. I’m good except 9-10 am ET, I don’t know how early PT you prefer so how about we meet here [https://ca.meet.coop/b/wou-cyy-wpt](https://ca.meet.coop/b/wou-cyy-wpt) and you pick a time, and others can hop on it they like?
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### Author:  [@anaulin](https://forum.meet.coop/u/anaulin)
#### Post date: [8 December 2020 17:27 UTC](https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453/7 "2020-12-08T17:27:11Z")
Sounds good. Let’s do Thursday (Dec 10th) at 12 PM ET, which is 9 AM PT. I’ll see you at [https://ca.meet.coop/b/wou-cyy-wpt](https://ca.meet.coop/b/wou-cyy-wpt) then.
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### Author:  [@benhylau](https://forum.meet.coop/u/benhylau)
#### Post date: [9 December 2020 19:57 UTC](https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453/8 "2020-12-09T19:57:09Z")
Confirming 12 ET tmr, see you!
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### Author:  [@anaulin](https://forum.meet.coop/u/anaulin)
#### Post date: [10 December 2020 17:10 UTC](https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453/9 "2020-12-10T17:10:17Z")
We’re hanging out in [https://ca.meet.coop/b/wou-cyy-wpt](https://ca.meet.coop/b/wou-cyy-wpt) waiting for folks. 😃
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### Author:  [@georgiamoon](https://forum.meet.coop/u/georgiamoon)
#### Post date: [22 February 2021 13:38 UTC](https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453/11 "2021-02-22T13:38:18Z")
@benhylau @anaulin just catching up on one threads. Where did this conversation end up? Are there notes or next steps?
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### Author:  [@benhylau](https://forum.meet.coop/u/benhylau)
#### Post date: [22 February 2021 14:44 UTC](https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453/12 "2021-02-22T14:44:15Z")
We provided test server creds to Zinc and offered @Yurko’s support on API use thru the Matrix chat, if they run into issues, etc. @anaulin is point of contact via Matrix, but I imagine they have all the info for now.
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### Author:  [@anaulin](https://forum.meet.coop/u/anaulin)
#### Post date: [22 February 2021 23:51 UTC](https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453/13 "2021-02-22T23:51:31Z")
Yes, what @benhylau said. The ball is in our (Zinc’s) metaphorical court, and we are working on making a proof-of-concept of the integration. I will follow up with folks as soon as we have some more progress to report. Sorry things are being slower than we intended. 🐌
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### Author:  [@anaulin](https://forum.meet.coop/u/anaulin)
#### Post date: [22 February 2021 23:52 UTC](https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453/14 "2021-02-22T23:52:45Z")
PS Here are the notes that Ben shared after our initial meeting: [2020-12-10 Zinc.coop / Meet.coop intro meeting - HackMD](https://hackmd.io/_jYw3Z70SnKNM516vhVc7Q?view)
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### Author:  [@georgiamoon](https://forum.meet.coop/u/georgiamoon)
#### Post date: [23 February 2021 00:03 UTC](https://forum.meet.coop/t/zinc-coop-looking-to-join-forces-on-video-infrastructure/453/15 "2021-02-23T00:03:52Z")
No apologies needed! I was just catching up and wanted to know if I had missed anything 🙂
Sounds good!