Introducing PPI Zoom meetings – taking collaboration to a new level
Pirate Parties International’s mission statement points towards us attempting to help our members cooperate between countries and continents. We also focus strongly on transparency in our own operation. Therefore we have decided to test out a technical platform that brings us together despite the number of miles between us. We have chosen to start using Zoom.us video conference solution.
Zoom has video, audio, blackboard, chat, screen sharing, polling and annotations. Furthermore it lets us record all of those interactions. When we choose, it is end to end encrypted. What sets Zoom apart is that we can talk with video with up to 100 participants. During our testing we have found that Zoom does not use more than a maximum of 350 Kb/s of any one clients or persons bandwidth. It beats all other solutions we have tried by a mile. Furthermore you can call in from a phone with toll free numbers in a whole host of different countries across the globe. To see how Zoom works go to this Youtube video.
1. Membership and Activist Meetings
Once a month or so, our co-chair, Bailey Lamon leads meetings open to the public. The next meeting will be middle to late October. Please leave your preference on meeting times in this Doodle. Please click here, (opens in new tab)
Anyone can join in and choose if they want to be audio only or simply lurk and listen. Feel free to contact us for ideas on topics or ideas on how the meetings should be organized. As of now we run an open house policy.
2. Board meetings
In the past we have run our meetings using Mumble. We have tested using Zoom at one meeting and until further notice the meetings will be in Zoom. Minutes, audio and video will be posted publicly as before.
3. General Assembly
In 2017 we will run our General Assembly from Geneva on November 25/26. It will be run through Zoom so that everyone can join in and participate freely. The decision is partly made because of feedback from members after our Berlin GA and partly for economic reasons. Both PPI’s and our members economy has been taken into account. We aim to blur the lines between an online General Assembly and a real world one. The board believes that this will significantly increase the chance of success, and that this is a peak into a future with more cooperation and activity.
The Board and some support staff will gather as a panel in Geneva, our headquarters, to run the GA itself. Think of Zoom as the auditorium with room for hundreds of participants and the panel as being on a stage.
