[GnomeMeeting-devel-list] GM 3.00, big changes, already partly introduced in 2.00

[Damien Sandras <dsandras seconix com>]

The interface of the future...

Following a few polls, on the mailing list, and formerly on the website,
it appears that GnomeMeeting clearly has two types of users :
1) users who want to video chat with family and friends. They don't care
about the protocol as long as it is easy, and as long as it works.
2) corporate users who want to use GnomeMeeting as a softphone with an
IPBX like Asterisk, or Cisco, or anything else.

There are more users in the first category than in the second, that's
why I plan to redesign the GUI to ease things for that category of users
without making things harder for the second category.

Here is the list of use cases for GnomeMeeting :
1) I want to call a friend using his phone number via a PC-To-Phone
provider OR I'm a corporate user who wants to call somebody's real
phone. I need to enter an URL.

2) I want to call an online friend. I don't want to have to remember his
address, so I can put him in my address book. I would like to see if he
is online or not. LDAP is not well-suited for that as it is not
real-time. Jabber is well-suited. I just want to double-click on him.
The URL will be put in the URL bar and the call will begin.

The URL will be known because either we have associated to the user when
adding it to the address book, or because he is publishing it (through
Jabber for example).

---

>From this, we can see that the URL bar should become the second choice
for calling people. Having to know their URL is not convenient, so most
calls are done either through ILS or through the address book where we
have put "bookmarks".

The address book is convenient for the less used URLs and phone numbers,
or when you want to meet new people publishing their info in the yellow
pages (ILS), but it is not convenient when you want to call your
relatives. If there is a person I want to call often, I don't want to
have to remember his/her URL and I don't want to have to open the
address book to call him/her.

That's why we need a contacts list.

We can not know if the person is online or not. But SIP allows to send
text messages. For example, I would have my girlfriend in my contacts
list, with URL sip:600010123123 seconix com, and without knowing if she
is online or not, I could message her. If she is present, she will
answer and I can begin to call.

So having a contacts list for your favorites, and the address book for
the yellow pages (ILS) and for the contacts you do not call so often
(phone number of the police, phone number of the talking clock, ...) is
definitely required.

Having a system to see if the user is online is also required. That can
be done later through jabber. The contacts list can be extended to
support Jabber contacts, with a small phone icon next to their nickname
if they accept H.323 or SIP calls.

The URL bar needs to stay to be able to call other people and phone
numbers than the ones that are in your address book and in your contacts
list.

---

Here is the proposed design for GnomeMeeting 2.00 (which won't support
jabber except through GOSSIP, because of the lack of time and of
developers).

Main GUI :

|-----------------------------|
| Menu                        |
|-----------------------------|
|                             |
|Fav. | Dialpad | Current Call|
|Statistics                   |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|-----------------------------|
|                       |   | |
|-----------------------------|


* The Fav. tab will contain a sort of roster with 2 categories :
- the SIP/H323/IAX/Jabber accounts, their status (online/offline) and
the number of voicemails for each of them, if applicable
- the contacts without online presence, just an association between a
name and an url
- the Jabber contacts, merged with those contacts without online
presence, and organised in groups of contacts

When clicking on a contact, you will be able to text message him, except
if he is an H.323 contact. It will only work for SIP and Jabber
contacts.

* The Dialpad tab will contain the dialpad.
* The current call tab will be invisible when there is no call, and
visible when there is a call. It will display your remote contact and
sliders to update your video and audio transmission settings
* The statistics tab will stay the same.

You will notice that the bottom of the UI still has an URL bar with the
same connect/disconnect button. You will be able to enter URLs for less
common contacts directly using that URL bar, for example, when using GM
with Asterisk, and dialing random phone numbers. It will be a quick and
efficient way to dial.

Text Chat:

The text chat window will be separated from the main GUI. That will
allow resizing it. It will also contain tabs, a bit like GAIM's window
currently.

---

FAQ.

Q1: So, GnomeMeeting will finally become an INSTANT MESSENGER?
A1: No, GM will not become an instant messenger supporting badly
videochat and voip, it will be the opposite : a softphone supporting
instant messenging.

Q2: Will it support proprietary protocols like MSN, Yahoo, SKYPE.
A2: No, GM is a softphone, not an IM, and my little spare time doesn't
allow me to spend nights on the reverse engineering of protocols that
will surely change every 6 months. We also want quality VoIP and
VideoChatting, not hacks.

Q3: Will it be compatible with Windows?
A3: It will be ported to Windows (anyone to help?). And it will support
only STANDARD protocols, so the answer is yes.

Q4: What will it be useful for, if it is not compatible with MSN or
skype ?
A4: It is a softphone, not an IM. Try to use Skype with an IPBX. But
anyway, you are free to use something else. When enough people will use
something else, I will silently retire and get a decent family life...

---

Comments?

-- 
 _      Damien Sandras
(o-     GnomeMeeting: http://www.gnomemeeting.org/
//\     FOSDEM 2005 : http://www.fosdem.org
v_/_    H.323 phone : callto:ils.seconix.com/dsandras seconix com