News
Senfcall and the future
2024-03-03
Dear Senfcall users,
things have gone very quiet around Senfcall in recent months.
Senfcall was created as a project mainly by students. In the meantime, many of us have gone to work. This means we can no longer organize our time freely and have less time overall for voluntary projects like Senfcall. As a result, we sometimes no longer answered support requests and did not install updates promptly. We would like to apologize for this.
As this does not meet our expectations of ourselves and the project, we will reduce the effort for us as much as possible. We will try to continue to operate Senfcall with restrictions for the time being. The restrictions could be as follows:
- Focus on security updates. In future, we will only install function updates on an irregular basis.
- Less/no more e-mail support.
- Less/no support and less activity on Mastodon.
- Reduced functionality, especially "gimmicks" such as additional preset background images for the cameras. In the meantime, however, a feature was added, that allows each user to upload their own backgrounds.
We will continue to operate other functions for the time being, but restrictions are also possible here in the future.
But there is also good news! We have now purchased our own servers, which are located in a friendly data center, so that our future monthly costs will be significantly lower. Our BigBlueButton servers are now running with 2* Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 6148 CPU @ 2.40GHz, 64GB RAM and 10G uplink each.
We are very sorry that we cannot continue to operate Senfcall with the same range of functions. We hope that you can understand this, as this is a purely voluntary project.
In order to be able to continue running Senfcall for as long as possible, you can help us! If you are familiar with BigBlueButton and/or Ansible and would like to support us, please write to us. With an expansion of our team, we would be able to keep Senfcall going for a long time to come.
We hope for your understanding and wish you all the best <3
Your Senfcall team
Small transparency report 2022
2022-12-27
Dear Senfcall users,
the year 2022 has come to an end. Last year was a quieter year for Senfcall compared to the previous ones. In this post we would like to give you a review of our successes and garnish this with numbers.
This year, the work at and for Senfcall has leveled off and there were hardly any major challenges to overcome. A few of our servers have been cancelled by us, as the numbers of users have stabilized with a maximum between 300 and 500 users per day. In the winter we have seen a slight increase in users and account requests, which is probably seasonal.
In total, over €1,500 was donated to us last year. Thank you very much! We will be able to run Senfcall for over a year with this money if monthly costs remain the same. Our expenses in 2022 total about 5,500€. Most of the expenses were for the rental costs of the servers. Smaller costs were for the provision of the telephone dial-up and the domain.
Due to the great willingness to donate in the year before last, we do not need any more donations for the foreseeable future. Therefore, we would like your donations to go to other projects that urgently need them now. We already have a list of projects - which in our opinion - can both put donations to good use and make good use of them.
In addition to the service available publicly through the website, we also offer accounts to create permanent spaces upon request. Over 13,000 people have registered for this so far.
Since last year, we have been offering non-profit organizations the integration of Senfcall videoconferencing into their own systems, including data processing agreements (DPAs). Feel free to check out our help page for info on this. By now, more than 40 non-profit organizations have received an DPA from us.
That was a little insight into the mustard behind the scenes.
We wish you all a spicy new year!
Yours,
The Senfcall team
Small transparency report
2022-01-24
Dear Senfcall users,
the year 2021 has come to an end. A lot has changed at Senfcall in the last year. In this article, we would like to give you a review of our successes and garnish this with some numbers.
Our last transparency report was actually written just before some big events. In December last year, we had the highest number of 1117 people using Senfcall at the same time. Presumably the school closures ensured that on the Monday after the Christmas holidays we set a new record of over 6000 concurrent users. To cope with this, we had to greatly increase our capacity at short notice. The rush was so great that we also had to temporarily deactivate the creation of spontaneous meetings, but only for a few minutes. With the easing of the Corona situation over the summer, the use of Senfcall also decreased again, so that we have disposed of parts of the new servers again. Thanks to the new BigBlueButton version 2.4, which was released at the end of 2021 and works much more efficiently than the previous versions, we were able to cope with the renewed increase in use in winter 21/22 without additional servers this time. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the BigBlueButton team and all the people who participated in our load tests at the end of 2021.
In total, over €15,500 was donated to us last year. Thank you very much! Even though there are irregular larger expenses (for example a training for our data protection officer or the consultation of a lawyer, more about that below), we will be able to run Senfcall with this money for more than a year if our monthly costs remain the same. Our expenses in 2021 amount to a total of about 11,400€. Most of the expenses were for the rental costs of the servers. Smaller costs were for the provision of telephone dial-in and legal advice.
The reason for the legal advice was a request from the LKA Berlin. Due to a criminal complaint, the LKA Berlin wanted the log data of a user who had participated in a meeting a few days earlier to be handed over. At the time, logging was deactivated on the video conference server used, but not on the administration frontend, where the log data had been available for 7 days and was still available. However, the request, as well as some subsequent requests, were legally inadmissible. Only after a request from the public prosecutor's office in Berlin did we have to (and were allowed to) hand over the log data (IP address and time of joining the meeting). The retention period for our logs is now only 3 days. A complete abandonment of log files would not be practicable with such complex software as BigBlueButton.
Due to the great willingness to donate last year, we will not need any more donations for the foreseeable future and therefore hope that your donations will benefit other projects that urgently need them now. We will soon publish a list of projects - which in our opinion - can both put donations to good use and make good use of them.
In addition to the public service available through the website, we also offer on request accounts to create permanent spaces. Almost 10,000 people have registered for this so far.
In the meantime, we offer non-profit organisations the integration of Senfcall videoconferencing into their own systems, including data processing agreements. For more information, please visit our help page.
That was a little insight into the mustard behind the scenes.
We wish you all a spicy new year!
Yours,
The Senfcall Team
Dial-in fully operational
2021-07-04
Dear Senfcall users,
after a few weeks in test mode, we can announce today that the telephone dial-in is now in a stable state. The test operation still brought some errors and problems to light, but we have fixed them in the meantime.
From now on, it is possible to join Senfcall meetings reliably by phone. However, if there are any inconsistencies with the telephone dial-in, please report them to us by e-mail.
There may be a charge for using the telephone dial-in, as these are regular landline numbers.
Have fun with Senfcall!
Dial-in in test mode
2021-04-19
Dear Senfcall users,
staring today, we will beginn rolling out of one of the most requested features — phone dial-in! The roll-out will take place gradually throughout this week. With a bit of luck, it will be available for your meeting, too!
If dial-in is available, the phone number and the necessary PIN will be displayed to the moderators in the chat at the beginning of a meeting. Unfortuantely, for technical reasons, the phone number and PIN are not known before the start of the meeting. We hope that in the future, we will be able to offer a better solution with a central phonenumber and predefined PINs. However, it is still unclear when that will be the case.
Senfcall tests motivating user interface
2021-04-02
Dear Senfcallers,
Yesterday, we conducted a large-scale test of motivational sounds that were played when controls were pressed. With the help of 5 learning Big Data blockchains, we will now develop the optimal sound mustard perience over the next few days. In other words, April Fool's!
We thought, in such serious times, this would be a good opportunity to lighten a few exhausting video conferences. Thanks to everyone who contributed sounds of cordless screwdrivers, peanut eating, and choir interludes. We probably had as much fun planning as you did being surprised.
Have a nice day, your Senfcall-Team
Senfcall maintenance on 21 March
2021-03-20
On 3/21/2021 from 1AM to 3AM (UTC +1) we will perform maintenance on our servers. During maintenance Senfcall will not be usable. At 1AM ongoing meetings will be informed and stopped shortly after.
Best wishes,
your Senfcall Team
Big rush on Senfcall
2021-01-18
Dear Senfcallers,
At the beginning of last week, the number of concurrent users on Senfcall increased massively. On Tuesday, we counted close to 6000 simultaneous video conference participants. Before the start of the new year, this would probably have brought Senfcall to a standstill. But the Senfcall team has been working hard for the past week to make Senfcall available to as many people as possible and in its usual spicy quality.
As a result, we only had to disable the creation of new conference rooms for a total of 30 minutes so that ongoing sessions were not interrupted. A single one of our servers, whose number had to be temporarily increased to 25, suffered a technical defect, so the meetings affected by this had to be restarted. We are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused.
In the meantime, we have added new capacity and made some improvements to our system, so we are able to handle this week in a more relaxed manner. The last week has cost us, besides a lot of time and sleep, also more money than we had expected last year. We still have enough reserves to continue running Senfcall until summer with this number of users. However, we have decided to make our donation page more accessible again and have also reopened our Betterplace campaign. Still, we are not currently suffering from a shortage of funds.
A welcome side effect of the rush was some media coverage. For example, the Frankfurter Rundschau reported on the sudden increase in use (article in German) and we were interviewed via Senfcallcall on rheinmaintv (video in German).
We thank you for trusting our service and the exciting experiences. Your Senfcall Team
Small transparency report
2021-01-06
Dear Senfcall users,
2020 has come to an end. Since our launch in March, Senfcall has grown significantly. In this post we would like to give you a review of our success, garnished with some numbers.
We launched Senfcall in March to provide a privacy-friendly alternative for video conferencing. It started with two servers, which we paid for out of our own pockets. On these, we installed the open-source video conferencing software BigBlueButton™ (BBB), which is the core of Senfcall. One server was initially used for testing and customizing new versions, while the other was already in productive use. After successful testing, we launched a fundraising campaign in May that reached its goal of 4000€ in just under four weeks.
With this money, we were able to gradually upgrade our hardware throughout the year, to meet the increased demand. By now, we have about 450€ in monthly costs, most of which is for the BigBlueButton™ servers where the actual video conferencing takes place. In addition, we pay around 100€ for virtual servers we use for our website, load balancing, testing and development purposes.
In total, over 8800€ was donated to us last year. Thank you very much! Even if there are irregular larger expenses (for example a training for our data protection officer or the consultation of a lawyer), this money will suffice to run Senfcall for more than one year. Our expenses in 2020 amount to a total of about 1800€.
We therefore do not need any more donations for the foreseeable future, and would like your donations to go to other projects that urgently need them now.
We cannot publish many usage statistics, because we don't have them and do not want to have them. For example, we cannot say clearly how many people have used Senfcall so far. However, we can see how many end devices are connected to our servers at any one time. Over the year 2020, an upward trend can be observed. Clearly visible are abrupt rises in usage numbers at the beginning of November and in the week before Christmas. The highest number of simultaneous users so far was recorded on December 16, 2020: On that morning, 1117 people used Senfcall simultaneously.
From our hoster's data, we find that in 2020, our users pushed a total of just over 93 terabytes of videoconferencing mustard through our internet tubes.
In addition to the service available publicly through the website, we also offer accounts to create permanent meeting rooms upon request. So far, 560 people have registered for this.
That was a little insight into the mustard behind the scenes.
We wish you all a spicy new year!
Yours,
The Senfcall Team
Senfcall is now available in English
2020-11-26
We have translated our entire website so that almost all our information is now available in English. Nevertheless, we will only translate the most important of our news. So please refer to the German version of our website to stay up to date.
It still holds, that the language within meetings is determined by the default language set in your browser.
Best wishes,
your Senfcall Team