PeerTube v7 : offer a complete makeover to your video platform !
With its brand new design, PeerTube‘s new interface isn’t just prettier (although it is). It is also simpler, easier to use and understand and more accessible. Welcome to a new era of this software that empowers creators to get, control and connect their own video platforms.
đFramasoft is 20 years oldđ : Contribute to finance a 21st year!
Thanks to your donations (66% tax-free), the Framasoft association has been working for 20 years to advance the ethical and user-friendly Web.Find out more about some of our actions in 2024 on the Support Framasoftwebsite .
Let’s reflect the growth of the PeerTube Ecosystem
Seven year ago, PeerTube was mainly a tool that tech-savvy FOSS enthusiasts were happy to toy with. Then it became popular among content creators that wanted a self-hosted mirror of their YouTube/Twitch channels; and among communities who wanted to create and regulate their safe space (deaf people, queer people, etc.)
Nowadays, PeerTube is experiencing increasing success among content creators who publish original content (or exclusive content for their community), alternative media, and institutions: colleges, ministries of education, national television and radio archives, etc.
Public structures often need to share video content without attention-grabbing mechanisms or data exploitation.
Learn more about the history and values of PeerTube with this interview from the Association for Progressive Communication.
To us, this is a new step in the evolution of PeerTube‘s audiences.
PeerTube design, color schemes, vocabulary, etc. has been constructed over seven years, as we went along, learning, getting help from the community. This new design was an opportunity to take a step back an get some intentions behind the interface.
PeerTube new light/beige theme
The new Light/beige default theme is calmer, easier on the eye than the original Black & orange one. We also added a Dark/brown theme into the core for the dark mode aficionados. Both aims to facilitate video browsing.
Creating those new themes was an opportunity to clean up and simplify how the interface is coded (specifically: clean up the CSS, with a focus on the variables), while limiting breakages with preexisting customized themes. It is now really easier to create new themes for PeerTube, and we hope you’ll share your creations!
PeerTube new dark/brown theme
We also updated the PeerTube lingo. There is a reason we are now using the work « platform(s) » to talk about all the servers where PeerTube has been installed.
Yes, calling them « instance(s) » has been the norm in the tech savvy-world of activity-pub enthusiasts. But, to those not privileged enough to know about the fediverse and its protocol, the word platform is self-explanatory, and facilitates inclusion.
There are lots of informations to display on any PeerTube page. The layouts and menus grew organically during seven years of development… and needed some pruning! We remodeled those menus and pages to bring forward relevant informations, and present a more intuitive way to find out what you are looking for.
OK, the « PeerTube Nightly » description is not the most thrilling one… But we trust you’ll find more intersting descriptions of your platform to inform passers-by.
For exemple, content creators used to access their channels and uploaded video in their library (where any PeerTube user can get to their playlists, history, etc. of the videos they watched). Now in PeerTube v7, there is a new section called « video space » specific for video uploaders’ needs.
In the same way, « admin » pages for PeerTube platforms administrators have now been separated into an Overview page (to get more info about users, hosted videos, etc.), a Moderation one (to manage abuses, blocking, registrations), and a Settings one (to access configurations, runners, etc.)
Platform administrators have more convenient menus (here on the overview page)
The several pages that presented the videos on a PeerTube platform (Recently added, Local videos, Trending) have been merged into a « Browse videos » page, that includes quick filters to display the same selections of content in a more forward way.
The same intent has driven the new layout of the « Discover videos » page we hope it will empower curious users.
Obviously, the left bar and header menus have been reorganized to reflect those changes and make navigation even more intuitive. You can now access your account settings and notifications from the header menu, as it is customary on other websites.
Displaying relevant information to show video diversity
A big feedback from new users was that the old interface was confusing, that is was hard for a user to know where they were, and where the videos came from.
That is why, in PeerTube v7, we have added more ways for platforms owners to customize and identify their platforms: easily add a banner (used on pages, mobile app exploration, and our search engine SepiaSearch) and a platform icon (used by the mobile application) More, the name and description of their platform is now displayed to non-registered users in the left hand menu.
Platforms banners positively pop on search results (here on joinpeertube.org)
We have also changed how video miniatures appear in all pages that lists videos. Channel avatar are always displayed so it’s easier to identify creators, titles are highlighted, the date and viewcount of the video are present but toned down. Those changes make pages that lists videos easier to read, and facilitate identifying the video you want to watch.
The redesign was also the opportunity to prioritize the interface accessibility (for impaired people). In 2023, we prepared the code and worked on what we knew… so the planned 2024 full accessibility audit (thanks to the NGI Entrust consortium) would bring as much new and detailed improvements as possible.
Thanks to the audit, we have improved on so many issues: we fixed color contrats and themes, progress bar, several components, and various screen reader issues. We added missing labels on interactive elements, « skip menu » links, underlining to links. We also improved keyboard navigation, and re-implemented components of a non-accessible dependency.
Did you know that the former orange used for PeerTube wasn’t contrasted enough to be accessible?
We sincerely think that PeerTube have caught up with accessibility issues and should be up to standards… but we know, now, that there is always room for improvement, and for learning directly from those who are concerned.
With the brand new remote transcoding tool we introduced last year, getting a transcription or subtitles for your video is easier than ever. But the caption editing tool was… hum… let’s say « barebone ». We are now introducing a new modal that makes editing captions really convenient.
Editing your captions is waaaay more fun with our new interface
We welcomed and integrated upstream a community contribution on SEO (search engine optimization), to help promote PeerTube-hosted-content on search engines. A platform avatar now appears in the opengraph tags, empty accounts and channels are hidden from the sitemap, while additional video tags are now present there.
Last, PeerTube has been translated into Slovak.
We really want to take time to thank the community that contributes to translations of PeerTube, we would never have thought that our software would one day be available in more than 38 languages.
We will also wait a bit for PeerTube administrators to update their platforms, and then update the PeerTube documentation with new screenshots, and the new menus pathways.
Our next interface changes will focus on streamlining the channels & videos management experience for content creators (where several tools and menus added to the pile over the years). We also plan on fine-tuning the categorization of NSFW videos.
We obviously have many more items to our 2025 roadmap, but are still trying to secure funds to realize them: we’ll keep you informed as soon as we know more!
About funds, we really want to thank the NGI0 Entrust program for their grant that funded most of the work on this new version (and on the PeerTube mobile app we released last week). The NLnet team has been a great partner on the management of this grant, and the accessibility audit from the consortium has really made a huge difference.
The challenge: 20,000 times âŹ20 donations for Framasoft’s 20th anniversary!
Even though those new developments has been funded, maintaining PeerTube, offering great (and free) support, integrating contributions, etc. happens on our own dime. And Framasoft isn’t an IT company: we’re a non-profit advocating on digital emancipation.
Framasoft is funded by your donations! Every âŹ20 you donate will be a new balloon to celebrate 20 years of adventures and help us continue and take off for a21st year.
Framasoft is a model of solidarity:
8,000 donors in 2023 ;
over 2 million beneficiaries every month;
your donation can benefit 249 other people.
To date, we have raised âŹ110,619 of our campaign target. We still have 14 days to convince our friends and raise enough money to get Framasoft off the ground.
Un grand merci Ă vous tous, personnes merveilleuses, qui avez pris le temps et le soin de contribuer Ă notre outil de traduction : vous ĂȘtes incroyables !
Framaspace, le cloud libre et gratuit pour les petites assos, s’enrichit de formulaires, outil comptable, gestion de membres… pour mieux aider les collectifs Ă changer le monde !
Framasoft vit principalement de vos dons. Environ 95 % de nos revenus proviennent de donations, dont 20 % de dons de fondations… Ce qui fait que 75 % de notre budget vient de vous.
PeerTube mobile app : discover videos while caring for your attention
Today, at Framasoft (bonjour!), we publish the very first version of the PeerTube Mobile app for android and iOS. A lot of care went into its conception, to help a wider audience watch videos and discover platforms, while not getting their attention (and data) exploited.
đFramasoft is 20 years oldđ : Contribute to finance a 21st year!
Thanks to your donations (66% tax-free), the Framasoft association has been working for 20 years to advance the ethical and user-friendly Web.Find out more about some of our actions in 2024 on the Support Framasoftwebsite .
Even though we have been developing and maintaining the PeerTube software for 7 years, we, at Framasoft, are far from being an IT company. First because we are a not-for-profit (funded through donations, you can support us here), and then because our goal is, actually, to help others educate themselves on digital issues, surveillance capitalism, etc. and to give them tools that helps them get digitally emancipated.
Developing PeerTube has been, to us, an (happy) accident. We wanted to show that with one paid developer (for the first six years, then two), very little means (~ âŹ650,000 over 7 years) and lots of community contributions, we can create a radical alternative to YouTube and Twitch. It also took a lot of patience. From the get go, we knew we needed to aim for a slow but steady pace of growth for the software, the network of video platforms it federates, the whole ecosystem and the audiences it reached.
Videos and live-streams are increasingly watched on mobile devices. We knew the next step to widen the audience of the PeerTube network of platforms was to develop a mobile client. Last year, we decided to hire Wicklow (who completed his last internship, before graduating, here with us), to train him on mobile technologies, develop a mobile app, while continuing to get familiar with PeerTube’s core code.
This was (and still is) a big decision: a new hire needs to be funded (our huge thanks to NLnet and the NGI0 Entrust program!), and we want to stay a small structure, so we don’t have lots of room in our team. In hindsight, though, we believe it was the right one.
We surrounded ourselves with Zenika, to get help on architecture and experience on mobile strategy. We soon realized that peer-to-peer video sharing wouldn’t be a wise strategy on mobile devices. After benchmarking different technologies, Wicklow picked Flutter for the development.
We plan to share all their reports soon (early 2025), as soon as we put in the final touches. We hope that sharing this expertise and experience will help other FLOSS initiatives in their endeavor.
This preparatory work helped us realize that a mobile client was an amazing opportunity to simplify the PeerTube experience. PeerTube is not a video platform: it’s a network of video platforms, each with their own rules, means and focus, that can choose to federate with others (or not).
It is, by design, more complex than a centralized platform. One of the main feedback we got from video enthusiasts was
« I don’t know where to get an account. I don’t know where to search & find videos » (even though we maintain SepiaSearch).
Local account
Within a mobile client, we can create some kind of local account, directly on your device, so you get your watch-list, playlists, faves, etc. It saves you the hassle of finding a platform where you’d need to create an account if you just want to enjoy video content.
Explore platforms
We can also include a search engine and an interface to explore the federation of PeerTube platforms and find videos suited to your interest. Not everyone knows SepiaSearch (and other fediverse search engines) exists: you get it from the get go, in your pocket.
Highlighting platforms’ diversity
Finally, we can present content in a way that highlights the platforms, and show you where the videos/channels you watch are hosted. Differentiating platforms is a practical, visual way of introducing the concept of federation to a wider audience.
Humility check: a small French nonprofit will never have Google’s workforce nor Amazon’s money (and vice versa). But we have an edge: we are not constrained by surveillance capitalism rules, and its captology models.
Neither PeerTube nor the mobile app have any interest into grabbing your attention, force-feeding you ads and milking behavioral and personal data from you.
That is how we freed the design from toxic design patterns such as doom scrolling, curated feeds, needy notifications and so on.
It might sound obvious, but it takes real effort to conceive an interface cleaned from what has unfortunately became the new normal. Even more if you need to keep it familiar enough so it says easy to use.
A very first build, limited by (play & i) stores
We knew beforehand that fitting into Google’s PlayStore and Apple AppStore would be a challenge. They clearly weren’t ready to host a client for (not-a-platform but) a network of autonomous video-sharing platforms, published by a small French nonprofit, funded through its independent donation website.
To get through Apple’s (and, in a lesser way, Google’s) validation processes, we had to present the mobile app with a curated « allowlist » of PeerTube platforms that meet their standards.
Here is the state of those limitations right now:
Apple AppStore: limited to a very strict allowlist. Truth be told, a week before release, we are still unsure of being validated. Once we manage it, we’ll see how to widen the list & let users add platforms they want ;
Google Play Store: limited allowlist, but users can already add the platforms they want. We plan to widen the allowlist next ;
F-Droid (coming soon) and direct download apk: all PeerTube platforms we have indexed on SepiaSearch are available. If an instance isn’t declared to our index or is moderated, you can add it manually.
We cannot stress enough how their stores are not ready for independent solidarity-oriented networks. For exemple, a small « support us » donation link in our website footer or even on one of the allowed platforms triggered a « nope » from Apple.
And that’s consistent: as seen in their fight with Epic (owners of Fortnite) Apple take their share in every in-app purchases. They have an economic interest to keep your expenses enclosed in their ecosystem. Please, please: consider getting your freedom back ;).
Coming soon, in the PeerTube App
Fitting into Apple’s (and Google’s) very small boxes took time and energy, more than what we expected. We decided to release a first (incomplete) version of the app in December anyway, and gradually improve on it.
Here are the features we plan to develop and share for the PeerTube app:
Soon (early 2025)
Finalize and publish design and mobile strategy reports
Publish documentation
Play video in background
Log in to one’s account, gets subscriptions, comment videos
next video recommandation
improve on the limited platforms list situation
Then (mid 2025 (if funded))
adapt to tablets
adapt to TVs (well: AndroidTV… as for AppleTV, it will depend on their limitations)
Watch offline (for downloadable content)
Right now, we are still waiting to secure funding for those mid-2025 features (for which we have requested a NGI0 Commons grant to NLnet).
Depending on the app success and usage, we would love to add the content creator usecase to the app. But that’s a big one: upload and publish a video, manage one’s content, create a livestream, etc. We are still wondering where, when and how to get funds for this undertaking.
We hope you will enjoy this app, download and use it, and share it with your friends. This is a new gateway to promote PeerTube content, get audience to fabulous content creators, entice them to share more and boost that virtious loop.
This app is also a way of showcasing how media could be presented, when they are made with care for your agency and attention. More than ever: sharing is caring.
Obviously, we plan to maintain the app, add translations, implement bugfixes and security updates when needed: but this has a cost. We need to secure Framasoft’s 2025 budget to make Wicklow’s position permanent in our team (which is a priority to us). Our donation campaign is active right now, you can add your support here (and thanks!).
The challenge: 20,000 times âŹ20 donations for Framasoft’s 20th anniversary!
Framasoft is funded by your donations! Every âŹ20 you donate will be a new balloon to celebrate 20 years of adventures and help us continue and take off for a21st year.
Framasoft is a model of solidarity:
8,000 donors in 2023 ;
over 2 million beneficiaries every month;
your donation can benefit 249 other people.
To date, we have raised âŹ84,817 of our campaign target. We still have 21 days to convince our friends and raise enough money to get Framasoft off the ground.
Restons humbles : une petite association française n’aura jamais la force de travail de Google ni l’argent d’Amazon (et vice versa). Mais nous avons un avantage : nous ne sommes pas contraints par les rĂšgles du capitalisme de surveillance et ses modĂšles de captologie.
ï»ż20 anni di Framasoft… e uno in piĂč grazie alle vostre donazioni ?
Grazie alle vostre donazioni, Framasoft aiuta piĂč di 2 milioni di persone a diventare digitalmente indipendenti. Dopo un ventesimo anno difficile, la nostra associazione vi chiede i mezzi per continuare il suo lavoro… e per affrontare le sfide del futuro.
đ Framasoft compie 20 anniđ : contribuisci a finanziare il 21° anno!
Grazie alle vostre donazioni, l’associazione Framasoft lavora da 20 anni per far progredire un Web etico e conviviale. Per saperne di piĂč su alcune delle nostre azioni nel 2024, visitate il sito web Support Framasoft.
Framasoft conclude quindi il 2024 con una stanchezza accumulata, un team piĂč piccolo e un forte desiderio di focalizzarsi nel 2025 sulle nostre azioni al servizio di chi ha bisogno di strumenti digitali etici e popolari.
Ma anche dal punto di vista finanziario non câĂš da rallegrarsi. Tra il fatto che abbiamo meno persone nell’associazione e un annata triste per tutti: lâinflazione, il fascismo alle porte del potere, un crescente bisogno di solidarietĂ …
Framasoft (come molti altri) ha visto le sue donazioni diminuire drasticamente. Il 1° ottobre 2024, Framasoft aveva ricevuto quasi 50.000 euro in meno di donazioni rispetto alla stessa data del 2023.
…Framasoft Ăš orgogliosa dei risultati ottenuti nel 2024!
ContabilitĂ , gestione dei soci, moduli, gestione semplificata dei dati… tutte queste funzioni si aggiungono alle intro interattive, alla condivisione delle proprietĂ , alle agende, ai contatti, alla chat e alla sincronizzazione delle cartelle giĂ disponibili in Framaspace.
Se desiderate che la vostra associazione o il vostro piccolo gruppo riceva un Framaspace e possa beneficiare di queste nuove funzionalitĂ il prima possibile, non esitate: le iscrizioni sono ancora aperte!
âą scoprire Framaspace
âą Tutti i dettagli sul Framablog.
đ€ Framamia & [Project L]: demistificare l’IA attraverso la spiegazione (e l’esempio!)
Dal miracolo all’apocalisse, l’IA Ăš oggetto di fantasie profetiche. Framasoft si Ăš posta la sfida di precisare il dibattito e di ritornare alla concretezza condividendo alcune chiavi di lettura.
Con il sito web di Framamia, vogliamo spiegare chiaramente come vediamo oggi questa nuova sfida digitale…
Per quanto riguarda il [Progetto L], sarĂ un esperimento, una dimostrazione del tipo di strumenti che possono essere creati quando l’IA viene utilizzata senza cercare il profitto, la crescita o lo sfruttamento… ma solo per essere fondamentalmente utile.
Abbiamo quindi sviluppato un’applicazione mobile PeerTube, che sarĂ disponibile su F-Droid, PlayStore e iOS appstore (se tutto va bene).
âą Tutti i dettagli sono in arrivo sul Framablog.
đ PeerTube versione 7: una riprogettazione per un’esperienza ancora piĂč fluida
Ă stato un anno ricco di nuove funzionalitĂ per il software che consente di creare la propria piattaforma di video e di live: esportazione e importazione di account, moderazione dei commenti, trascrizione automatica dei video, separazione dei flussi audio e video, navigazione nei sottotitoli, ecc.
đŠ Cancanons: bilancio delle azioni per rendere internet piĂč collettivo e facile da usare
Annunciata alla fine del 2022, la roadmap di Collectivisons Internet / Convivialisons Internet (o « coin-coin », per i piĂč veloci) puĂČ essere riassunta in un’unica ambizione: degooglizzare le associazioni.
Con ECHO network che si sta concludendo (brillantemente), Emancip’Asso che Ăš stata lanciata e sta facendo buoni progressi, Framaspace che si sta evolvendo… sembra un buon momento per fare il punto su queste iniziative e sul futuro che abbiamo in serbo per loro.
Per noi, il 2024 Ăš anche il 20° anno dell’associazione Framasoft, la cui fondazione Ăš stata ufficializzata con la pubblicazione sul Journal Officiel del 03 gennaio 2004.
Annuncio della fondazione dell’associazione Framasoft nel Journal Officiel del 3 gennaio 2004.
… nel podcast di Projets Libres!
Non abbiamo intenzione di raccontare 20 anni di avventure associative in un post sul blog (non sappiamo se un solo libro sarebbe sufficiente!) CosĂŹ abbiamo chiesto a Walid, autore del podcast Projets Libres! di aiutare alcuni membri storici a condividere alcuni ricordi di questi due decenni.
Inoltre, i membri volontari dell’associazione hanno messo a punto un sito web che illustra 20 anni di azioni e progetti sul software libero, sui beni culturali comuni e sull’educazione popolare alle tematiche digitali.
La storia di Framasoft dimostra che con tanti contributi, talento, duro lavoro, fortuna (anche) e determinazione… una piccola associazione con meno di 40 membri puĂČ offrire servizi e strumenti che migliorano la vita digitale di oltre due milioni di persone ogni mese.
Questa storia potrebbe essere un’anomalia statistica (anche se… vorremmo cogliere l’occasione per augurare alle amiche e agli amici di CLISS XXI, Thunderbird e Wikimedia France un buon 20° compleanno)! Eh sĂŹ: Framasoft ha un modello certamente difficile da riprodurre… ma Ăš soprattutto un grande motivo di orgoglio per noi e una grande responsabilitĂ , resa possibile dal sostegno di chi, ogni anno, ha donato a Framasoft.
Due possibili futuri, che dipendono interamente da voi
Le donazioni a Framasoft sono una dimostrazione di solidarietĂ : nel 2023, stimiamo di aver avuto circa 8.000 donatori per 2 milioni di beneficiari mensili.
Una persona che fa una donazione a Framasoft permette ad altre 249 persone di beneficiare gratuitamente dei nostri strumenti.
Essendo Framasoft un’associazione di interesse generale, le donazioni danno diritto ai contribuenti francesi a una detrazione fiscale del 66%. Una donazione di 200 euro quest’anno sarĂ di 67 euro, al netto della detrazione.
SĂŹ, questo Ăš il periodo dell’anno in cui facciamo appello al vostro sostegno per continuare e finanziare le azioni di Framasoft. E dopo un ventesimo anno difficile, la nostra associazione ha ancora piĂč bisogno di voi, sia per per ripartire che per prendere il volo.
Con 200.000 euro, Framasoft prosegue nel suo 21° anno di attivitĂ
Ă la somma di cui abbiamo bisogno per completare il bilancio 2025 e continuare i nostri progetti con il team ridotto. Questo ci permetterĂ , ad esempio, di assicurare finalmente il posto di lavoro a Wicklow (che, tra le altre cose, sviluppa l’applicazione PeerTube), il cui contratto a tempo determinato Ăš stato prorogato alla fine di agosto.
Tuttavia, non illudiamoci: se da un lato questa somma (giĂ molto cospicua) consentirĂ a Framasoft di uscire dall’impasse, dall’altro avremo solo i mezzi per mantenere le nostre azioni attuali, i servizi online, ecc. senza poter davvero affrontare nuovi progetti.
Naturalmente abbiamo giĂ una serie di progetti per migliorare drasticamente i servizi che oggi utilizziamo di piĂč. Ma questo richiede tempo, talento… in breve: denaro.
Vogliamo anche dimostrare che una tecnologia digitale emancipatrice, compresa e controllata… Ăš un tema attuale e importante di fronte alle urgenze climatiche e sociali.
Che si parli di usi mobili, di AI, di Commons, di strumenti resilienti (bassa tecnologia, riuso, ecc.), del posto della tecnologia digitale nell’attuale emergenza climatica… abbiamo grandi ambizioni nell’iniziare questo nuovo decennio della vita di Framasoft. Ci mancano solo i mezzi per realizzarle!
La sfida: 20.000 volte 20 euro di donazioni per il 20° anniversario di Framasoft!
Certo, lo slogan « 20 euro (20 balles/palloni) per 20 anni di Frama » suonava bene… ma se i piĂč generosi tra voi limitassero le loro donazioni a 20 euro, dovremmo trovare 20.000 donatori! (contro i poco piĂč di 8.000 del 2023).
Non vogliamo dirvi quanto contribuire, ma solo che (se siete disposti e in grado di farlo), il vostro sostegno sarĂ piĂč che benvenuto. Ogni 20 euro donati saranno un nuovo palloncino per celebrare 20 anni di avventure e aiutarci a prendere il volo.
Il vostro sostegno e il vostro incoraggiamento saranno altrettanto preziosi per noi: insieme, abbiamo 42 giorni per convincere i nostri amici e raccogliere abbastanza denaro per far decollare Framasoft.
Lokas n’est qu’un outil. Il peut vous assister dans la prise de notes. Cependant, comme tout outil, il ne doit pas vous dispenser d’utiliser votre cerveau !
Lokas, comme une voiture, un marteau, un stylo, n’est pas un outil « neutre ». Ă vous de voir, collectivement, si vous souhaitez l’utiliser, et comment.
Lokas : Record and transcribe your meetings in complete confidentiality !
Framasoft invites you to try out the prototype of Lokas, a new speech-to-text transcription application that respects your privacy. This functional demo is also an experiment by Framasoft in the field of AI, accompanied by the Framamia website, which we present here (in French).
đFramasoft is 20 years oldđ : Contribute to finance a 21st year!
Thanks to your donations (66% tax-free), the Framasoft association has been working for 20 years to advance the ethical and user-friendly Web.Find out more about some of our actions in 2024 on the Support Framasoftwebsite .
Lokas is an application (for Android or iOS smartphones) that allows you to transcribe the sound of your voice into a text file.
Basically, during a meeting: you put the phone in the middle of the table, press the âRecordâ button at the start of the meeting and the âStopâ button at the end. A few minutes later, the application sends you a text file containing the sentences spoken by everyone.
Lokas can and will do many more things, but we’ll come back to that at the end of this announcement.
Who is Lokas for?
Lokas is aimed at anyone who takes part in meetings. That’s a lot of people on the planet đ
However, we can share a few usecases.
First example: a nonprofit’s Annual General Meeting
Let’s imagine a nonprofit AGM. There are 15 people in the room, 2 moderators and 1 note taker. And a 2-hour meeting.
Concerns:
Note-taking is exhausting
The person taking the notes has limited participation
The notes may be incomplete (a âblankâ due to a bathroom break).
What does Lokas offer?
Lokas assists the note-taker, making it easier for him or her to participate (while still allowing for a pee break!).
Example of a transcription of a voice exchange using the Lokas application.
Lokas makes it possible to keep a record (audio and written) of what was said. It also makes it possible to compile statistics on speaking time, particularly by gender, so that we can see for ourselves that boys leave very little speaking time for girls.
Example of transcription of a voice exchange using the Lokas application
Third example: a video meeting in a foreign language
Your activist collective is close to a Spanish association. Camille, a volunteer from your group, who speaks a little Spanish, will be doing the video with her contact in Madrid. The video will therefore take place in a foreign language.
Concerns :
You need to be able to listen again with your head down
You need a French transcript to share with board members.
What does Lokas offer?
With Lokas, Camille will be able to listen to the video again, automatically transcribe it into French, and share it from your smartphone (by email, via Signal, Matrix, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc).
Lokas is just a tool. It can assist you in taking notes. However, like any tool, it shouldn’t exempt you from using your brain!
Writing (another highly sophisticated technology) was invented at least 3,000 years ago. So humanity has been able to get together and keep written records for at least that long. Without AI. Without smartphones. Don’t throw away several millennia of technology with the water of AI. A tool like Lokas could be useful in some cases, and completely gimmicky, even unproductive, in others. This is reminiscent of the concept of Pharmakon, a concept dear to the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler: Lokas, like any technical object, is simultaneously poison, remedy and scapegoat.
The web, for example, is both a technological device enabling participation, and an industrial system dispossessing Internet users of their data in order to subject them to omnipresent marketing that is individually traced and targeted by user profiling technologies.
In the same way, Lokas can be emancipating (by facilitating participation rather than note-taking), or on the contrary restrictive (meetings in a noisy bar can be interesting, but we shouldn’t do without them because the tool works better in a quiet environment), or frustrating (« The application has crashed, I don’t have any backup notes! Technology is shite! »)
Lokas, like a car, a hammer or a pen, is not a âneutralâ tool. It’s up to you, collectively, to decide whether and how you want to use it.
Inevitably, it won’t work as well – CC-By SA Gee
âThis is the story of an app…â
We thought it would be interesting to tell you how the Lokas app came about. It means lifting the curtain on what goes on behind the scenes at Framasoft, and understanding how we can decide to do (or not to do) such and such a project. It’s also about showing that sometimes, with a bit of luck and a bit of elbow keyboard, you can do things that might seem impossible. However, as this part is not essential, we’ll leave it up to you to decide whether or not you want to read it.
Click here to read the (improbable and fabulous) origin story of Lokas
The idea for Lokas has been in the head of pyg, a member of Framasoft, for three or four years now.
The original idea (code name: â Brewawa â) was mainly to come up with an application that would be able to calculate the speaking time of participants in a meeting. The (not at all hidden) aim was to easily demonstrate that during a discussion with people of different genders, it is overwhelmingly men who monopolise the conversation.
Various tests have been carried out in recent years (hi Gee, hi bnjbvrâŻ!) to study the feasibility of such an application. But the fact is that in 2020, even if the technical possibilities were there, they weren’t really available to our tiny association, especially on a project piling on all those that Framasoft was already carrying out.
âIt’s all about technical improvements…â.
However, with the evolution of softwares such as Vosk and Whisper, audio transcription capabilities (i.e. the ability to transform the sound of sentences into text) have considerably improved.
So much so that today, these technologies are used by a huge number of software applications (from YouTube and PeerTube to BigBlueButton and WhatsApp), and are often even integrated directly into devices (Samsung has clearly made this a selling point).
The last decade has also seen improvements in âdiarizationâ processes. This rather barbaric term is in fact the technique used to identify differentâ es speakers in a discussion. For example, if Alex, Camille and Fred are having a meeting, the diarization will know how to attribute to each their sentences (no, the software won’t guess the person’s first name, but it will know – more or less – identify that there were three participants, and say âThis sentence was uttered by person #1. This sentence was said by person #2.â, etc.
This is obviously an essential phase in being able to understand âwho said whatâ in a meeting.
This process is still imperfect, but it is improving month by month. We therefore need to look ahead to 2026 or 2027 to imagine truly reliable diarization, but today it is âsufficientâ in 60 to 80% of uses under âgood conditionsâ.
âIt’s the story of an alignment of planets…â.
It just so happened that Framasoft had the skills needed to develop such an application.
Chocobozzz, developer of PeerTube, had already worked hard on the process of integrating Whisper into PeerTube, in order to be able to automatically generate subtitles for a video. So he’s very familiar with Whisper, its configuration options, its performance and so on.
Wicklow, developer of the PeerTube application, has been working for several months with the Dart language and Flutter SDK, which enables an application to be developed for different terminals (Android, iPhone, computer/tablet, web, etc.) in a single code base.
Luc, our favourite system administrator (it’s not complicated, mind you, we only have the one đ ) manages Framasoft’s entire technical infrastructure (around sixty physical computer servers). So setting up the machine that manages the transcriptions, installing it, securing it, etc, was child’s play for him.
pyg, former director of Framasoft, now the association’s digital services coordinator, has managed countless projects for Framasoft over the last 20 years. So one more, even in the middle of a campaign, wasn’t going to stop him.
With this range of skills, and the technical capabilities of the transcription and diarization software, the planets were aligned to launch such a project.
âIt’s all about luck…â
However, as is often the case, you also have to rely a little on chance or luck.
Indeed, pyg had somewhat dropped the idea of this application, simply out of ignorance of the technical advances in terms of diarisation.
It was while discussing the idea of this application at the last Framacamp, in July 2024, that Wicklow dropped a piece of information in the nick of time: âAh, but you know, Whisper now does proper diarization.â
BIM đŁ
âAh, very interesting! But I imagine it would take a long time to develop such a free transcription application?â asked pyg.
âOh, I’d say in 3 days I can have a working prototype if Chocobozzz takes care of the server part.â
BANG đ„
So instead of enjoying his evening playing poker, pyg went off to his room and prepared a presentation of a dozen slides on a potential application project, which he presented to the association the following morning.
One of the slides produced overnight…
Some members were enthusiastic, others less so. And we can understand them: first, because it was adding yet more work to an already particularly busy and exhausted association. More, this project would use software derived from artificial intelligence, a technology about which we are (unanimously) very critical.
However, this application, which was to become Lokas, seemed to us to be a good way of âembodyingâ the social purpose of Framasoft: to educate the public about the challenges of digital technology and the cultural commons.
This enabled us to move away from the pedagogical aspect, which is both essential and insufficient in terms of appropriation and self-determination. By creating a âmanipulable digital objectâ, we could use Lokas as an additional opportunity to explain what AI is, its possibilities, but also its weaknesses. And so return to our âPharmakonâ mentioned above.
What’s more, as well as being able to assist any collective holding meetings, this enabled us to put into practice, in concrete terms, an application bearing our values: a user-friendly tool, not exploiting users data, under an open licence, aimed above all at people who are changing the world for more social progress and social justice.
In the end, the majority of members present said: âLet’s go for it!â.
âIt’s (also) a story of limitsâ.
As mentioned above, the constraints were considerable.
A project inevitably costs time and money. Time and money that can’t be used elsewhere.
In discussions with Thomas and Pouhiou, co-directors of the association, it was decided that Lokas should remain a project subject to strict limitations: it should cost less than âŹ10,000 all-included; it should not have a major impact on the missions of Chocobozzz, pyg or Wicklow; and it should be completed (in âwasted timeâ) between mid-September and mid-November (in particular because of the validation deadlines for the Android and iOS stores, which we don’t control).
With such constraints, it was impossible for us to produce a well-finished product. So we’ve decided to focus instead on making a prototype available. Think of this prototype as a showroom house. We’ve produced this version not by focusing on a long-term project, with solid foundations, but rather as a âproof of conceptâ, developed rapidly, to see if the concept is sufficiently attractive and interesting for us to priorise the development of this application in 2025 (if donations are sufficient, that is!).
To give you enough âdesireâ to see a version 1.0 of Lokas arrive one day, we called on the skills of Atelier Domino to create a logotype and a graphic charter. This led us to create the project website in-house : lokas.app
At the same time, Wicklow and Chocobozzz set about developing the prototype and the transcription server.
âIt’s a story just waiting to be written…â.
A fortnight’s work later (and an estimated cost of âŹ7,500 all-in, with roughly half the time spent by Framasoft and half on services: Domino workshop, server hire, domain names, validation of Google & Apple app stores), we can proudly and somewhat anxiously present our prototype!
Lokas, like all transcription tools, is imperfect. Outside noise, poor articulation, a faint voice in the background, people cutting each other off… These are just some of the reasons why transcription can be difficult.
As a result, plan to be in a quiet room, place the telephone in the centre of the table (the better the sound quality, the better the transcription), don’t hold several discussions at the same time, and… take âold-fashionedâ notes (paper+pencil, computer+pad, etc.) in case of problems.
Once you’ve done that, it’s very simple.
AI isn’t magic: Lokas needs the right conditions – CC-By SA Gee
2. Start recording
Simply click on the âRecordâ button. Position the phone so that it can best pick up the exchanges. And start your meeting.
Record your meetings with Lokas
To limit abuse, recordings are limited to 5 per day and per device.
Note that the language model managed by Lokas means that it can already be used in around fifty languages, including: Dutch, Spanish, Korean, Italian, German, Thai, Russian, Portuguese, Polish, Indonesian, Mandarin, Swedish, Czech, French, Japanese and, of course, English! Other languages are supported, but recognition will be less effective.
At the end of the meeting, click âFinishâ.
3. Send your file for transcription (and be patient)
You may wish to listen to your file again before clicking on âSendâ.
Your file will then be sent to our server where it will be queued for transcription.
This stage can take from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on the number of files in the queue.
You can check manually whether your file has been transcribed, or wait quietly for the notification (the verification task is carried out every 15 minutes).
The screen showing that the audio file has been sent to the Framasoft servers.
Once the transcript has been received
Once you have received the transcript, you can display it in Lokas.
You can of course share it (with the application of your choice: email, Signal, WhatsApp, etc.) to correct it.
Display of the sharing menu (audio or text) in Lokas. The transcript in the background.
You can also see the speaking time statistics (NB: this feature is relatively experimental). If you wish, you can assign a first name (or pseudonym) to each participants to make it easier to read the notes. To obtain speaking times by gender, you can also allocate them manually, obviously ensuring that you have the consent of the people concerned to communicate this information. Note that this information is voluntarily manual, and does not leave your phone, and is therefore not transmitted to Framasoft nor anyone else.
Overview of speaking times, as well as names and genders of participants (none of this information is transmitted to Framasoft)
Confidentiality point: one of the special features of Lokas is that we respect your privacy: the audio file is recorded on your phone. At your request, it is sent to our servers, which will then transcribe it. Once the transcription is complete, a notification is sent to your phone; when you open (in âMy filesâ) the meeting in question, the transcription is then downloaded to your phone. Once this stage has been completed, and after a slight delay to ensure that everything has gone well technically, everything is deleted from our server: the audio file as well as the transcript. And if you give us names, pseudonyms or genres for statistical purposes, please note that we do not process this information in any way.
At Framasoft, we are not at all fans of AI. We think that this technology (or rather this set of technologies) poses more problems than it solves. In fact, we tried to summarise our position on AI on the Framamia website, which we present here on the Framablog (in French).
So, isn’t it contradictory to use AI in Framasoft applications such as Lokas or PeerTube?
In our opinion, no. For several reasons.
Firstly, as we wrote on the Framamia website, not all artificial intelligence models are created equal. Whisper, the software used for transcription, is a âspecialisedâ AI, not a âgeneralistâ AI like ChatGPT, for example.
âSpecialised models are optimised to solve a specific task efficiently. Their impact is often controlled, and may correspond to that of other softwareâ.
Whisper is certainly an AI, but it runs âin isolationâ on our servers.
The algorithms used are more complex than a âRemove the red eyes from this photoâ filter with GIMP or Photoshop, but it remains a relatively simple model (with an input/output process) that uses infinitely less energy than a training model. In fact, inference (the process of using the model to perform a task) consumes much less energy thantraining. For example, running Whisper to transcribe an audio file lasting a few minutes requires relatively modest computing power.
Finally (and most importantly), with Lokas or PeerTube, we remain consistent with one of the values at the heart of Framasoft, namely respect for the confidentiality of your data. Indeed, we do not make any use of your files, apart from the task explicitly requested, for example transcription. They are not used to enrich an AI model based on your discussions, your identity, etc. We don’t keep audio or text files, we don’t have access to the names/first names/genders that you manually assign to participantsâ es in a discussion (that stays on your phone), etc. And, of course, your data is NEVER monetised.
In short, Framasoft doesn’t care about the content of your data, it belongs to you and is nobody’s business but yours.
Despite this, we respect the point of view of people who wish to boycott AI, and we understand the contradiction they might find in a technocritical association like Framasoft proposing projects using AI.
Our aim is to offer a tool that will enable people to think about the issues in a concrete way, so that they can form their own opinions and come to their own conclusions.
A mechanical parrot takes notes: quite a symbolic Illustration by David Revoy – Licence: CC-By 4.0
When is Lokas coming?
You can Download the Lokas app on the Play Store, iOS (still in TestFlight on iOS, because they are đ€Ź… let’s say picky EDITâŻ: it’s now available), (and soon on f-droid), or get the android apk directly from us here. But keep in mind it is a prototype (if you haven’t already, take two minutes to read âThe Lokas Story â and understand why), so it’s normal that lots and lots of things don’t work!
We’ve already taken time, energy and a bit of money out of limited resources (did anyone ever tell you that we only live off your donations? đ ). And, obviously, this POC is open source, the code is publish here on our forge.
So before going any further, we need to confirm that you are interested in this project.If the donations aren’t big enough, or if the contradictions are too strong: we’ll stop there (the code is free, so it won’t be âlostâ).
If, on the other hand, you find it relevant, there are countless possibilities for future developments. For example:
Complete redesign and accessibility (in prototyping mode, we went very fast, and Lokas is therefore very perfectible);
Ability to (re)transcribe the file of your choice (from Lokas, a video or another application, for example);
Add the possibility of automatic summaries of the transcripts, to quickly find the key points;
Translate the application (and the website) into languages other than French and English;
Ability to edit and correct the transcript directly from your phone;
Provide the option of obtaining the transcript in the language of your choice (e.g. a meeting in English transcribed into French, or vice versa);
etc
But to do this, we’re going to need some staff time, and therefore money. So, at the risk of sounding insistent, we invite you, if you can, to make a donation.
The challenge: 20,000 times âŹ20 donations for Framasoft’s 20th anniversary!
Framasoft is funded by your donations! Every âŹ20 you donate will be a new balloon to celebrate 20 years of adventures and help us continue and take off for a21st year.
Framasoft is a model of solidarity:
8,000 donors in 2023 ;
over 2 million beneficiaries every month;
your donation (66% tax deductible) can benefit 249 other people.
To date, we have raised âŹ58,625 of our campaign target. We still have 29 days to convince our friends and raise enough money to get Framasoft off the ground.
Soon
