The hallway track is not the only place to catch up with friends and meet new people. There are several ways to join online chat before, during and after the conference, in addition to the various social media presences.

Please be aware that although the chat channels are not an official part of the conference you should still adhere to the conference Code of Conduct, and if you have any issues please refer them to the channel admins.

The "chat" mailing list

Probably the "most authoritative unofficial" source of peripheral information and means to link up is the chat mailing list, to which everyone can post messages (unlike the moderated lca-announce list). You are greatly encouraged to sign up and read along, and don't be afraid to chime in or use it yourself if you want to share something with the other attendees.

Real-time communication

Traditionally, LCA attendees would connect using IRC, and the #linux.conf.au/freenode channel remains the most frequented forum for real-time communcation.

Recent years have given rise to additional forums, causing fragmentation between attendees. For LCA2017 we've tried to close those chasms, by providing bridging between the most common channels:

  • IRC
  • matrix
  • Slack

You will find more information on each of these below. At the bottom of the page, you can find more information about the responsible people to contact in case of problems, or ideas.

Also, if real-time communications interest you, you might want to keep an eye on the wiki page for the libre unified communiations BoF that'll take place during the conference.

IRC

Join the #linux.conf.au channel on Freenode. A common server to connect to is chat.freenode.net.

Please try to configure your client such that it doesn't spam the channel with away messages or nick changes. Also, please consider using a nickname that lets people identify you, and/or set your real name (in your client), if you are comfortable with that.

There are also channels for each room at the conference: - #lca2017_plenary - #lca2017_tasman_a - #lca2017_tasman_bc - #lca2017_wellington_1 - #lca2017_wellington_2 - #lca2017_boardwalk

IRC Clients

There are too many clients to mention over IRC's long history, but here are a few that are installable on your favourite Linux distro:

Matrix

Matrix is a relatively new open-source, federated chat platform packed with cool and familiar features.

We're using Matrix for the first time this year to bridge between IRC and Slack. Please be aware that certain functionality, such as file-sharing, does not work across these bridges (yet). HHowever, plain-text chat does, and we're quite excited by the prospect of letting everyone choose their preferred provider/network/client, without splitting the community among islands.

How to use Matrix

You can run your own server, but most people create an account on the main Matrix.org instance using the open source web based client Riot.IM. You only need to provide an email address during account creation for password recovery.

Once you are familiar with the web client, try out the open source mobile app (called Riot, formerly Vector):

Please be aware that the F-Droid version differs from the ones available from the proprietary repositories in that it uses polling, rather than the push notification services provides by Google and Apple, which require you to install their closed-source software utility stacks.

Join the conference channel #linux.conf.au:matrix.org

After you have registered an account on the Matrix server (or connected to your own Matrix instance), you simply join #linux.conf.au:matrix.org using whatever client. You can either enter the address directly, or search for it in the room directory.

Additional Matrix channels for each room

There are also channels for each room at the conference: - #lca2017_plenary:matrix.org - #lca2017_tasman_a:matrix.org - #lca2017_tasman_bc:matrix.org - #lca2017_wellington_1:matrix.org - #lca2017_wellington_2:matrix.org - #lca2017_boardwalk:matrix.org

These rooms are also bridged to similarly named channels on Freenode and Slack

Bridging to IRC and Slack

When you join the conference channel on Matrix you are connected not only to other Matrix users, but also to the IRC channel on Freenode and the LCA channel on Slack.

Matrix users are usually indicated in the IRC channel with a [m] suffix on their nick. However you can still send direct and private messages to them as an IRC user.

One of the most enticing features of Matrix is that it builds on open standards and thus invites for such bridges to be written — there are plenty of clients, servers, services, SDKs, etc. already available, even though their statuses are mostly still alpha.

The bridges we use are provided by the team that develops Riot. They are themselves open-source, but we use their hosting for now. It's free, as the Riot people make money advising carrier-grade implementations, but please consider them "best effort". There may be occasional glitches and netsplits just like on the IRC networks, but it is a great way to provide a unified chat experience for conference delegates.

See below for contact details in case you have questions, comments, problems, or ideas.

Messaging BoF and Getting Help with Matrix

The place for support and (meta-)chat about this unified chat setup is #lca-matrix:matrix.org, which is also bridged to IRC at #lca-matrix/freenode.

You can also send a direct message to one of the channel admins, such as madduck:madduck.net (madduck on IRC) or faulteh:matrix.org (faulteh on IRC) for assistance.

Matrix is the new kid on the block and there is plenty to explore. If your interest has been piqued, keep an eye our for the libre unified communiations BoF that'll take place during the conference.

Frequently asked questions

  1. Is this an official offering of LCA?

    No. This is entirely volunteer-run, but we obviously do hope to be able to make a good case for future years, if this proves a successful experiment.

  2. Is Matrix intended to be an IRC client?

    No. It's a rich communications infrastructure with features that IRC does not sport, such as end-to-end encryption, media sharing, voice & video chat, presence updates, and a few minor differences, such as making no difference between group chats and direct messages (which does simplify things…).

    However, in order to prevent yet another clique (separation) within the conference community, we set up bridges between Matrix and IRC & Slack, so you can use Matrix to interact with IRC. However, if you just want a low-entry-barrier way to start using IRC, please see the list of clients above, especially the browser-based ones.

  3. How do I control such aspects like my nickname on IRC through Matrix?

    Start a direct chat with @appservice-irc:matrix.org and send !help. This will allow you to set your nickname, identify/authenticate with NickServ, and even send low-level IRC commands.

  4. Why are the IDs so weird (@foo:example.org) rather than foo@example.org?

    The Matrix FAQ explains this. Also read the following points.

Slack

We understand many of you are comfortable with Slack and may use it every day, so there is also a conference slack instance. Send an email to slack-invite@hobart.lca2017.org for an invite to join.

In the Slack, you will see the #general channel which is linked to #linux.conf.au:matrix.org and #linux.conf.au on Freenode, as well as channels dedicated to topics being discussed in each room.

Slack and the Matrix Bridge

The #general channel is bridged to the conference Matrix channel. Although you can directly mention users on IRC and Matrix from Slack, there is at present no way to send a private message to them. We recommend you join the Matrix channel directly using the web and mobile clients as it is a similar open source alternative to Slack.

Sponsors

We thank our Emperor Penguin sponsors for their generous contribution to linux.conf.au 2017.

Other Sponsors

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