Intro, Info & Help
Hi! I'm Craig. Welcome to my Connexense project.
 
While big-tech gives us free comms channels so they can earn from our private and personal data, I don't want my online communications being surveilled.
 
I've built Connexense for people who feel the same way. In providing webcam-based connectivity for calls, groups, webinars, broadcasts and our Connexense Community, any and all meta data generated is simply discarded.
 
By rejecting data-collection and surveillance-advertising, and especially ensuring that no IP addresses or user information escapes to any 3rd-party, Connexense maximizes its own security and everyone's privacy
Calls and Community
 
Technically, Connexense is all about video/audio/data connections for video calls, groups, webinars and broadcasts, and socially Connexense is all about the authentic/meaningful/human connections required to nourish our experience of life on this planet. See Connexense Video Chat Community.
Starting a video call
 
At the base URL - https://connexense.com - you start your webcam and hit Connect.
 
This gets your media-stream with webcam and microphone tracks and connects it to a compartmented Connexense server with a unique id which you message to others so they can connect with you in a video call.
 
Connexense provides easy ways to send out the server's URL [connexense.com/?id=uniqueId] by email, SMS or push notification and it also copies the URL to your system clipboard so you can easily paste and send it by any other messaging app.
Joining a call
 
By email, notification or messaging app, you'll receive an invitation containing the server's URL - https://connexense.com/?id=uniqueId.
 
Point your browser there, start your webcam and mike, give yourself a screen-name and hit Connect.
Camera Setup
 
When your webcam starts, you'll see a drop-down list for selecting available cameras and the option to turn camera video off.
 
Choose 2k (720p) for calls and webinars, optionally choose 4k (1080p) for broadcasting live.
 
Select "Virtual Background" to replace the background of your video with an image from our collection, or upload your own if you are logged in.
 
When you're ready, hit Connect.
Server Admin
 
When you start a server you become its administrator and have a few extra controls available in the side menu.
 
Screen-share
Replace your video stream by selecting an application window or browser tab to share instead.
 
Screen-share is now available to everyone, not only Admin.
 
Presentation view
Presentation view gathers everyone in one room, where only the presenter's video is visible. When the presentation ends, everyone returns to the rooms they were in.
 
People and Rooms
Rooms are created in the People menu. Select the number of rooms you want and hit Confirm. Everyone is presented with a choice of rooms to join for interaction in smaller groups.
 
To end the multiple-rooms session, select 1 room to gather everyone together again.
Texting
 
The chat-icon in the side menu presents a simple texting app, available to everyone, where text messages can be sent to all.
Connexense Account
 
A Connexense account is not required to start a server or join a call, but registered users can do much more:
  • Use a contacts list to assist calling out by email/ SMS / notification.
     
  • Send / receive push notifications to call contacts or receive calls.
     
  • Schedule Webinar Events - reserve and self-distribute a server ID which you will use to broadcast a webinar event at a specified date and time.
     
  • Live Webcam Gallery - stream your webcam live to an online audience.
     
  • Upload an image to use as your unique virtual background.
     
  • Use the Video Chat Plugin on your website.
Tech
 
For techies: Connexense is a WebRTC Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU) running Node.js on Ubuntu, using node-wrtc to stream media and data between server and client. The Connexense ecosystem is all built in vanilla javascript.
Enjoy!