Open and Free Technology Community: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network}}

The '''Open and Free Technology Community''' ('''OFTC''') is an [[Internet Relay Chat|IRC]] [[computer network|network]] which is particularly popular with the [[free software community]].

{{Infobox IRC network

| name = Open and Free Technology Community

| image = [[File:OFTC logo.svg|frameless|220px]]

| founded_on = {{Start date and age|2001}}

| located_in = {{Unbulleted list|[[Europe]]|[[North America]]}}

| based_in =

| website_url = {{URL2|https://www.oftc.net/}}

*| primary_dns = [irc://irc.oftc.net/ irc.oftc.net] - direct link to IRC

| average_users = {{IRC NQNS link|OFTC|18,100}}

| users_date = {{nowrap|June 16, 2021}}

| average_channels = {{IRC NQNS link|OFTC|3,600}}

| channels_date = {{nowrap|June 16, 2021}}

| average_servers = {{IRC NQNS link|OFTC|21}}

| main_content = Public/Unrestricted

}}

The '''Open and Free Technology Community''' ('''OFTC''') is an [[Internet Relay Chat|IRC]] [[computer network|network]] that provides collaboration services to members of the [[free software community]] in any part of the world. OFTC is an associated project of [[Software in the Public Interest]], a non-profit organization which was founded to help organizations develop and distribute open hardware and software. As of October 2019, OFTC has 31 volunteer staff members, and 16 sponsors.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oftc.net/staff|title=Staff|website=OFTC|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191014050831/https://www.oftc.net/staff/|archive-date=2019-10-14|url-status=dead|access-date=2019-10-13}}</ref>

== History ==

The OFTC was founded inat latethe end of 2001, by anda largegroup byof peopleexperienced whomembers wereof previouslythe working[[open onsource]] and [[freenodefree software]] communities aiming to provide these communities with better communication, development, and support infrastructure. OFTC is ruled by a written constitution and the staff elect the officers among each other using a voting mechanism. OFTC became a member project of [[Software in the Public Interest]] (SPI) in July 2002, and SPI became the legal owner of the project's [[Internet ___domain|___domain names]]s.

The ability for all users to connect using [[Transport Layer Security]] was added in April 2016 with the use of [[Public key certificate|SSL certificates]] from the [[Let's Encrypt]] [[certificate authority]].<ref name="home">{{Cite web|url=https://www.oftc.net/|title=OFTC - Home|website=OFTC|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191013061513/https://www.oftc.net/|archive-date=2019-10-13|url-status=dead|access-date=2019-10-14}}</ref>

The IRC network itself runs the oftc-ircd software, which is a branch (patchset) of [[ircd-hybrid]] version 7. Notably, it supports [[Transport Layer Security|SSL]] and [[IPv6]] connections. The network also runs the [[IRC services]] NickServ and ChanServ, among others.

In 2016, OFTC was bridged to the [[Matrix (protocol)|Matrix]] instant messaging network.<ref>{{cite web |title=New IRC Integrations: OFTC and Snoonet |url=https://medium.com/@RiotChat/new-irc-integrations-oftc-and-snoonet-b88883a58303 |website=Medium |access-date=22 October 2020 |language=en |date=27 September 2016}}</ref>

==Notable chat rooms==

{{cleanup-section}}

* [http://www.debian.org/support#irc #debian]: official community-supported IRC channel for [[Debian]].

* [http://www.kernelnewbies.org/IRC #kernelnewbies]: support channel for beginning [[Linux kernel]] programmers.

* [[Tor (anonymity network)|#tor]]: official [[Tor (anonymity network)|Tor]] channel. Tor is a low latency anonymity network.

==External linksProjects ==

OFTC currently develops three projects for its purposes: "oftc-hybrid" (a fork of the Hybrid [[IRCd|IRC daemon]]),<ref>{{Citation|title=OFTC's branch of Hybrid IRCd|date=2019-05-11|url=https://github.com/oftc/oftc-hybrid|publisher=OFTC|access-date=2019-10-14}}</ref> "oftc-ircservices" (the IRC services suite),<ref>{{Citation|title=OFTC's IRC Services|date=2019-08-13|url=https://github.com/oftc/oftc-ircservices|publisher=OFTC|access-date=2019-10-14}}</ref> and "oftc-geodns" (a [[Geolocation|GeoIP]] DNS responder to handle user distribution across the servers).<ref>{{Citation|title=OFTC operator and user tools|date=2019-10-14|url=https://github.com/oftc/oftc-tools|publisher=OFTC|access-date=2019-10-14}}</ref> OFTC uses [[GitHub]] [[Repository (version control)|repositories]] to host its [[codebase]] and [[Bug tracking system|issue tracker]].<ref name="home" /> Prospective users of the software can find tarball releases at https://www.oftc.net/releases/, named according to [[Software versioning|semantic versioning]].

* [http://www.oftc.net/ oftc.net] - official website.

* [irc://irc.oftc.net/ irc.oftc.net] - direct link to IRC

== References ==

* [http://irc.netsplit.de/networks/details.php.en?net=OFTC&submenu=weeks Recent OFTC IRC statistics @ irc.netsplit.de]

{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==

* {{cite web

| url = http://www.irc-junkie.org/2007-05-23/freenode-and-oftc-networks-start-cooperation/

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150905182217/http://www.irc-junkie.org/2007-05-23/freenode-and-oftc-networks-start-cooperation/

| archive-date = September 5, 2015

| url-status = dead

| title = Freenode and OFTC Networks Start Cooperation

| access-date = October 15, 2010

| date = May 23, 2007

| publisher = IRC-Junkie.org

}}

* {{cite web

| url = http://www.debian.org/News/2006/20060604

| title = Debian IRC Network moves to OFTC

| access-date = October 15, 2010

| date = June 4, 2006

| publisher = [[Debian]]

}}

== External links ==

* {{Official website}}

* {{Openhub|id=oftc-hybrid|name=oftc-hybrid}}

* {{Advogato|OFTC|OFTC}}

{{IRC networks}}

{{Software in the Public Interest}}

{{Internet-stub}}

[[Category:IRC networks]]

[[Category:Free software culture and documents]]

[[Category:Tor onion services]]