Open and Free Technology Community
{{short description|Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network}}
{{Infobox IRC network
| name = Open and Free Technology Community
| image = File:OFTC logo.svg
| 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]
| 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 IRC 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.{{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}}
History
OFTC was founded at the end of 2001 by a group of experienced members of the open source and free 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 domain names.
The ability for all users to connect using Transport Layer Security was added in April 2016 with the use of SSL certificates from the Let's Encrypt certificate authority.{{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}}
In 2016, OFTC was bridged to the Matrix instant messaging network.{{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}}
Projects
OFTC currently develops three projects for its purposes: "oftc-hybrid" (a fork of the Hybrid IRC daemon),{{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}} "oftc-ircservices" (the IRC services suite),{{Citation|title=OFTC's IRC Services|date=2019-08-13|url=https://github.com/oftc/oftc-ircservices|publisher=OFTC|access-date=2019-10-14}} and "oftc-geodns" (a GeoIP DNS responder to handle user distribution across the servers).{{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}} OFTC uses GitHub repositories to host its codebase and issue tracker. Prospective users of the software can find tarball releases at https://www.oftc.net/releases/, named according to semantic versioning.
References
{{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}}