[applause]
Thank you very much. Next step is Stefan Weil
talking about PalMA and Debian in Mannheim.
Thanks. Hello and welcome everybody. My name is Stefan Weil,
and I am going to tell you about a Debian based freeware development
at Mannheim University Library.
Large parts of our library are located in Mannheim Palace,
and there we transformed a former reading room into a modern learning center
which opened in spring last year.
This learning center provides different kinds of places for working in groups,
and most of them have a large monitor where the group members can share
their presentations and any documents.
Students bring their own devices - laptops, smartphones or tablet computers.
They should be able to use the team monitors by wireless LAN,
without any cables.
Existing solutions did not match our requirements,
so we wrapped existing technology in a new web application which we called PalMA.
The team monitor shows some short instructions how to use PalMA
(which is an abbreviation of "Present and learn in Mannheim").
Other libraries which adapted PalMA later have chosen a different name like
SPrinT (which stands for "Study and present in teams").
As soon as a user connects to the PalMA URL, he or she gets a web interface
which controls all aspects of PalMA:
This is what the user sees in the browser,
and in the upper right corner, you see the connected group members,
then the user can show web pages in the left lower corner
on the team monitor.
He can upload different kinds of files (also in the left corner) for displaying
on the team monitor, or he can use
screen mirroring of the local display on the team monitor.
The team monitor can show up to 4 different windows at a time
by changing the screen layout.
You see this in the left part: there are 5 different screen layouts.
Each window supports scrolling and zooming and other operations
via the web interface.
The web user interface is available in several languages,
most of them were contributed by students of our university.
Each PalMA monitor is controlled by a Debian GNU Linux system
running a display server, a window manager, web server and different kinds
of viewer applications which are started on demand.
The user runs a web browser and optionally a VNC server for screen mirroring. Today,
PalMA is usable in a trusted environment like a university or private network.
At least 7 libraries currently use it for group working places.
Nevertheless we believe that PalMA can be improved further
and that there are more useful applications for PalMA.
You can find more information on our website and also on GitHub.
And I'd be happy to get your feedback or new contributions for PalMA.
Maybe there are also Debian developers who are willing to support special
software for libraries.
In any case, just drop me an e-mail.
Thanks for your attention.
[applause]