WEBVTT captioned by sachac
NOTE Intro
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Hi, I'm Sacha Chua. This presentation is a quick tour
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of some of the things we do to run EmacsConf.
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Since 2019, we've run it as an entirely online conference,
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and we do as much of the organization as possible
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within Emacs itself.
NOTE Reasons
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I have three reasons for making this presentation.
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The first is entirely selfish: I need to figure out
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all the stuff I built for last year's EmacsConf,
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since it was a bit of a crazy scramble.
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The second is that I want to show people
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the process of thinking about a complex project,
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looking for little things to automate in Emacs,
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and building things up from small pieces.
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Maybe you'll get some ideas
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and start building tools for yourself, too.
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The third is that you find any of these little tools interesting,
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I want to point you to blog posts and source code
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where you can find out more.
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That way, you don't need to try
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to read and understand everything quickly.
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You can find this presentation and other links
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on the talk page at emacsconf.org/2023/talks/emacsconf.
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There are a lot of different parts,
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so I'll try to use this map to help make sense of it all.
NOTE Information
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There's so much information to work with,
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so it probably doesn't surprise you that we use Org Mode a lot.
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Most of the conference coordination happens over e-mail,
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which I can quickly search with notmuch.
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Some of the information is private,
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like emergency contact numbers.
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We store the talk information in a private Org file.
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I try to put as much as possible
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into our public organizers' notebook
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so that processes and decisions are documented.
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We need a public website.
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We use Ikiwiki to make the webpages
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because we can work with plain text files
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in a Git repository.
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We also make a few static HTML pages
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for things where Ikiwiki is a little awkward.
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We post announcements to mailing lists.
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We also receive submissions in a private mailing list
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so that a number of people can review them.
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We have a backstage area
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for sharing files with volunteers and speakers.
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We share those files publicly when the talk goes live.
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And there's all the other stuff that goes into running EmacsConf,
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like shell scripts and configuration files.
NOTE Properties
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First, speakers propose a talk by sending an e-mail.
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We take the info from that e-mail and store it in Org properties
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so that we can work with it later.
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Every talk is identified with an ID,
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but since `:ID:` and `:CUSTOM_ID:` have special meanings for Org,
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I use `:SLUG:` as the keyword.
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Speakers' names go into the `:NAME:` property,
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and a short version goes into `:NAME_SHORT:`
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so that we can include that in a greeting.
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If people follow the template closely...
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...we can even automatically fill in the Org subtree for their talk.
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We can use regular expressions to recognize the text
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and extract the properties.
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Other properties need to be set by hand.
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I often mess things up when I retype them.
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To avoid typos, I have a function that sets a property
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based on the current region. I bind that to `C-c C-x p`.
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That makes it much easier to set properties
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that couldn't automatically be recognized.
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Sometimes it makes sense to dynamically generate a property
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and then edit it, like with filenames.
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We like to name all the talk files the same way,
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but sometimes special characters in talk titles or speaker names
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need a little tweaking. I'll put that in a `:FILE_PREFIX:` property
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so I can edit it.
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An Org property match can map over all the talk entries
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that don't have `:FILE_PREFIX:` defined.
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We can use that `:FILE_PREFIX:` to rename files from Emacs.
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With that property, we can then rename files using that prefix,
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some extra text, and the file extension.
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Sometimes it's easier to work with the data outside Emacs,
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like when I want to rename files with a shell script.
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If I export a subset of the data as JSON
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or JavaScript Object Notation, using `json-encode`...
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... then I can extract the data with `jq`
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and use it in shell scripts.
NOTE Timezones
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Another example of semi-structured information
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is speaker availability.
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We have speakers from all over the world,
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so we try to schedule live Q&A sessions when they're around.
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That means working with timezones.
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Completion makes it much easier to set the timezone property
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without worrying about typos.
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We can take advantage of the timezone list from the tzc package,
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which works with Unix timezone definitions.
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Then we can convert times using Emacs.
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Using a standard format to encode the availability
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makes it easier to parse.
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I can use those availability constraints to report errors
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when I'm experimenting with the schedule.
NOTE Scheduling
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Now that I have the availability information,
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I can think about scheduling.
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When we were planning EmacsConf 2022, the schedule was so full,
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I wanted to see if we could make it more manageable
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by splitting it up into two tracks.
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It was hard to think about times with just a table.
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I was able to turn the schedule information
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into an SVG to convince the other organizers
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to get on board with this crazy plan.
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And the nice thing about SVGs is that
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they can even be clickable on the wiki.
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Being able to quickly make SVGs of different schedules
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also helped me test scheduling ideas and think out loud.
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I could change the time between talks, the order of the talks,
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and even what tracks the talks were in.
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This was helpful when I needed to include
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some late submissions or availability changes
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and I wanted to ask speakers what they thought.
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They could see the different schedule options themselves.
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It's really nice to have Emacs Lisp support for working with SVGs.
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I also love how I can have an Emacs Lisp block
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in an Org Mode document that updates an SVG
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that I can view right there in my text editor.
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Setting the timezone lets me automatically translate times
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to the speaker's local timezone when I e-mail them.
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That's mostly a matter of using `format-time-string` with a timezone.
NOTE Templates
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There's also a lot of text to work with,
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which means templates are super handy.
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There are a number of templating functions for Emacs Lisp,
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like the built-in `tempo.el` or `s-lex-format` from `s.el`.
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I ended up writing something
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that works with property lists (plists) instead,
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since we use plists all over the emacsconf-el library.
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All it does is replace `${variable}`
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with the value from a property list.
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I use this mostly because I have a hard time
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keeping track of which `%s` is which when I use `format`,
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and it's hard to get an overall view if I just use `concat`.
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The code looks for the properties and replaces them with the values.
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I just find it a little easier to think about sometimes.
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Getting all the information is just a matter of going over
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all the talk entries using `org-map-entries`.
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This builds the talk info by running a bunch of functions.
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Some functions get the information from the Org file.
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Other functions use the info already collected.
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This can take a while to do again and again.
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It's useful to `memoize` this function
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when I know I'll be using it a lot,
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like when I export the organizers notebook.
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Memoize caches recent values.
NOTE Wiki
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We combine this templating function
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with the talk information
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to fill in the conference wiki,
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since that's a matter of writing templated strings to files.
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The talk pages are generated once
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and then left alone for manual editing,
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while the navigation is regenerated
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every time we change the details.
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Here are some examples
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of how we fill in the conference wiki.
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We put in the format of the talk, how Q&A works,
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and what the status is.
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Once the talk is live, we include the video
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and the links to the files, too.
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The code is a little bit long,
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but the important part is that
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we fill in a plist with the values we calculate,
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and then we can use `emacsconf-replace-plist-in-string`
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to put that all together.
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The schedule is a little more complicated.
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I wrote an Ikiwiki directive
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so that the markup is more manageable,
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and the Emacs Lisp function uses that.
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The Ikiwiki directive takes all the data and turns it into HTML...
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...so we can use Emacs Lisp to iterate over
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a slightly smaller property list
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and put them into the format Ikiwiki expects.
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It's nice to be able to navigate between talks
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without going back to the schedule page each time.
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This is handled by keeping two extra copies of the list:
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one with the first talk popped off,
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and one with an extra element added to the beginning.
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Then we can use the heads of those lists
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for next/previous links.
NOTE Etherpad
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Links to the next talks are also handy
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on the collaborative Etherpad documents
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that we use for collecting questions, answers, and notes
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during each talk.
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Etherpad has an API...
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...so I can start the pads off with a template
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before the conference.
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I don't want to accidentally overwrite a pad
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that has been manually edited.
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We can save the timestamp of the last modification
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and then compare it before overwriting.
NOTE E-mail
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Templates are also very handy when it comes to e-mail.
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Sometimes we send e-mails one at a time,
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like when we let a speaker know
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that we've received their proposal.
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That's mostly a matter of plugging the talk's properties
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into the right places in the template.
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Sometimes we send e-mails to lots of speakers at the same time,
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like when we send them instructions for uploading their files.
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Instead of sending one e-mail and Bcc-ing everyone,
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or sending people multiple e-mails
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because they have multiple talks,
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I like to draft these as individual e-mails
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to each speaker (or group of speakers,
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if more than one person is associated with a talk).
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That gives me an opportunity to personalize it further.
NOTE BigBlueButton web conferences
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Many speakers answer questions live
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in BigBlueButton web conference rooms.
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Setting up one room per group of speakers
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makes it easy to give the speakers the details
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and associate the recorded video with the talk afterwards.
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For EmacsConf 2023,
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I used Spookfox to control Mozilla Firefox from Emacs
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so that I could automate creating the rooms
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and adding the URLs to the talk properties in my Org file.
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Then I can use mail merge to send each speaker
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the check-in instructions for their specific room.
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Some speakers will take questions by e-mail
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after the conference instead of attending live,
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so we send them shorter instructions
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just in case they want to drop by.
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Live Q&A sessions start off
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with just the speaker and the host.
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After the first rush of questions,
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we can open it up for other people to join.
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This is handled by changing the public page
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from one that just refreshes in a loop
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to one that redirects to the actual web conference room.
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Just in case, we also
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generate static copies of those redirects
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so that we can copy them if needed.
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That way, I don't have to count on Emacs being able to
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publish them over TRAMP.
NOTE Shortcuts
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During the conference, I'm often jumping from talk to talk.
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Instead of going to the Org file
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and then searching for the talk,
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I've made a little Hydra with keyboard shortcuts.
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One of these shortcuts lets me
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jump to a talk with completion
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so that I can just type in part of the talk ID,
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title, or speaker name.
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I've also defined some Embark actions
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so that I can act on a talk right from the completion menu.
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For example, I might want to jump to the wiki page
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or e-mail the speaker.
NOTE Logbook
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I can also add notes to a talk while looking at an email,
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like when a speaker lets me know
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that their video will be late.
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Making it easy to add a note turns Emacs into
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a very basic contact relationship management system, or CRM.
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The way this works is that we have a function
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that lists all the email addresses associated with a talk.
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We can then map that over the list of talks,
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look up the author of the current email,
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prompt the user for the talk to add the note to, and add the note.
NOTE Captions
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On to captions.
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We've been doing captions for the last couple of years,
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and now we have a small army of volunteer captioners.
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They get early access to the recorded talks
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and fix up misrecognized words, format keyboard shortcuts
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to follow Emacs conventions, spell names correctly,
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and do all sorts of other wonderful things.
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One of our evil plans with EmacsConf
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is to get cool stuff out of people's heads into videos
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and also make captions so that those videos can be searched.
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To make that possible, we first need a backstage area
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where volunteers can get the files.
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This is just a simple password-protected directory
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with a static HTML page that lists the talks by status
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and shows the files related to each talk.
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As a talk moves through the process, I update its TODO state
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and republish this index.
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Talks that are ready to be captioned show up in that section,
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and volunteers can call dibs on the talk they're interested in.
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That's all done with a function that formats the information
00:12:00.800 --> 00:12:03.839
and uses TRAMP to save the file directly to the server.
00:12:03.840 --> 00:12:06.679
You can find more details on our captioning process
00:12:06.680 --> 00:12:09.039
at emacsconf.org/captioning.
00:12:09.040 --> 00:12:12.519
I like using subed to edit subtitles within Emacs.
NOTE Crontabs and playing the talks
00:12:12.520 --> 00:12:15.399
Let's talk about actually playing the talks.
00:12:15.400 --> 00:12:19.559
For EmacsConf 2022, we tried using Emacs timers
00:12:19.560 --> 00:12:20.519
to run the talks.
00:12:20.520 --> 00:12:24.079
It turns out that you can't call TRAMP from a timer
00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:26.719
when you're already using TRAMP from another timer
00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:27.439
at the same time.
00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:29.719
I thought about just tweaking the schedule
00:12:29.720 --> 00:12:31.799
so that we always start things at different times,
00:12:31.800 --> 00:12:34.799
but I figured there's probably a more elegant way to do this.
00:12:34.800 --> 00:12:37.519
This year, I'm planning to experiment with using cron
00:12:37.520 --> 00:12:38.959
to start talks on autopilot.
00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:42.119
The shell scripts will take care of playing the videos...
00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:44.399
... figuring out the appropriate Q&A...
00:12:44.400 --> 00:12:47.119
... and joining the web conference if needed.
00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:49.599
We just need to format the information...
00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:51.759
...and install it as the track's crontab.
00:12:51.760 --> 00:12:54.079
It's useful to be able to switch tracks
00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:55.599
to manual mode independently,
00:12:55.600 --> 00:12:57.679
just in case things go haywire.
00:12:57.680 --> 00:12:59.719
Then we can start everything manually.
00:12:59.720 --> 00:13:02.359
I can also manually update a talk's status,
00:13:02.360 --> 00:13:05.919
like when the host tells me that it's okay to open up the Q&A.
00:13:05.920 --> 00:13:08.719
The shell scripts we run from the crontab
00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:10.839
can also update the talk status themselves.
NOTE Transitions
00:13:10.840 --> 00:13:14.319
Then a bunch of things happen automatically based on
00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:15.599
the talk status changes.
00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:18.959
This uses org-after-todo-state-change-hook.
00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:20.359
We get the talk information
00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:21.959
and pass it to a list of functions.
00:13:21.960 --> 00:13:26.279
Internet Relay Chat or IRC is an easy way for people
00:13:26.280 --> 00:13:28.719
to join the conversation around EmacsConf.
00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:31.239
We announce a talk whenever it changes state.
00:13:31.240 --> 00:13:33.599
For example, when a talk starts,
00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:36.039
we post the URLs to the talk webpage
00:13:36.040 --> 00:13:39.439
and the Etherpad for questions. We change the topic as well,
00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:41.879
so anyone can see the current talk's information
00:13:41.880 --> 00:13:43.039
even if they're a little late.
00:13:43.040 --> 00:13:45.799
This is easy to do with a little bit of Emacs Lisp
00:13:45.800 --> 00:13:48.519
because (of course!) Emacs has an IRC client.
00:13:48.520 --> 00:13:49.639
In fact, it has several.
NOTE Wrapping up
00:13:49.640 --> 00:13:52.799
It seems like a lot of automation and Emacs Lisp,
00:13:52.800 --> 00:13:56.439
but really, all of this was just built up little by little.
00:13:56.440 --> 00:13:59.279
And tinkering with this is *fun*, you know?
00:13:59.280 --> 00:14:00.679
It's like always being able to ask,
00:14:00.680 --> 00:14:02.159
"Hey, wouldn't it be cool if..."
00:14:02.160 --> 00:14:05.279
and then actually being able to go and do it.
00:14:05.280 --> 00:14:07.999
Sometimes it feels like EmacsConf is an excuse
00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:09.359
for me to play with Emacs.
00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:11.999
It's pretty amazing what you can do
00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:13.799
by combining a bunch of pieces.
00:14:13.800 --> 00:14:16.719
A way to store slightly-structured information.
00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:18.879
A way to get it out again. Templates.
00:14:18.880 --> 00:14:20.679
TRAMP, for working with remote files
00:14:20.680 --> 00:14:21.919
and running remote commands.
00:14:21.920 --> 00:14:23.839
A way to talk to a web browser.
00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:25.399
A way to work with SVGs.
00:14:25.400 --> 00:14:27.759
An email client. A chat client.
00:14:27.760 --> 00:14:29.639
You can smoosh them all together
00:14:29.640 --> 00:14:32.319
in a way that you couldn't if they were all separate things.
00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:35.879
The code is in the emacsconf-el repository.
00:14:35.880 --> 00:14:39.119
It's a bit of a tangle because it's accumulating organically
00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:40.879
and I haven't really had the brainspace
00:14:40.880 --> 00:14:42.359
to step back and clean it up.
00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:45.519
But if you spotted anything interesting in this presentation,
00:14:45.520 --> 00:14:48.279
you can go check it out and see what you can scavenge.
00:14:48.280 --> 00:14:50.999
The link and this presentation are available
00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:59.119
from this talk's webpage at emacsconf.org/2023/talks/emacsconf .
00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:05.200
Let's figure out how to make Emacsconf even awesomer next year!
