diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | 2023/report.md | 287 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2023/report.org | 622 |
2 files changed, 909 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/2023/report.md b/2023/report.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ac545a56 --- /dev/null +++ b/2023/report.md @@ -0,0 +1,287 @@ +<!-- report.md is exported report.org, please modify that instead. --> +[[!sidebar content=""]] + +This file is automatically exported from [/2023/report.org](/2023/report.org). You might prefer to navigate this as an Org file instead. To do so, [clone the wiki repository](https://emacsconf.org/edit/). +[[!meta title="EmacsConf 2023 Report"]] +[[!date "2024-01-03"]] +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2024 Sacha Chua"]] + + +# Overview + +EmacsConf 2023 was held on December 2 and 3 as an online conference. We had 41 talks across two tracks (general and development), with a total of 16 hours of presentations, 12 hours of Q&A via web conference, and lots of lively discussion across IRC and Etherpad. Throughout the conference, there were 100-300 people watching via the livestream, and more than 80 people joined the live Q&A web conferences. There were also satellite events in Switzerland and Slovenia where people watched together. + +Thanks to volunteers who edited captions for pre-recorded videos, we were able to broadcast all 25 early submissions with open captions. This not only made talks more accessible while watching the livestreams, but it also made it easier to enjoy the talks in noisy environments or to catch up on talks. People said: + +- "that is some hero subtitling on 'cccc' to 'C-c C-c'. thank you!" + +If you'd like to help edit captions or add chapter markers, we'd love to hear from you. Please see <https://emacsconf.org/captioning> for details. + +We posted pre-recorded videos and transcripts on talk pages shortly after they started streaming, and live talks and Q&A sessions within two weeks. Automatic captions are now available for the rest of the talks and Q&A sessions. We've also archived questions and comments from IRC and Etherpad onto the talk pages. You can find the talk pages at <https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks> . The videos are also available on Toobnix (<https://toobnix.org/c/emacsconf/videos>) and YouTube (<https://www.youtube.com/@EmacsConf>). + + +# Highlights + +EmacsConf 2023 started with a full day of Org Mode talks on the general track, going from introducing people to Emacs through an Org-Mode-based [text adventure game](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/adventure "An Org-Mode based text adventure game for learning the basics of Emacs, inside Emacs, written in Emacs Lisp") all the way to [managing bibliographic references](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/ref "Org-Mode workflow: informal reference tracking") and [exporting build instructions for different systems](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/doc "Literate Documentation with Emacs and Org Mode"). There was a group of Hyperbole talks on [new developments](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/hyperamp "Top 10 ways Hyperbole amps up Emacs") and [outlining workflows](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/koutline "Using Koutline for stream of thought journaling") on the second day, and there were interesting experiments with using Emacs for fun and productivity. On the development track, speakers shared tips for working with Emacs Lisp and other languages. There was also a lot of interest in exploring emerging artificial intelligence tools. + +Here are some highlights: + +**Collaboration:** In [Collaborative data processing and documenting using org-babel](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/collab "Collaborative data processing and documenting using org-babel"), Jonathan Hartman and Lukas C. Bossert showed how to do reproducible research together in Emacs by using the CRDT package along with Org Mode's support for running many different languages in your notes. People said: + +- "Great collaborative conversation and step-wise example creates a + different (and impactful) framing. Thank you!" +- "Truly one of the most impressive talks of the day. Congrats! Very + inspiring" +- "I like the way you highlight the point you are talking about in + real time." +- "Just came here to say watching two users editing the same buffer + simultaneously is BLOWING MY MIND" +- "that's really cool. One of the parts that's a bit hidden from the + user is seeing the format that the data is in inside the shell + script" +- "such a slick presentation, I like the CRDT collaboration angle, + looks like an end-game UX" +- "For those of you who remember the bad old days before "reproducible + research," that talk is even more impressive. Great job!" + +**Fun:** [How I play TTRPGs in Emacs](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/solo "How I play TTRPGs in Emacs") by Howard Abrams wowed people not only with the Org Mode workflow he shared but also the general vibe of the video. People said: + +- "My favorite talk was Howard's, not because I do role playing games + (last was probably a few late night D&D sessions in the 70s), but + just seeing the sheer existential joy possible in using emacs to + scratch ones one itch, and then sharing the experience." <https://fosstodon.org/@eludom/111674175511553798> +- "Really cool project! - Also the enthusiasm for the topic is really + contagious!" +- "the camera and lighting already has me sold" +- "I can see this one is going to be a classic" +- "Howard's stuff is always great. this particular thing is totally + unchained. :D" +- "Every time Howard publishes a talk, I end up doing one more thing + in a new radical or literate way inside Emacs - currently looking + into how to go about literate snow shoveling for the winter ahead." + +**Community:** In [Mentoring VS-Coders as an Emacsian (or How to show not tell people about the wonders of Emacs)](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/mentor "Mentoring VS-Coders as an Emacsian (or How to show not tell people about the wonders of Emacs)"), Jeremy Friesen talked about his experiences staying curious, learning from people around him, and encouraging people to grow no matter what tools they currently use. People said: + +- "The talks that impacted me the most were @takeonrules Jeremy Friesen's talks, ostensibly about writing with #Emacs and talking to others about Emacs. Substantively they got right to the heart of what makes Emacs so powerful as a platform, as a community, and as a model for how #FreeSoftware liberates us. His embodying the attitudes of self-sufficiency, mutual aid, empathy, open-mindedness, and authentic creativity showed us ourselves at our best." - [@jameshowell](https://emacs.ch/@jameshowell/111671402961867425), quoted under the GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 +- "such valuable work being described" +- "I love the attitudes and worldview that infuses your blog posts and + your talks this weekend." + +**Development:** We also heard from core developers such as [John Wiegley](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/devel "Emacs development updates"), [Stefan Kangas](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/core "Emacs core development: how it works"), and [Ihor Radchenko](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/gc "emacs-gc-stats: Does garbage collection actually slow down Emacs?") on Emacs development updates, processes, and experiments. On the package side, [Yoni Rabkin](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/emms "Emacs MultiMedia System (EMMS)") shared a glimpse of how Emacs package development works with a deep dive into EMMS, the Emacs Multimedia System. People said: + +- "Thanks John for all the news on Emacs and informative answers." +- "Thank you Stefan! That was all really cool! :D" +- "Came for clear-cut magic bullet answers, left with nuanced + analysis - and that, surprise, Eli was overall right? Now what to do + with that viral gc init snippet that I've never taken time to + measure myself but keep anyway…" +- "I very much liked Yoni Rabkin's calm,measured talk about EMMS. It + described not only the software but how the development team + worked." (<https://emacs.ch/@franburstall/111675280003261648>) +- "I just really enjoy seeing the folks that contribute to free + software. They are truly people to emulate. That goes double for + Yoni." + +**Automation:** From [using overlays to simplify complex compilation error messages](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/overlays "Improving compiler diagnostics with overlays") to [writing tests](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/test "What I learned by writing test cases for GNU Hyperbole") to [organizing EmacsConf itself](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/emacsconf "EmacsConf.org: How we use Org Mode and TRAMP to organize and run a multi-track conference"), Emacs makes it easier to do stuff and have fun along the way. People said: + +- (about overlays) "That was great, showing how relatively easy it is to extend Emacs + with features like that." +- "Whatever you do, don't miss out @sachac's talk (this PM or + otherwise). I stumbled on it on @bandali's channel following a link to + Howard's, and it's a **masterclass** in wrangling things together to + automate workflows in Emacs/Elisp/Org. When people ask about VS Code, + this shows we are talking different mindsets and tools altogether." +- "I'll be rewatching it multiple times too, that's how packed in useful + insights and tidbits it is. 'What do you mean Emacs/Org is a platform + and a way of life?' Well, here you go, great exemplar :)" +- "The breadth of use cases and applications, and range of + Emacs/Elisp/Org capabilities reached for in this talk is fascinating." + +**Future:** GNU Emacs is almost 40 years old and still going strong. Marcus Birkenkrahe shared his experiences [using Emacs to teach students data science](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/teaching "Teaching computer and data science with literate programming tools"), and Jacob Boxerman talked about what it's like as [a student and as a video creator](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/sharing "Sharing Emacs is Caring Emacs: Emacs education and why I embraced video"). Emacs continues to be a great platform for experimenting with everything from [parallel text replacement](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/parallel "Parallel text replacement") all the way up to [artificial intelligence with large language models](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/llm "LLM clients in Emacs, functionality and standardization"). People said: + +- "My personal highlights are not necessarily about specific + presentations, but about represented topics: + + 1. Multiple talks on using Emacs/Org mode in university setting both on student and lecturer side. This gives a promise on more people being exposed to Emacs and more people using it in their professional toolchain. + 2. The rise of LLM talks - Emacs being text editor is a natural interface to LLMs that do text-crunching. + 3. "Parallel text replacement" talk showing us that even the most common text-based interfaces are not yet "figured-out". Even in Emacs." + + ([@yantar92](https://emacs.ch/@yantar92/111671107089286310)) +- "2nd favorite was Andrew Hyatt's LLM talk because it clearly showed + how relevant a programmable text processing environment (that + happens to have an editor) is to the brave new world of LLMs, + possibly being as he intimated, positioned to lead the way. + + What's old is new. Emacs was born in an AI lab. The challenge of + computing as far back a Alan Turing was intelligence. This talk + shows not the past, but emacs' place in the future. " + <https://fosstodon.org/@eludom/111674208478381966> +- "I think Andrew is right that Emacs is uniquely positioned, being a + unified integrated interface with good universal abstractions + (buffers, text manipulation, etc), and across all uses cases and + notably one's Org data. Should be interesting…!" + +There were lots of other great talks. Check them out at <https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks> ! Overall, people said: + +- "actually there part of the conference I admire most is is the fact + that that whole thing is obviously a labor of love by emacs geeks for + emacs geeks, using and showcasing as much free software as possible. + It creates community for those of us who are otherwise isolated in our + dark holes using a 45 year old text editor and wondering quizzically + why everything in our lives can't be reduced to text." + (<https://fosstodon.org/@eludom/111674156306960653>) +- "Indeed, seeing all the use cases across so many fields is one of the + big selling point of this coming together, loving it." +- "This is my first year attending the conference, it was amazing! All + of the presenters and material were very impressive. And from a + technical perspective, the event was extremely smooth. It was easy to + find the agenda material online, and then use mpv to watch, and ask + questions on etherpad." +- "this conference is crazy i am not sure i ever saw so much interesting + emacs ideas in one day" +- "many good talks, and a sense of community around emacs, which is nice + to see" +- "i also have a feeling that it's hard to communicate with others when + you start digging into a large system. your confusion diffuses. i felt + similar when jumping into web framework and legacy apps. that's also + why i liked emacsconf, watching others clarifies a lot of stuff. + (memories of johnw edebug flash talk)" +- "the pacing, clarity, and depth of the talks today has been really + impressive, a presentation masterclass" + + +# Process improvements + +This year we tried out the following experiments: + +- Early acceptance: It was great being able to accept proposals as + they came in, and people chimed in with ideas for making talks even + better. +- Two tracks from the beginning: Following on the success of EmacsConf + 2022, we planned the schedule for two tracks and filled it right up. +- We worked on reducing manual intervention. + - We opened Q&A right away instead of waiting for the hosts to give the go-ahead. + - We used Tampermonkey to automatically connect to BigBlueButton + from the streaming user. + - Cron-based scheduling of talks kept us on time and made it easier + to manage multiple tracks. +- In addition to the iCalendar files for the conference and the + individual tracks, we also generated Org files in many different + timezones so that people could get the schedule in that format. + People said: + - "Yes, having the schedule in my own timezone was super helpful." +- subed-waveform made it easier to adjust timestamps and sync subtitles. + + +# Technical details + +EmacsConf is committed to software freedom. We used the following tools +for this year's conference: + +- MPV (<https://mpv.io>): video player +- BigBlueButton (<https://bigbluebutton.org/>): web conference +- OBS Studio (<https://obsproject.com/>): streaming +- TigerVNC (<https://tigervnc.org/>): controlling the remote server +- Icecast (<https://icecast.org/>): streaming WEBM +- Internet Relay Chat via Libera.chat (<https://libera.chat/>), The Lounge (<https://thelounge.chat/>), and ERC (<https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/erc.html>): conversation +- Etherpad (<https://etherpad.org/>): questions and notes +- Ikiwiki (<https://ikiwiki.info/>): website +- PsiTransfer (<https://github.com/psi-4ward/psitransfer>): uploads +- OpenAI Whisper (<https://github.com/openai/whisper>): captioning +- Aeneas (<https://www.readbeyond.it/aeneas/>): forced alignment to get timestamps +- subed-mode (<https://codeberg.org/sachac/subed>): captioning +- Git (<https://git-scm.com/>): version control +- Org Mode (<https://orgmode.org/>), Emacs (<https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/>): organization and collaboration +- Mailman (<https://list.org/>): mailing lists; service provided by the Free Software Foundation +- Nginx (<https://www.nginx.com/>): web server; server provided by the Free Software Foundation +- Ansible (<https://www.ansible.com/>): system configuration + +You can find out more about our infrastructure at +<https://emacsconf.org/infra> . + + +# Finances + +Our hosting costs were USD 48.82 for the conference itself: + +<table> + + +<colgroup> +<col class="org-left"> + +<col class="org-left"> + +<col class="org-left"> + +<col class="org-left"> + +<col class="org-left"> +</colgroup> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td class="org-left">Linode 64GB</td> +<td class="org-left">Icecast streaming</td> +<td class="org-left">50 hours</td> +<td class="org-left">USD 0.576/hour</td> +<td class="org-left">USD 28.80 + 13% tax</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="org-left">Linode 32GB</td> +<td class="org-left">wiki</td> +<td class="org-left">50 hours</td> +<td class="org-left">USD 0.288/hour</td> +<td class="org-left">USD 14.40 + 13% tax</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + +The year-round hosting is on two Linode Nanode 1GB instances that are +shared with other projects and are not included in this amount. + +As of 2023-12-12, we have received USD 436.60 (net of FSF costs) in +donations through the Working Together program of the Free Software +Foundation. We plan to use the donations to cover hosting costs for +this year's conference and next year's conference, and we are also +thinking about low-cost ways to improve the conference experience. + + +# Acknowledgements + +We would like to thank the following: + +- Thank you to all the speakers, volunteers, and participants, and to all those other people in our lives who make it possible through time and support. +- This year's conference hosts are Leo Vivier, Amin Bandali, and joining our team of hosts for the first time this year, FlowyCoder. +- The streams were managed by Sacha Chua, check-ins by FlowyCoder and Amin, with miscellaneous running-around by Corwin Brust. +- Thank you to our captioning volunteers: Daniel Molina, Bala Bhavin Gandhi, Amine Zyad, Yoni Rabkin, Daniel Alejandro Tapia, Hannah Miller, Ken Huang, Jean-Christophe Helary, James Howell, Eduardo Ochs, and Andrew Dougherty. +- Thanks to Jean-Christophe Helary, Corwin, Quiliro, Cairn, and Amin Bandali for helping with the early acceptance process. +- Thanks to Leo Vivier for fiddling with the audio to get things nicely synced, normalized, and denoised. +- Thanks to Leo and other people who kept the mailing lists free from spam. +- Thanks to Akshay Gaikwad for design contributions. +- Thanks to shoshin (Grant Shangreaux) for the music. +- Thanks to Ry P for the server that we're using for OBS streaming and for processing videos. +- Thanks to the Free Software Foundation for Emacs itself, the mailing lists, and the media.emacsconf.org server. +- Thanks to the contributers to all of tools and services we used. +- Thanks to everyone! + + +# Updates + +If you would like to get updates and announcements, please sign up at +<https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacsconf-discuss> . + +Keep an eye out for interesting things that might be fun to present at +next year's EmacsConf. We love to get talks at all levels of +experience and about lots of different kinds of interests. One of the +speakers wrote: + +- "I can honestly say though that I had a great time putting my talk + together. I hope people will have a good time listening to it. Now + that the work is over, I can say it was worth it. so I recommend it + warmly" + +See you +next year! + diff --git a/2023/report.org b/2023/report.org new file mode 100644 index 00000000..dcac6218 --- /dev/null +++ b/2023/report.org @@ -0,0 +1,622 @@ +# [[elisp:(org-md-export-to-markdown)][Export this file to Markdown]] + +#+begin_export md +<!-- report.md is exported report.org, please modify that instead. --> +[[!sidebar content=""]] + +This file is automatically exported from [/2023/report.org](/2023/report.org). You might prefer to navigate this as an Org file instead. To do so, [clone the wiki repository](https://emacsconf.org/edit/). +[[!meta title="EmacsConf 2023 Report"]] +[[!date "2024-01-03"]] +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2024 Sacha Chua"]] +#+end_export + +* COMMENT About this document + +Goal for this document: + +- summarize results of EmacsConf into something that we can pull + relevant excerpts from depending on the audience + - fundraising, FSF + +Examples: + +- [[https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pycon-namibia-2023-report-pycon-namibia]] - brief +- [[https://pycon.blogspot.com/2023/06/pycon-us-2023-recap-and-recording.html]] - recap PDF with stats and quotes +- [[https://media.debconf.org/dc14/report/DebConf14_final_report.en.pdf]] - PDF with lots of details +- [[https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/from-freedom-trail-to-free-boot-and-free-farms-charting-the-course-at-libreplanet-day-2]] + +* Overview + +EmacsConf 2023 was held on December 2 and 3 as an online conference. We had 41 talks across two tracks (general and development), with a total of 16 hours of presentations, 12 hours of Q&A via web conference, and lots of lively discussion across IRC and Etherpad. Throughout the conference, there were 100-300 people watching via the livestream, and more than 80 people joined the live Q&A web conferences. There were also satellite events in Switzerland and Slovenia where people watched together. + +Thanks to volunteers who edited captions for pre-recorded videos, we were able to broadcast all 25 early submissions with open captions. This not only made talks more accessible while watching the livestreams, but it also made it easier to enjoy the talks in noisy environments or to catch up on talks. People said: + +- "that is some hero subtitling on 'cccc' to 'C-c C-c'. thank you!" + +If you'd like to help edit captions or add chapter markers, we'd love to hear from you. Please see [[https://emacsconf.org/captioning]] for details. + +We posted pre-recorded videos and transcripts on talk pages shortly after they started streaming, and live talks and Q&A sessions within two weeks. Automatic captions are now available for the rest of the talks and Q&A sessions. We've also archived questions and comments from IRC and Etherpad onto the talk pages. You can find the talk pages at [[https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks]] . The videos are also available on Toobnix ([[https://toobnix.org/c/emacsconf/videos]]) and YouTube ([[https://www.youtube.com/@EmacsConf]]). + +* Highlights + +EmacsConf 2023 started with a full day of Org Mode talks on the general track, going from introducing people to Emacs through an Org-Mode-based [[emacsconf:adventure][text adventure game]] all the way to [[emacsconf:ref][managing bibliographic references]] and [[emacsconf:doc][exporting build instructions for different systems]]. There was a group of Hyperbole talks on [[emacsconf:hyperamp][new developments]] and [[emacsconf:koutline][outlining workflows]] on the second day, and there were interesting experiments with using Emacs for fun and productivity. On the development track, speakers shared tips for working with Emacs Lisp and other languages. There was also a lot of interest in exploring emerging artificial intelligence tools. + +Here are some highlights: + +*Collaboration:* In [[emacsconf:collab][Collaborative data processing and documenting using org-babel]], Jonathan Hartman and Lukas C. Bossert showed how to do reproducible research together in Emacs by using the CRDT package along with Org Mode's support for running many different languages in your notes. People said: + + - "Great collaborative conversation and step-wise example creates a + different (and impactful) framing. Thank you!" + - "Truly one of the most impressive talks of the day. Congrats! Very + inspiring" + - "I like the way you highlight the point you are talking about in + real time." + - "Just came here to say watching two users editing the same buffer + simultaneously is BLOWING MY MIND" + - "that's really cool. One of the parts that's a bit hidden from the + user is seeing the format that the data is in inside the shell + script" + - "such a slick presentation, I like the CRDT collaboration angle, + looks like an end-game UX" + - "For those of you who remember the bad old days before "reproducible + research," that talk is even more impressive. Great job!" + +*Fun:* [[emacsconf:solo][How I play TTRPGs in Emacs]] by Howard Abrams wowed people not only with the Org Mode workflow he shared but also the general vibe of the video. People said: + + - "My favorite talk was Howard's, not because I do role playing games + (last was probably a few late night D&D sessions in the 70s), but + just seeing the sheer existential joy possible in using emacs to + scratch ones one itch, and then sharing the experience." [[https://fosstodon.org/@eludom/111674175511553798]] + - "Really cool project! - Also the enthusiasm for the topic is really + contagious!" + - "the camera and lighting already has me sold" + - "I can see this one is going to be a classic" + - "Howard's stuff is always great. this particular thing is totally + unchained. :D" + - "Every time Howard publishes a talk, I end up doing one more thing + in a new radical or literate way inside Emacs - currently looking + into how to go about literate snow shoveling for the winter ahead." + +*Community:* In [[emacsconf:mentor][Mentoring VS-Coders as an Emacsian (or How to show not tell people about the wonders of Emacs)]], Jeremy Friesen talked about his experiences staying curious, learning from people around him, and encouraging people to grow no matter what tools they currently use. People said: + + - "The talks that impacted me the most were @takeonrules Jeremy Friesen's talks, ostensibly about writing with #Emacs and talking to others about Emacs. Substantively they got right to the heart of what makes Emacs so powerful as a platform, as a community, and as a model for how #FreeSoftware liberates us. His embodying the attitudes of self-sufficiency, mutual aid, empathy, open-mindedness, and authentic creativity showed us ourselves at our best." - [[https://emacs.ch/@jameshowell/111671402961867425][@jameshowell]], quoted under the GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 + - "such valuable work being described" + - "I love the attitudes and worldview that infuses your blog posts and + your talks this weekend." + +*Development:* We also heard from core developers such as [[emacsconf:devel][John Wiegley]], [[emacsconf:core][Stefan Kangas]], and [[emacsconf:gc][Ihor Radchenko]] on Emacs development updates, processes, and experiments. On the package side, [[emacsconf:emms][Yoni Rabkin]] shared a glimpse of how Emacs package development works with a deep dive into EMMS, the Emacs Multimedia System. People said: + + - "Thanks John for all the news on Emacs and informative answers." + - "Thank you Stefan! That was all really cool! :D" + - "Came for clear-cut magic bullet answers, left with nuanced + analysis - and that, surprise, Eli was overall right? Now what to do + with that viral gc init snippet that I've never taken time to + measure myself but keep anyway..." + - "I very much liked Yoni Rabkin's calm,measured talk about EMMS. It + described not only the software but how the development team + worked." ([[https://emacs.ch/@franburstall/111675280003261648]]) + - "I just really enjoy seeing the folks that contribute to free + software. They are truly people to emulate. That goes double for + Yoni." + +*Automation:* From [[emacsconf:overlays][using overlays to simplify complex compilation error messages]] to [[emacsconf:test][writing tests]] to [[emacsconf:emacsconf][organizing EmacsConf itself]], Emacs makes it easier to do stuff and have fun along the way. People said: + +- (about overlays) "That was great, showing how relatively easy it is to extend Emacs + with features like that." +- "Whatever you do, don't miss out @sachac's talk (this PM or + otherwise). I stumbled on it on @bandali's channel following a link to + Howard's, and it's a *masterclass* in wrangling things together to + automate workflows in Emacs/Elisp/Org. When people ask about VS Code, + this shows we are talking different mindsets and tools altogether." +- "I'll be rewatching it multiple times too, that's how packed in useful + insights and tidbits it is. 'What do you mean Emacs/Org is a platform + and a way of life?' Well, here you go, great exemplar :)" +- "The breadth of use cases and applications, and range of + Emacs/Elisp/Org capabilities reached for in this talk is fascinating." + +*Future:* GNU Emacs is almost 40 years old and still going strong. Marcus Birkenkrahe shared his experiences [[emacsconf:teaching][using Emacs to teach students data science]], and Jacob Boxerman talked about what it's like as [[emacsconf:sharing][a student and as a video creator]]. Emacs continues to be a great platform for experimenting with everything from [[emacsconf:parallel][parallel text replacement]] all the way up to [[emacsconf:llm][artificial intelligence with large language models]]. People said: + + - "My personal highlights are not necessarily about specific + presentations, but about represented topics: + 1. Multiple talks on using Emacs/Org mode in university setting both on student and lecturer side. This gives a promise on more people being exposed to Emacs and more people using it in their professional toolchain. + 2. The rise of LLM talks - Emacs being text editor is a natural interface to LLMs that do text-crunching. + 3. "Parallel text replacement" talk showing us that even the most common text-based interfaces are not yet "figured-out". Even in Emacs." + ([[https://emacs.ch/@yantar92/111671107089286310][@yantar92]]) + - "2nd favorite was Andrew Hyatt's LLM talk because it clearly showed + how relevant a programmable text processing environment (that + happens to have an editor) is to the brave new world of LLMs, + possibly being as he intimated, positioned to lead the way. + + What's old is new. Emacs was born in an AI lab. The challenge of + computing as far back a Alan Turing was intelligence. This talk + shows not the past, but emacs' place in the future. " + [[https://fosstodon.org/@eludom/111674208478381966]] + - "I think Andrew is right that Emacs is uniquely positioned, being a + unified integrated interface with good universal abstractions + (buffers, text manipulation, etc), and across all uses cases and + notably one's Org data. Should be interesting...!" + +There were lots of other great talks. Check them out at https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks ! Overall, people said: + +- "actually there part of the conference I admire most is is the fact + that that whole thing is obviously a labor of love by emacs geeks for + emacs geeks, using and showcasing as much free software as possible. + It creates community for those of us who are otherwise isolated in our + dark holes using a 45 year old text editor and wondering quizzically + why everything in our lives can't be reduced to text." + ([[https://fosstodon.org/@eludom/111674156306960653]]) +- "Indeed, seeing all the use cases across so many fields is one of the + big selling point of this coming together, loving it." +- "This is my first year attending the conference, it was amazing! All + of the presenters and material were very impressive. And from a + technical perspective, the event was extremely smooth. It was easy to + find the agenda material online, and then use mpv to watch, and ask + questions on etherpad." +- "this conference is crazy i am not sure i ever saw so much interesting + emacs ideas in one day" +- "many good talks, and a sense of community around emacs, which is nice + to see" +- "i also have a feeling that it's hard to communicate with others when + you start digging into a large system. your confusion diffuses. i felt + similar when jumping into web framework and legacy apps. that's also + why i liked emacsconf, watching others clarifies a lot of stuff. + (memories of johnw edebug flash talk)" +- "the pacing, clarity, and depth of the talks today has been really + impressive, a presentation masterclass" + +* COMMENT Raw quotes for highlights + +"The talks that impacted me the most were @takeonrules Jeremy Friesen's +talks, ostensibly about writing with #Emacs and talking to others about +Emacs. Substantively they got right to the heart of what makes Emacs so +powerful as a platform, as a community, and as a model for how +#FreeSoftware liberates us. His embodying the attitudes of +self-sufficiency, mutual aid, empathy, open-mindedness, and authentic +creativity showed us ourselves at our best." - @jameshowell +([[https://emacs.ch/@jameshowell/111671402961867425]]) - quoted under +the GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 + +"My personal highlights are not necessarily about specific +presentations, but about represented topics: +1. Multiple talks on using Emacs/Org mode in university setting both on +student and lecturer side. This gives a promise on more people being +exposed to Emacs and more people using it in their professional +toolchain. +2. The rise of LLM talks - Emacs being text editor is a natural +interface to LLMs that do text-crunching. +3. "Parallel text replacement" talk showing us that even the most common +text-based interfaces are not yet "figured-out". Even in Emacs." - +@yantar92 ([[https://emacs.ch/@yantar92/111671107089286310]]) + + +uni, teaching, table, collab, ref + +- table + + - "This talk was really good in showing how to actually make some + things though. Going to look up the aggregate package." + +- uni + + - "I'm digging the weather-report style with your pointing at the + screen" + - "Fantastic. I think this talk will be a reference for years to + come!" + +- teaching + + - "Very important point to teach CS: immersion. Nothing better than + emacs for that." + - "Emacs is *great* for beginners (on CS): it makes them think + programmatically on their environment." + +- ref + + - "The current talk shows that most of the time, the already included + tools in Emacs allow for custom workflows without needing to use + external packages (org-roam, etc.). Of course, the latter are great + for richer workflows, but core Emacs is often enough." + +- collab + + - "Great collaborative conversation and step-wise example creates a + different (and impactful) framing. Thank you!" + - "Truly one of the most impressive talks of the day. Congrats! Very + inspiring" + - "I like the way you highlight the point you are talking about in + real time." + - "Just came here to say watching two users editing the same buffer + simultaneously is BLOWING MY MIND" + - "that's really cool. One of the parts that's a bit hidden from the + user is seeing the format that the data is in inside the shell + script" + - "such a slick presentation, I like the CRDT collaboration angle, + looks like an end-game UX" + - "For those of you who remember the bad old days before "reproducible + research," that talk is even more impressive. Great job!" + +writing, nabokov + +- writing + + - "This looks like a really nice setup, and I'd like to give it a + try!" + +- nabokov + + - " 👏 I'll start writing my masterpiece tomorrow!" + - "The most valuable thing that Org will bring to the writer is the + structure, how we can navigate between different structures of + thoughts." + +one, unentangling, doc + +- one + + - "Yeah, definitely a fun project that solves a problem to keep more + Emacs and less external services. Static web sites are the best. + :-D" + - "I really like that `jack-html` is a separate project, as that looks + nifty." + +- doc + + - "Thanks for the awesome presentation, I can't wait to add some of + this stuff to my documents" + - "Also, loved the presentation --- great walk-through of the thought + process & how to improve. Was happy when Macros made their way in" + +mentor, sharing + +- mentor + + - "such valuable work being described" + - "I love the attitudes and worldview that infuses your blog posts and + your talks this weekend." + +- sharing + + - "I've used your videos before! Thanks for all the good work." + - "Agreed, jakeb --- video is worth it." + +devel, core, gc + +- gc + + - "Came for clear-cut magic bullet answers, left with nuanced + analysis - and that, surprise, Eli was overall right? Now what to do + with that viral gc init snippet that I've never taken time to + measure myself but keep anyway..." + - "Definitely a huge extra thanks for the tireless Org-mode work + yantar92!" + - "Thanks for your work on this project. Very thorough." + +- core + + - "Thank you Stefan! That was all really cool! :D" + +- devel + + - "Thanks John for all the news on Emacs and informative answers." + +adventure, solo, cubing, emms + +- solo + + - "My favorite talk was Howard's, not because I do role playing games + (last was probably a few late night D&D sessions in the 70s), but + just seeing the sheer existential joy possible in using emacs to + scratch ones one itch, and then sharing the experience. " + [[https://fosstodon.org/@eludom/111674175511553798]] + - "Really cool project! - Also the enthusiasm for the topic is really + contagious!" + - "the camera and lighting already has me sold" + - "I can see this one is going to be a classic" + - "Howard's stuff is always great. this particular thing is totally + unchained. :D" + - "Every time Howard publishes a talk, I end up doing one more thing + in a new radical or literate way inside Emacs - currently looking + into how to go about literate snow shoveling for the winter ahead." + +- emms + + - "I very much liked Yoni Rabkin's calm,measured talk about EMMS. It + described not only the software but how the development team + worked." ([[https://emacs.ch/@franburstall/111675280003261648]]) + - "I just really enjoy seeing the folks that contribute to free + software. They are truly people to emulate. That goes double for + Yoni." + +- cubing + + - "i'm glad you're exploring Emacs UI wasamasa , i've also been + confounded trying to write a transient, and its nice to see that + sqlite is working for ya" + +- adventure + + - "with how simple the system seems it would be interesting if people + forked it and add their own tutorials for their projects" + - "neat idea for learning about emacs!" + - "i will definitely keep this game in mind since i have mostly just + started my emacs journey" + +voice, steno + +- steno + + - "Yes, ou's doing a great job and setting a good pace" + - "So much good stuff here, thanks for sharing! +1" + +hyperamp, koutline + +- hyperamp + + - "thanks bob i heard about hyperbole long time ago now it is time to + revisit with this beautiful presentation" + - "i'm going to look into hyperbole for sure now. it's been on my to + do list" + - "Bob has a long history of doing impressive work :)" + +overlay, eval, repl, test, scheme, lspocaml + +- scheme + + - "brilliant work for scheme" + - "yeah, this is overdue. the only real alternative is slime-r7rs" + +- overlay + + - "Very impressive! And well explained. Thank you." + - "yeah try doing that in VSCode! yeah." + - "this is slick!" + - "That was great, showing how relatively easy it is to extend Emacs + with features like that." + +world, flat + +- world + + - "Thank you for showing so many new possibilities with Emacs!" + +- flat + + - "It looks great, thanks for upstreaming it in GNU Emacs core as + well!" + +matplotllm, llm + +- llm + + - "2nd favorite was Andrew Hyatt's LLM talk because it clearly showed + how relevant a programmable text processing environment (that + happens to have an editor) is to the brave new world of LLMs, + possibly being as he intimated, positioned to lead the way. + + What's old is new. Emacs was born in an AI lab. The challenge of + computing as far back a Alan Turing was intelligence. This talk + shows not the past, but emacs' place in the future." + [[https://fosstodon.org/@eludom/111674208478381966]] + - "I think Andrew is right that Emacs is uniquely positioned, being a + unified integrated interface with good universal abstractions + (buffers, text manipulation, etc), and across all uses cases and + notably one's Org data. Should be interesting...!" + - "The ubiquitous integration of LLMs (multi-modal) for anything and + everything in/across Emacs and Org is both 1) exciting, 2) scary." + +parallel, eat, windows + +- eat + + - "I found out about EAT a while ago and was excited to find out that + it works so well! Thank you for your great work!" + - "I use eat, and I have almost replace terminal (bash/zsh) with + eshell paired with eat" + - "eat is very easy to try out compared to vterm since there's no + foreign code involved" + - "I was stunned at how fast eat is!" + - "eat is the apple equivalent of terminal emulators in emacs: It just + works! ;)" + +- windows + + - "I can't imagine cross-compiling Emacs for Windows on Linux is easy, + but sounds 'fun'." + +- parallel + + - "package installed, ready to use!" + - "excellent talk, and also such a cool package" + - "great talk, very clever concept" + +poltys, web + +- web + + - "Dang, this is really a great demo." + - "I love how he's using org-mode to do it all." + - "Definitely some interesting ideas in that one, and the literate + form is top-notch. Warrants a focused rewatch for me" + - "I *really* like Org-Babel as a bridge to make complex one-off tasks + ("why did the stuff in the database get into this state?" type + things, usually) reproduceable and version-controlled." + +hyperdrive + +- "Btw, hyperdrive looks like another one of those things that would be + amazing if I collaborated with anyone using emacs" +- "Okay, I got hyperdrive.el working and it was super easy." +- "Prot's presentations are so clear. Perfectly model pedagogy." +- "I have learned so much from his videos, and from his code." + +emacsconf + +- "Amazing presentation, Sacha!!! It's wonderful that all of your work + is well-documented. Thank you!!!" +- "This is my first year attending the conference, it was amazing! All + of the presenters and material were very impressive. And from a + technical perspective, the event was extremely smooth. It was easy to + find the agenda material online, and then use mpv to watch, and ask + questions on etherpad." +- "Whatever you do, don't miss out @sachac's talk (this PM or + otherwise). I stumbled on it on @bandali's channel following a link to + Howard's, and it's a *masterclass* in wrangling things together to + automate workflows in Emacs/Elisp/Org. When people ask about VS Code, + this shows we are talking different mindsets and tools altogether." +- "I'll be rewatching it multiple times too, that's how packed in useful + insights and tidbits it is. 'What do you mean Emacs/Org is a platform + and a way of life?' Well, here you go, great exemplar :)" +- "The breadth of use cases and applications, and range of + Emacs/Elisp/Org capabilities reached for in this talk is fascinating." +- "So nice to see these practical example of automating workflow with + Emacs, great presentation sachac" + +emacsen +overall + +- "actually there part of the conference I admire most is is the fact + that that whole thing is obviously a labor of love by emacs geeks for + emacs geeks, using and showcasing as much free software as possible. + It creates community for those of us who are otherwise isolated in our + dark holes using a 45 year old text editor and wondering quizzically + why everything in our lives can't be reduced to text." + ([[https://fosstodon.org/@eludom/111674156306960653]]) +- "that is some hero subtitling on 'cccc' to 'C-c C-c'. thank you!" +- "I can honestly say though that I had a great time putting my talk + together. I hope people will have a good time listening to it. Now + that the work is over, I can say it was worth it. so I recommend it + warmly" +- "Nice way to display countdown with emacs, that's why i love emacs + and emacser" +- "Indeed, seeing all the use cases across so many fields is one of the + big selling point of this coming together, loving it." +- "this conference is crazy i am not sure i ever saw so much interesting + emacs ideas in one day" +- "Thanks to the organizers for your tireless work, and to the most + excellent presenters of today, what a treat!" +- "many good talks, and a sense of community around emacs, which is nice + to see" +- "i also have a feeling that it's hard to communicate with others when + you start digging into a large system. your confusion diffuses. i felt + similar when jumping into web framework and legacy apps. that's also + why i liked emacsconf, watching others clarifies a lot of stuff. + (memories of johnw edebug flash talk)" +- "the pacing, clarity, and depth of the talks today has been really + impressive, a presentation masterclass" +- "Thank you for such responsiveness in running this conference!!!" +- "Yes, having the schedule in my own timezone was super helpful." +- "What our Swiss friends are doing looks quite nice" +- "yeah virtual conf is fire" + +* Process improvements + +This year we tried out the following experiments: + +- Early acceptance: It was great being able to accept proposals as + they came in, and people chimed in with ideas for making talks even + better. +- Two tracks from the beginning: Following on the success of EmacsConf + 2022, we planned the schedule for two tracks and filled it right up. +- We worked on reducing manual intervention. + - We opened Q&A right away instead of waiting for the hosts to give the go-ahead. + - We used Tampermonkey to automatically connect to BigBlueButton + from the streaming user. + - Cron-based scheduling of talks kept us on time and made it easier + to manage multiple tracks. +- In addition to the iCalendar files for the conference and the + individual tracks, we also generated Org files in many different + timezones so that people could get the schedule in that format. + People said: + - "Yes, having the schedule in my own timezone was super helpful." +- subed-waveform made it easier to adjust timestamps and sync subtitles. + +* Technical details + +EmacsConf is committed to software freedom. We used the following tools +for this year's conference: + +- MPV ([[https://mpv.io]]): video player +- BigBlueButton ([[https://bigbluebutton.org/]]): web conference +- OBS Studio ([[https://obsproject.com/]]): streaming +- TigerVNC ([[https://tigervnc.org/]]): controlling the remote server +- Icecast ([[https://icecast.org/]]): streaming WEBM +- Internet Relay Chat via Libera.chat ([[https://libera.chat/]]), The Lounge ([[https://thelounge.chat/]]), and ERC ([[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/erc.html]]): conversation +- Etherpad ([[https://etherpad.org/]]): questions and notes +- Ikiwiki ([[https://ikiwiki.info/]]): website +- PsiTransfer ([[https://github.com/psi-4ward/psitransfer]]): uploads +- OpenAI Whisper ([[https://github.com/openai/whisper]]): captioning +- Aeneas ([[https://www.readbeyond.it/aeneas/]]): forced alignment to get timestamps +- subed-mode ([[https://codeberg.org/sachac/subed]]): captioning +- Git ([[https://git-scm.com/]]): version control +- Org Mode ([[https://orgmode.org/]]), Emacs ([[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/]]): organization and collaboration +- Mailman ([[https://list.org/]]): mailing lists; service provided by the Free Software Foundation +- Nginx ([[https://www.nginx.com/]]): web server; server provided by the Free Software Foundation +- Ansible ([[https://www.ansible.com/]]): system configuration + +You can find out more about our infrastructure at +[[https://emacsconf.org/infra]] . + +* Finances + +Our hosting costs were USD 48.82 for the conference itself: + +| Linode 64GB | Icecast streaming | 50 hours | USD 0.576/hour | USD 28.80 + 13% tax | +| Linode 32GB | wiki | 50 hours | USD 0.288/hour | USD 14.40 + 13% tax | + +The year-round hosting is on two Linode Nanode 1GB instances that are +shared with other projects and are not included in this amount. + +As of 2023-12-12, we have received USD 436.60 (net of FSF costs) in +donations through the Working Together program of the Free Software +Foundation. We plan to use the donations to cover hosting costs for +this year's conference and next year's conference, and we are also +thinking about low-cost ways to improve the conference experience. + +** COMMENT Hosting costs for the rest of the year - not included + +During the rest of the year: + +| Nanode 1GB | Icecast streaming (shared with other projects) | USD 5/month | USD 55 + 13% tax | +| Nanode 1GB | wiki (shared with other projects) | USD 5/month | USD 55 + 13% tax | +| Namecheap | emacsconf.org | | USD 14.98 | +| Namecheap | emacsverse.org | | USD 14.98 | + +This adds up to total costs of USD 203.08 for EmacsConf 2023. + +* Acknowledgements + +We would like to thank the following: + +- Thank you to all the speakers, volunteers, and participants, and to all those other people in our lives who make it possible through time and support. +- This year's conference hosts are Leo Vivier, Amin Bandali, and joining our team of hosts for the first time this year, FlowyCoder. +- The streams were managed by Sacha Chua, check-ins by FlowyCoder and Amin, with miscellaneous running-around by Corwin Brust. +- Thank you to our captioning volunteers: Daniel Molina, Bala Bhavin Gandhi, Amine Zyad, Yoni Rabkin, Daniel Alejandro Tapia, Hannah Miller, Ken Huang, Jean-Christophe Helary, James Howell, Eduardo Ochs, and Andrew Dougherty. +- Thanks to Jean-Christophe Helary, Corwin, Quiliro, Cairn, and Amin Bandali for helping with the early acceptance process. +- Thanks to Leo Vivier for fiddling with the audio to get things nicely synced, normalized, and denoised. +- Thanks to Leo and other people who kept the mailing lists free from spam. +- Thanks to Akshay Gaikwad for design contributions. +- Thanks to shoshin (Grant Shangreaux) for the music. +- Thanks to Ry P for the server that we're using for OBS streaming and for processing videos. +- Thanks to the Free Software Foundation for Emacs itself, the mailing lists, and the media.emacsconf.org server. +- Thanks to the contributers to all of tools and services we used. +- Thanks to everyone! + +* Updates + +If you would like to get updates and announcements, please sign up at +[[https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacsconf-discuss]] . + +Keep an eye out for interesting things that might be fun to present at +next year's EmacsConf. We love to get talks at all levels of +experience and about lots of different kinds of interests. One of the +speakers wrote: + +- "I can honestly say though that I had a great time putting my talk + together. I hope people will have a good time listening to it. Now + that the work is over, I can say it was worth it. so I recommend it + warmly" + + +See you +next year! + |