[[!sidebar content=""]] # Table of Contents - [Current tasks / status](#current) - [Things to figure out / decisions to make](#decisions) - [Roles needed](#roles) - [Other tasks and processes](#other) - [Task archive](#archive):ARCHIVE: - [Communications](#comms) - [Supporting code](#code) - [Lessons learned](#lessons) # Current tasks / status Planned dates and phases:

[2022-09-26 Mon]	Yes/no comments for original submissions
[2022-09-30 Fri]	Original speaker notification date
[2022-10-07 Fri]	Tentative deadline for settling on a strategy for the schedule/tracks
[2022-10-08 Sat]	E-mail confirmation expected (collect public contact info for posting in program)
[2022-10-14 Fri]	Program published
[2022-10-31 Mon]	Schedule published
[2022-11-04 Fri]	Target date to receive prerecs; earlier is better
	zaeph: reencode videos
	sachac: prepare talks for captioning
	volunteers: tech checks, captions
2022-12-03, 2022-12-04	Conference

Current phase: No prerecs to process yet, so it's a good time to focus on infrastructure ## Time-sensitive Ordered chronologically (and therefore by importance). ### TODO Send program-published email for emacsconf-discuss :needsowner:timesensitive:email: #### TODO Post it to r/emacs as well :reddit:zaeph: Please let zaeph know when it’s live so that the post can be distinguished. #### Template Greetings, fellow Emacsians! On behalf of the EmacsConf 2022 organizers team, I'm very excited to announce the program for EmacsConf 2022 (Dec 3 and 4), available at: We continue working on scheduling the talks in a way that works reasonably well for as many of our speakers as possible with respect to their availability, and will add the allocated time slots for the talks in the coming weeks. ### TODO Process confirmations as we receive them :sachac:zaeph: - Reply to the speaker and Cc -submit to confirm the confirmation. Something like "Confirming your confirmation, no reply needed to this one. Thank you!" - Update talk to WAITING\_FOR\_PREREC in conf.org - Add a note in the logbook (C-c C-z - org-add-note) for the talk entry - Add :PUBLIC\_EMAIL: t if given permission to use the e-mail on the talk page, or set it to an alternative e-mail if provided. - Update the public wiki's ${year}/talks/{$slug}.md page to add the e-mail address as on the speaker information line. - At some point, use `M-x emacsconf-generate-talk-pages` to update the e-mail address used in the footer. ### BLOCKED Prepare email for nudging speakers to send prerec, and inform on upload workflow :timesensitive:needsowner: Blocked by [Figure out web-based file upload](#upload) ### TODO Remind people about confirming e-mail communications :sachac:email: Look for the TO\_CONFIRM status ### TODO Send people schedule information and doublecheck their availability/Q&A preference :sachac:email: ## Projects to bear in mind but which are not actual ### STANDBY Find a way to accommodate a specific return-speaker We’re not sure if we’re going to get a presentation or a prerec for them this year, but we need to keep this at the back of our minds. ## Projects and other long-running tasks Ordered by importance. ### TODO Figure out web-based file upload :needsowner:zaeph:bandali: zaeph: I can work on it, but I’m not experienced in this domain, so I’d prefer to be a back-up. Lesson learned from last year: "Since people kept running into ftp problems, we might want to set up a web-frontend next year to minimise problems." Maybe we could ask some of the volunteers who wanted to help us with the infra? It shouldn’t be complicated to deploy a ready-made solution. "file drop" is a common keyword for looking for information. Considerations: - Probably run it on media.emacsconf.org - Bonus features: - password-protected or hidden behind some kind of authentication or hidden behind some kind of URL, so we don't have to worry too much about spam - extra points for sending speakers links to upload to specific folders so that we can separate resources by talk - Resumable uploads would be good, since some speakers had a hard time with unreliable connections - What other conferences do: - LibrePlanet uses plain FTP and recommends FileZilla - FOSSDEM uses Pentabarf to receive uploads - DebConf uses SReview(?) - FOSSGIS uses Seafile - Some options: - - - - - - - - - - NextCloud #### TODO Create 2022/upload.md with the same workflow as last year for a start #### TODO Implement new workflow #### TODO Notify speakers when the final solution is available ### TODO Prepare for prerecs :zaeph: #### TODO Optimize ffmpeg incantation Remember to update with the new incantation. #### TODO Figure out workflow for handling submitted prerecs We need time after the prerecs get submitted to: - convert the videos and check that they've been reencoded properly by watching the re-encoded ones all the way to the end - caption videos - capture any extra info - follow up with missing prerecs ### TODO Investigate streaming options, maybe OBS in the cloud :corwin: - Issue: zaeph was dropping frames and couldn’t pay attention to as many things as he wanted - Issue: corwin needs assistance to not be locked in his chair for the whole conf. Premptively, zaeph can do it by broadcasting OBS scenes via the rtmp (instead of just his webcam). - With a long day, we may want to be able to schedule hosts/streamers/publishers in shifts - Ideal: Easy reproducible setup to spin up an OBS VM with scenes set up, allowing multiple users to connect to it at the same time. Maybe x2go or vnc? VMs with 8 vCPUs and a vGPU cost more, so it would be good to figure out what's needed, spin it down, and then spin it up maybe the day before or something like that. - Plus points if we can control the OBS via password-protected websocket so we can tell it to switch scenes (and even more points if we do so from Emacs, maybe via that obs-websocket.el ;) ). MPV is also controllable via IPC, so we can use the same MPV player and then switch videos around. Maybe mpvc? - Probably Linode's Dedicated 32 GB + RTX6000 GPU x1 at $1.50 an hour for 2-3 days + dev time, since live.emacsconf.org is in Linode as well Resources: - #### TODO corwin: plan an approach to use a centralized OBS/nginix "bouncer" :corwin: #### TODO corwin: document such that someone else could use/fix it :corwin: #### TODO corwin: recruit at least one more person to help operate the "video bouncer" :corwin: ### TODO Work on the OBS scenes :zaeph:corwin: - [ ] corwin is out from Nov 11-20, and we should start working on them before then. ### TODO Create Org heading for scheduling caption team's live IRC duty shifts :dto: ### Move scheduling and publishing code to Emacs on a VPS so that other people can help out :sachac: Ideal: - Update pages with watching information, additional resources, etc. as talks go live - Update the schedule as needed (cancelled or reordered talks, etc.) Where: - front? my own VPS? #### TODO Set up on my own VPS (or somewhere) for testing :sachac: - [ ] Private wiki - [ ] Public wiki - [ ] Emacsconf-el - [ ] Publishing to the wiki - [ ] Consult and Embark shortcuts for navigation #### Setup notes wget mkdir -p ~/.ssh/ chmod 600 ~/.ssh/ mv id\_rsa\_anon\_git\_emacsconf ~/.ssh/ chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id\_rsa\_anon\_git\_emacsconf git clone git clone anon@git.emacsconf.org:emacsconf-wiki git clone git@git.emacsconf.org:emacsconf-2022-private ### STANDBY Add nice-to-have stuff to prepare.md :zaeph: - org-reveal config - SIL fonts choice ## TODO Write viewing instructions :zaeph: Extra stuff to consider adding: - Suggestions for mpv-filter to invert colourscape. ## INPROGRESS Find volunteers for tech-checks :zaeph: ### DONE Add entry in 2022/volunteer.md ### INPROGRESS Write protocol for adding tech-checker volunteer - Invite volunteer to BBB (ask core organizers) - Update with new tech-checker info - Coach tech-checker on the protocol ### INPROGRESS Write the tech-checking protocol (formerly referred to as “tech-checklist”) From previous years: > - Can you speak and be heard? Is there echo? > - Can you hear the organizer? > - Can you share your screen? Is the screen readable? > - If you plan to show your keystrokes, is that display visible? > - If you want to share your webcam (optional), can you enable it? Is it visible? Will there likely be distractions in the background? > - Can you view the collaborative pad? Will you be comfortable reviewing questions on your own (perhaps by keeping it open beside your shared window), or will you need a volunteer to relay questions to you? > - Can you share contact information (ex: phone number) so that we can get in touch with you in case of technical issues or scheduling changes? > - Do you need help finding your way around IRC so that you can check into \`#emacsconf-org\`? What is your IRC nickname? ## STANDBY Add nice-to-have stuff to prepare.md :zaeph: - org-reveal config - SIL fonts choice ## STANDBY Write viewing instructions :zaeph: Extra stuff to consider adding: - Suggestions for mpv-filter to invert colourscape. ## TODO Add category tags and possibly links between talks across 2022 and all previous years :needsowner:wiki: List of talks: ## Archive :ARCHIVE: # Things to figure out / decisions to make ## How do we want to make the full schedule more manageable? - Figure out how hosting can be done in shifts - Add notes in one place - Figure out how streaming can be done in shifts: OBS in the cloud? - [Investigate streaming options, maybe OBS in the cloud](#obscloud) - Figure out how publishing can be done in shifts - Console Emacs in a VM with everything set up for publishing to the wiki ## How much do we want to enrich the wiki with JS? Ideas to consider: - Toggling local time display on the schedule - Making organizers-notebook nicer to browse through (or maybe use organice?) - Improve the video player (resolution switching?) ### BLOCKED ?: Figure out JS and CSS niceties that will make organizers-notebook more enjoyable to browse through :css:js: - TODO/DONE/etc. keyword highlighting? - Collapsible sections? ### BLOCKED ?: Find a way to add JS libraries to the wiki but shield them from anon editing :js: gitolite should have some options to do this ### BLOCKED ?: Beautify video players :js:css: Might not be necessary. ## What ideas do we want to borrow from other conferences? - FOSDEM had a conference track - - DebConf - Thorough documentation at - - SReview for cutting videos? - - Pentabarf - LibrePlanet - libreadventure, minetest? ## Do we want to make the ikiwiki web-editable? Pain points: - Speakers usually ended up going through us Options: - Web-editable: - Speakers and general public will be able to edit it more easily - Git: (current) - Haven't had a problem with spam - Reduces merge conflict potential ## How do we want to make better use of Etherpad? Pain points: - Lots of scrolling for speakers - Takes some effort to move questions from IRC to the pad ### How many pads do we want? - One pad for everything - Scroll down, down, down - Easy to set up at the beginning - Inertia - One pad per set of talks (Saturday AM, Saturday PM, Sunday AM, Sunday PM) - Less scrolling - One pad per talk, plus one meta pad - Very little scrolling - Can send people directly to the pad ### Do we want to host our own? - Use etherpad.wikimedia.org - Worked fine last year - Host our own - Might be able to use API to append questions to it, if we want to get super fancy ### Do we want to embed the pad as an iframe on the watch page? on talk pages? This guides people to use the pad for discussion/questions instead of IRC Options: - Current: None, just a link - Big pad on the watch page: - Individual pads: - Watch page needs to be updated with current pad and link to previous pad - Individual talk page can embed the iframe - Embed the IRC channel instead ## Shall we put a generic e-mail address for sending feedback, maybe with different mailtos? Pain points: - Many talk pages don't have public e-mail addresses, so it takes a little extra work (or is sometimes impossible) for people to follow up if they have questions Options: - Do nothing (current) - Add a mailto link to emacsconf-discuss that prepopulates the subject - Add a mailto link to emacsconf-org - Wider discussion - Add a mailto to emacsconf-org-private - Private feedback that can be forwarded to the speaker ## Can we nudge people to ask IRC questions in a way that will make it easier for us to follow them? Pain points: - Q&A/discussions often overlap with the next talks - Sometimes questions don't get copied to the pad - Fast discussions can get overwhelming Ideas: - Announce pad link at the beginning of the talk and at the start of live Q&A, encourage most people to ask questions there - Encourage people to start questions with Q: - A little extra work, but not as much as including the slug - Easier to pick out when people search - Volunteers can restate questions easily if people forget the Q: - Encourage people to start questions with Q-slug: (ex: Q-news: question about Emacs News Highlights, Q-journalism: …) - Easier to pick out questions even with overlapping Q&A/talks - Use two or three IRC channels so that talks can rotate among channels - Easier to pick out questions even with overlapping Q&A/talks - Needs logging and more organizer attention - Maybe a volunteer can have an ERC command that copies a question into a buffer, or even into the Etherpad ## How many BBB rooms do we want to set up? - One per talk - We can send speakers a direct link to their room and they can check into it themselves - Needs a little more work when setting up rooms and when extracting videos - Easier for the host to join - Check-in person can just keep an ear open in that room - Five or so, rotating among them - Check-in person directs the speaker to the next available room - Worked fine last time ## Do we want to do alt-stream the same way again this year? - Alt stream joins the current session and then continues with it until the Q&A finishes; people join the BBB room if they want to ask questions - Nice and convivial, Q&A still gets captured - Inertia means most people get the main message - Multiple streams with more space between talks, people choose which stream they want to watch - How other conferences do it - Speakers can attend related talks more easily ## Do we want people to advertise any openings with their companies or any work that they're looking for? - Speakers on their page? - General audience on a wiki page somewhere? ## Archive ### Where should volunteers e-mail? - **Default to emacsconf-org and offer emacsconf-org-private as an option** - emacsconf-org-private - less public, e.g. if for whatever reason we might have to decline an offer of help - Also, some people want to volunteer but do not want to be in the public’s eye. - emacsconf-org - If you’re thinking about the enticement factor of having people volunteer publicly, we’ll still have a well-furnished list of people helping us run the conf somewhere on the wiki. [11:22] - i would think if someone doesn't want to do it publicly, they could opt to write to -org-private instead, but otherwise the defacto should be public (-org) - i just think most folks would want to do this publicly unless for specific reasons, rather than the other way around # Roles needed Each role comprises different responsibilities. A person may have multiple roles. An organizer might take the lead for a role, but if you want to volunteer, speak up and they'll probably be glad to share the load. Some roles are also described on the page. If you want to encourage people to volunteer to help, add a role description there. ## During the proposal stage The roles below are related to the proposals in the early stages of the preparation. - Scheduler (SCHED: sachac) - Process talks as they come and find the best place for them in the timeline - Keep track of availability and thematic constraints and find solutions that accommodate most - Reviewer - Review the proposals sent to emacsconf-submit before the speaker-notification deadline - Raise flags if there are problems with a proposal (e.g. too much content for the short format) - Listener - Receive emails from emacsconf-submit - Ensure that candidates are sticking to the prescribed format (esp. the 10/20/40 duration rule) - Respond to people's requests and suggestions, pulling in other people to help as needed - Publisher (PUB: sachac) - Set up the wiki page - Infrastructure - Figure out streaming options - Set up file upload system that speakers will use - Plan other systems that people will use ## When speakers have submitted their pre-recorded videos - Video processor (zaeph) - Standardize and compress uploaded videos - Caption lead (sachac) - Prepare videos and starting captions for captioning volunteers - Captioner - Edit automatically-generated captions to correct misrecognized words - Nice to have: Break up the captions in better places so that subtitles are neither too long nor too short - Perk: Get access to prerecorded videos - Quality checker - Doublecheck videos for potential encoding issues or compression artifacts that get in the way of viewing - Doublecheck captions - Tech checker - Help speakers check that their system works well with BBB for live Q&A ## During the conference - Streamer (STREAM) - Download prerecorded videos - Send the combined stream to Icecast for broadcasting - Director (DIR: corwin) - possibly same as streamer - Switch scenes, manage audio volumes as needed - Provide timekeeping information to host (especially go-live countdowns) - Host (HOST: zaeph) - Introduce talks and speakers - Read questions - Give time warnings - Thank speakers and transition to next talk - Timekeeper - possibly same as host - Manage time based on all available information (prerecs durations, speakers not showing up, etc.) - Check in (CHECK) - Notice speakers checking into IRC - Get them into the correct room and help them doublecheck their audio and video quality - Troubleshoot as needed - Notify host about next room to join - Follow up with speakers who haven't checked in yet - Check on speakers periodically so that they're not waiting alone - Questions - Copy questions from IRC and the pad to wherever the host and speaker are looking - Pad scribe - Organize and format people's contributions - Add notes about links, key points, questions, answers - Accessibility (ACCESS: dto) - Describe visuals in #emacsconf-accessible - Nice to have: echo the captions into #emacsconf-accessible - Quality checker - Doublecheck stream quality and audio volume - Publisher (PUB: sachac) - Announce talks in the IRC channels - Nice to have: Update the wiki page with resources (video) - Nice to have: Set resources to public as each talk is played (Toobnix, YouTube) - Nice to have: Update the schedule to reflect changes throughout the day ### Shifts Saturday

	Gen AM	Gen PM	Dev AM	Dev PM
Host
Streamer
Check-in
IRC
Pad

Sunday

	Gen AM	Gen PM	Dev AM	Dev PM
Host
Streamer
Check-in
IRC
Pad

Backups: - dev host/streamer: bandali - gen host/streamer: zaeph - checkin, IRC, pad: sachac ## After the conference - Video processor - Extract live segments into videos - Captioner - Add more captions - Summarize Q&A - Publisher - Post more information # Other tasks and processes ## DONE Sacha: Organize volunteer information :sachac: ## Once talks are approved - sacha: Publish initial talk information pages - Double-check talk pages, format them nicely - Publish draft schedule - Confirm e-mail communication with all of the speakers ## As prerecorded talks come in - - Sacha: Parcel out captioning work to volunteers, help them get set up - Volunteers: Caption pre-recorded videos (usually starting from autogenerated ones for easier work) - Make sure all the links/resources mentioned are written down somewhere (web page and enriched captions for pasting into #emacsconf-accessible) ### Compress the video Usage: `compress-video.sh original-file output-file`: (zaeph might tinker with this) Q=32 ffmpeg -y -i "$1" -c:v libvpx-vp9 -b:v 0 -crf $Q -aq-mode 2 -an -tile-columns 0 -tile-rows 0 -frame-parallel 0 -cpu-used 8 -auto-alt-ref 1 -lag-in-frames 25 -g 240 -pass 1 -f webm -threads 8 /dev/null && ffmpeg -y -i "$1" -c:v libvpx-vp9 -b:v 0 -crf $Q -c:a copy -tile-columns 2 -tile-rows 2 -frame-parallel 0 -cpu-used -5 -auto-alt-ref 1 -lag-in-frames 25 -pass 2 -g 240 -threads 8 "$2" We tried using q56 before, but it was a little too aggressive. Q=32 is the default and is probably a reasonable space vs. quality compromise. ## When a talk is captioned - Upload talk ## Other tasks before the conference - Coordinate volunteer schedules so all the roles are covered ### Test stream setup [Stream](#stream) ### Set up MPV for captions #### mpv profile Add the following profile to `~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf`: # Uncomment this line to load the profile by default # Otherwise, use `--profile=emacsconf-talks` # profile=emacsconf-talks [emacsconf-talks] # Positioning video-zoom=-0.15 video-pan-y=-0.055 sub-use-margins=yes sub-scale-by-window=yes sub-pos=103 sub-margin-x=150 sub-margin-y=40 # Style sub-font="Clear Sans Bold" sub-color="1/0.82/0" sub-blur=0.2 sub-scale=0.9 sub-font-size=40 sub-border-size=0 sub-border-color=0/1 sub-shadow-color=0/1 sub-shadow-offset=1.2 sub-ass-force-style=Kerning=yes sub-ass-line-spacing=0 (Thanks, zaeph) #### Font: Clear Sans Links: - tar.gz with all fonts: [from zaeph's server](https://zaeph.tk/files/emacsconf/captions/fonts.tar.gz) (more convenient) - WOFF from GitHub repo: [clear-sans/WOFF at main · intel/clear-sans](https://github.com/intel/clear-sans/tree/main/WOFF) ### Download prerecorded videos from ${protected} - STREAM: Download prerecorded videos from ${protected} rsync -avzue ssh front:/var/www/media.emacsconf.org/2021/protected/*--main.webm . ## During the conference ### Set up #### Arrange screens - CHECK: - Share ${upcoming}, ${playbook}, and ${conf} via CRDT: `conf-crdt-connect-and-share` - Current schedule, filenames/commands for playing, Q&A preference, IRC nick, pronunciation, intro notes, prerec duration, emergency contact information - `conf-upcoming-add-subtree` - Have #emacsconf-org, #emacsconf, #emacsconf-accessible, and #emacsconf-questions open - Use `/opall` to get op privileges in all the channels - Start backup process for pad while true; do curl https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/emacsconf-2021/export/html > emacsconf-$(date +"%Y%m%d-%H%M%S").html sleep 15m done - Computer for alternate streaming: - Open browser for joining BBB - Open MPV for playing - HOST: - rsync the newest –main.webm from front: rsync -avze ssh front:/var/www/media.emacsconf.org/2021/protected/\*–main.webm . - Check OBS scenes for sharing windows/tabs as a virtual camera: - chat.emacsconf.org with #emacsconf - Etherpad - Schedule - next talk page - Clock with current time on screen: `watch TZ=America/Toronto date` - Set up backchannel for easy viewing - ${upcoming} - \#emacsconf-org and #emacsconf channels - (?) Join organizer room S #### Start streaming :stream: - HOST: Display getting-ready message and start streaming to main.webm - HOST: Confirm that the stream is live at - B: Update ${status} to say that the stream is live - CHECK: Start low-resolution stream, confirm at Call this on live0 with $CONF480PASS as the first parameter. The Icecast configuration is on `live0` at =. PASS=$1 while true; do ffmpeg -loglevel 24 -f webm -reconnect_at_eof 1 -reconnect_streamed 1 -re -i http://localhost:8000/main.webm -vf scale=854:480 -f webm -c:a copy -b:v 500k -maxrate 1M -bufsize 1M -content_type video/webm -c:v libvpx icecast://ec2020main480pmu:$PASS@localhost:8000/main-480p.webm; done - CHECK: Start Youtube and Toobnix streams. Call this with $YOUTUBE1PASS, $YOUTUBE2PASS, or $TOOBNIX as the parameter MOUNT=$1 while true; do ffmpeg -loglevel 24 -i http://localhost:8000/main.webm -cluster_size_limit 2M -cluster_time_limit 5100 -b:v 1M -crf 30 -g 125 -deadline good -threads 4 -vcodec libx264 -acodec libmp3lame -f flv $MOUNT; done - CHECK: Verify YouTube and Toobnix streams and the CPU load on live0. - CHECK: Set the YouTube and Toobnix streams to public. - B: Verify with #emacsconf that the stream is active. - CHECK: Play main stream on alternate laptop. Start alternate stream and verify. Update ${status}. - CHECK: Announce on Twitter (@emacs, @emacsconf, @sachac) and in #emacs EmacsConf 2021 starting now: ##### Stream ###### Low-res stream Needs the `$main480p` environment variable set to something of the form `icecast://username:password@site:port/mount-point.webm`. Icecast configuration can be found on `live0` at `/etc/icecast2/icecast.xml`. It was okay to run this command directly on `live0` in 2020, since that kept the speed at roughly 1x. while true; do ffmpeg -f webm -reconnect_at_eof 1 -reconnect_streamed 1 -re -i http://localhost:8000/main.webm -vf scale=854:480 -f webm -c:a copy -b:v 500k -maxrate 1M -bufsize 1M -content_type video/webm -c:v libvpx $main480p done ###### Youtube ### Check in a speaker Exception: [CHECK is unavailable](#check-gone) - Speaker checks in on #emacsconf-org via IRC or via e-mail ~30m before - CHECK notes IRC nick for speaker. - CHECK confirms Q&A preference: live/IRC/Etherpad, preferred way of getting questions - [? unknown] Thanks for checking in! How would you like to handle Q&A today - live video, the collaborative Etherpad at , or IRC (like this)? - [? IRC] Thanks for checking in! Feel free to keep an eye on \#emacsconf for questions and discussion, and we'll copy things from the pad to there. If the volume gets overwhelming, let us know and we can forward questions to #emacsconf-questions for you. If you'd like to try Q&A over live video or the collaborative pad instead, or if you need help, please let us know. - [? Etherpad] Thanks for checking in! The collaborative pad we'll be using for questions is at . We'll collect questions from #emacsconf and put them there. If you'd like to jump to your part of the document, you might be able to keep an eye on questions. Please let us know if you need help, or if you want to switch to live Q&A. - [? live] Thanks for checking in! I'll send you some private messages with instructions, so please check there. Let me know if you don't get them. - Private messages: - (erc-message "PRIVMSG" (format "%s You can use this BBB room: %s . I'll join you there shortly to set up the room and do the last-minute tech check." nick room-url)) - (erc-message "PRIVMSG" (format "%s The collaborative pad we'll be using for questions is at %s . We'll collect questions from #emacsconf and put them there. If you'd like to jump to your part of the document, you might be able to keep an eye on questions. Alternatively, we can read questions to you." nick conf-collaborative-pad)) - (erc-message "PRIVMSG" (format "%s Leo Vivier will join when it's time, and he will give you the go-ahead when it's time to present. See you in the BBB room!" nick)) - CHECK directs speaker to available room with `/checkin ` - Speaker joins talk room - CHECK makes speaker presenter and moderator, does last-minute tech check - Hello, thanks - Speaker tries screen sharing and webcam (optional) - check screen readability - CHECK briefs speaker on process, including: - live Q&A: reading questions themselves (can do in any order, can skip; coach possible responses for awkward things) or asking HOST to read questions to them - HOST can share the pad or IRC; speaker shares screen only if doing demo - encouragement of webcam, although it's optional - how HOST will join shortly before the prerec ends and then give them the go-ahead - closing any tabs watching the stream as their talk starts (otherwise the audio is confusing) - If the speaker will be giving a live presentation, CHECK collects emergency contact information (in case of technical issues) and shares it with HOST in the CRDT buffer - Okay to do other things until the prerec ends - CHECK updates ${upcoming} with link to the talk room and preferences for Q&A-. CHECK will also /msg the relevant information. #### bandali's check-in steps - please leave webcam quality on 'medium' - please read each audience question out loud before responding - please mute stream on your machine if you're watching - would you like to stay around for a longer q&a? - would you like to share your webcam or screen? (quickly mention how) ### Present talk - CHECK announces the next talk on IRC and marks the previous talk as done. (`conf-announce`) - PAD clears pad colours. - [? prerec] - HOST switches to MPV scene in OBS and plays the video (with captions if available). - Exception: [Last-minute prerecording submission](#last-minute-prerec) - Exception: [Last-minute caption update](#last-minute-captions) - [CHECK publishes information](#publish) - [HOST gets a head start on handling Q&A](#questions) - When prerec finishes, HOST switches the OBS scene to show BBB. - [? live] - Exception: [Speaker does not have a prerec and has not checked in](#really-missing) - HOST joins the BBB room and double-checks that recording is on. - CHECK-alternate joins the BBB room and pauses main MPV. - HOST switches to OBS scene for BBB. - Speaker presents. - Exception: [Technical issues during a live presentation](#live-issues) - [? talk needs to be wrapped up] - HOST nudges speaker verbally. ### Publish information - CHECK updates the schedule in: - ${conf} - ${upcoming} - wiki - CHECK publishes the video to media.emacsconf.org using `conf-publish-files` - CHECK commits the wiki page and the captions for the talk. - CHECK publishes the video on YouTube and ToobNix using `conf-video-share`. - Update description: This video is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. You can view it using free and open source software at ${url} ${description} - Mark it as public. - Add it to EmacsConf 2021 playlist. - Update title and description. - Mark it as public. - Doublecheck subtitles - Add it to the EmacsConf 2021 playlist. - [? live sections] - CHECK does a rough-cut of the recording from ${dump} to get the last X minutes or by time range. There's about a 1-2 minute delay. Ex: `(kill-new (conf-dump-get "alt" "10:24" "10:30" "qa_"))` - When there's an opportunity to do so: - CHECK finetunes the rough-cut recording (trim start and end) and posts it to: - media.emacsconf.org/2021 - wiki page for talk ### Handle Q&A Exceptions: - [Speaker has not checked in](#missing) - [? live] - CHECK-alternate joins the BBB room and pauses MPV. - HOST joins the BBB room - HOST starts recording in BBB or confirms that it's already recording - HOST switches to the BBB scene in OBS. - HOST describes how to ask questions. - [? No questions yet] - HOST thanks speaker, says nice things about talk, and asks a couple of prepared questions - [? Awkward question] - HOST can try rephrasing the question. - HOST adds note to IRC/Etherpad that speakers can answer in any order, skip questions, answer afterwards, etc. - [? Q&A needs to be wrapped up] - HOST writes in Etherpad/IRC or nudges speaker verbally. - CHECK notes the time that the live Q&A finished and switches back to the main stream on CHECK-alternate. - [? IRC/pad] - HOST switches to pad/chat OBS scene. - HOST describes Q&A method and shows it on the screen. - While there's buffer time before the next talk, HOST can read out questions and answers, or transition to the next talk early - HOST: It's time for the next talk, but if you want to keep discussing the previous talk, please feel free to continue doing so on IRC or the pad. - [? speaker will answer after the conference] - HOST switches to pad/chat OBS scene. - HOST says the speaker is not available right now, but we'll forward the questions to the speaker and we'll post the speaker's answers on the wiki page. Leave your contact information if you want to be notified, or subscribe to the emacsconf-discuss mailing list to get the announcement. Please feel free to continue discussing the talk on IRC or the pad. - [Present next talk](#present) \* ### During each talk - Volunteers: post links/resources/descriptions/captions (depending on your level of energy) to #emacsconf-accessible - Volunteers: making sure questions get posted somewhere the speaker can see them ### Break time - CHECK marks the last talk as done. `conf-end-current-talk` - CHECK stops and restarts the Toobnix restreaming process, and re-checks the stream - CHECK uses `conf-upcoming-add-subtree` to add the afternoon talks to upcoming.org - HOST doublechecks network transfer limit and server health ### End of stream - CHECK removes live Q&A links - CHECK stops ffmpeg process for Youtube - CHECK stops ffmpeg process for Toobnix - CHECK stops ffmpeg process for main-480p - STREAM stops streaming - B updates the status pages - bandali figures out the downstream ## After the conference ### Send thanks [Thank you, next steps](#thanks) ### Extract the opening and closing remarks ### Extract the Q&A recordings, trimming as needed From console.log([...document.querySelectorAll('.email-link')].map((o) => '| ' + o.closest('tr').querySelector('time').getAttribute('datetime') + ' | ' + o.closest('tr').querySelector('#recording-text').innerHTML.trim() + ' | ' + o.getAttribute('data-pres-link').trim() + ' |').join('\n')) Make an `ids.txt` with the IDs extracted from BBB. In the same directory: while read p; do mkdir -p "$p"; cd "$p"; wget "https://bbb.emacsverse.org/presentation/${p}/slides_new.xml" \ "https://bbb.emacsverse.org/presentation/${p}/video/webcams.webm" \ "https://bbb.emacsverse.org/presentation/${p}/deskshare.xml" \ "https://bbb.emacsverse.org/presentation/${p}/deskshare/deskshare.webm" \ "https://bbb.emacsverse.org/presentation/${p}/metadata.xml" cd ..; done \\(.+?\\)" "<\\1>" (dom-attr node 'message))))) (if (string-match speaker (dom-attr node 'name)) (format "- %s: %s\n" speaker message) (format "- %s\n" message))))) (dom-by-tag (xml-parse-region (point-min) (point-max)) 'chattimeline) ""))) (emacsconf-edit-wiki-page slug) (if (re-search-forward "# Discussion" nil t) (progn (goto-char (match-end 0)) (insert "\n\n")) (goto-char (point-max))) (kill-new text))) ;; TODO: Combine lines from same nick, or identify speakers with anon1/2/etc. (defun emacsconf-extract-chat-from-dired () (interactive) (find-file (expand-file-name "slides_new.xml" (dired-get-file-for-visit))) (call-interactively 'emacsconf-extract-chat)) (defun emacsconf-make-webcams-deskshare-spans (deskshare start-ms stop-ms strategy source-dir) (let ((secs (/ start-ms 1000.0)) (webcam-video (expand-file-name "webcams.webm" source-dir)) (deskshare-video (expand-file-name "deskshare.webm" source-dir)) spans) (mapc (lambda (o) (unless (or (= secs (string-to-number (dom-attr o 'start_timestamp))) (= (string-to-number (dom-attr o 'start_timestamp)) 0) (> secs (/ stop-ms 1000.0))) (setq spans (cons (list :source webcam-video :start-ms (* secs 1000) :stop-ms (* 1000 (if (eq strategy 'test) (+ secs 3) (max secs (string-to-number (dom-attr o 'start_timestamp)))))) spans))) (when (and (<= (string-to-number (dom-attr o 'start_timestamp)) (/ stop-ms 1000.0)) (>= (string-to-number (dom-attr o 'stop_timestamp)) (/ start-ms 1000.0))) (setq spans (cons (list :source deskshare-video :start-ms (max (* 1000 (string-to-number (dom-attr o 'start_timestamp))) start-ms) :stop-ms (if (eq strategy 'test) (* 1000 (+ (string-to-number (dom-attr o 'start_timestamp)) 3)) (min (* 1000 (string-to-number (dom-attr o 'stop_timestamp))) stop-ms))) spans)) (setq secs (string-to-number (dom-attr o 'stop_timestamp))))) (dom-by-tag deskshare 'event)) (unless (>= (floor (* secs 1000)) stop-ms) (setq spans (cons (list :source webcam-video :start-ms (* 1000 secs) :stop-ms (if (eq strategy 'test) (* 1000 (+ secs 3)) stop-ms)) spans))) (if (eq strategy 'test) `((video ,@(reverse spans)) (audio ,@(mapcar (lambda (o) (list :source webcam-video :start-ms (plist-get o :start-ms) :stop-ms (plist-get o :stop-ms))) (reverse spans)))) `((video ,@(nreverse spans)) (audio (:source ,webcam-video :start-ms ,start-ms :stop-ms ,stop-ms)))))) (defun emacsconf-get-ffmpeg-to-splice-webcam-and-recording (slug start-ms stop-ms info &optional strategy) "Return FFMPEG command for slicing. Strategies: - 'fast-cut-start-keyframe - find the keyframe before the start ms and cut from there, doing a fast copy. - 'start-keyframe-and-reencode - find the keyframe before the start ms and cut from there, reencoding. - 'cut-and-concat - seek to the keyframe before, slowly find the start-ms, reencode the snippet, and then do a fast copy of the remaining. May have encoding errors. - default: copy from start-ms to stop-ms, reencoding. " (let* ((source-dir (expand-file-name (concat "../questions/by-slug/" slug) emacsconf-captions-directory)) (video-slug (plist-get (seq-find (lambda (o) (string= (plist-get o :slug) slug)) info) :video-slug)) (output (expand-file-name (concat video-slug "--answers.webm") emacsconf-captions-directory)) (webcam-video (expand-file-name "webcams.webm" source-dir))) (if (file-exists-p (expand-file-name "deskshare.webm" source-dir)) ;; Has deskshare (let* ((deskshare (xml-parse-file (expand-file-name "deskshare.xml" source-dir))) (final-size (compile-media-max-dimensions (expand-file-name "deskshare.webm" source-dir) (expand-file-name "webcams.webm" source-dir))) (duration (compile-media-get-file-duration-ms (expand-file-name "webcams.webm" source-dir))) (spans (emacsconf-make-webcams-deskshare-spans deskshare start-ms stop-ms strategy source-dir)) (compile-media-output-video-width (car final-size)) (compile-media-output-video-height (cdr final-size))) (compile-media-get-command spans output)) ;; Just webcams (compile-media-get-command (compile-media-split-tracks (list (list :source webcam-video :start-ms start-ms :stop-ms stop-ms))) output)))) Make a table of the form

Start

End

Slug

Notes

URL

Timestamp

(defun emacsconf-process-qa-recordings (qa dir) ;; (setq conf-qa-recordings qa) ;; (memoize 'conf-ffmpeg-get-closest-keyframe-in-msecs) ;; (memoize 'conf-ffmpeg-get-keyframes-between) ;; (memoize 'conf-video-dimensions) ;; (memoize 'compile-media-get-file-duration-ms) ;; (memoize-restore 'conf-ffmpeg-get-keyframes-around) (let ((info (emacsconf-get-talk-info))) (replace-regexp-in-string "captions/" "answers-slow/" (replace-regexp-in-string dir "" (string-join (nreverse (sort (delq nil (mapcar (lambda (o) (when (> (length (car o)) 0) (emacsconf-get-ffmpeg-to-splice-webcam-and-recording (elt o 2) (compile-media-timestamp-to-msecs (elt o 0)) (compile-media-timestamp-to-msecs (elt o 1)) info))) ; (seq-take qa 2) qa )) (lambda (a b) (string-match "trim" a)))) "\n"))))) ### Update the wiki ### Update captions - Merge them into the video with `add-captions.sh` #!/usr/bin/zsh BASE="${1%.*}" BASE="${BASE%--main}" ffmpeg -y -i "$1" ${BASE}--main.vtt if [ -f "${BASE}--normalized.webm" ]; then ffmpeg -y -i "$1" -i "${BASE}--normalized.webm" -c:a copy -c:v copy "${BASE}--captioned.webm" else ffmpeg -y -i "$1" -i "${BASE}--compressed.webm" -c:a copy -c:v copy "${BASE}--captioned.webm" fi cp ${BASE}--main.vtt ${BASE}--chapters.vtt ~/vendor/emacsconf-wiki/2021/captions scp "${BASE}--captioned.webm" "${BASE}--main.webm" scp "${BASE}--main.webm" front:~/protected scp "${BASE}--main.vtt" front:~/protected scp "${BASE}--chapters.vtt" front:~/protected ssh front 'cd protected; chmod ugo+r *' - Update Toobnix and Youtube captions with `conf-video-share`. - Update Toobnix and Youtube descriptions with chapters. - Update ${conf-year}/${captions}/${slug}.md in the wiki. To make this from scratch, use `M-x conf-prepare-transcript-directives` from the talk heading in the conference Org file. ### BLOCKED Downsize the server :bandali: ## In case of ### Stuck wiki sudo -iu ikiwiki – ikiwiki –setup ~ikiwiki/emacsconf.setup ### Last-minute prerecording submission - CHECK will copy it from the FTP upload server to ${protected} and name it appropriately. - CHECK will notify STREAM with the scp command and the mpv command so that STREAM can choose. ### Last-minute caption update - CHECK uploads the –main.vtt file to ${protected} - CHECK notifies STREAM via ${upcoming} - STREAM uses the provided commands to download the VTT file and load it into MPV with `--sub-file` ### Speaker has not checked in - Let the previous talk run a little longer for Q&A; end at least in time for the prerec - After the previous Q&A wraps up, play the prerec - [? still not around after prerec finishes] - HOST: Speaker might be having some difficulty connecting, but we'll collect your questions on the pad and send them afterwards. - Can play next prerec a few minutes early ### Speaker does not have a prerec and has not checked in - Let the previous talk do live Q&A/demo if ready - Close to the time of the missing talk: - See if any of the previous speakers want to be set up for an impromptu talk/extension in a BBB room, just in case - HOST: The next speaker might be having some difficulty connecting. In the meantime, let's… - OR: - highlight ongoing discussions - invite another speaker for an impromptu extension; mplsCorwin will keep a list of possible speakers who are still active - replay a short prerec - let mplsCorwin or zaeph fill in ### Speaker whose talk was reallocated shows up and has a prerec - CHECK copies it to ${protected} - Plan to play prerec at the end of the day, or in any gaps if a live talk falls through ### Speaker whose talk was reallocated shows up and wants to do it live - See if there's enough time if buffers are shuffled back; if so, set up for a live presentation - Check for alternate stream volunteers - [? not enough time] Offer to set up a BBB room for recording or to accept a prerecording afterwards, then include it on the site and in post-conference communication ### Alternate stream volunteer wants to stream (nice to have, at risk) - CHECK gives ALTERNATE the BBB room URL for the talk they are interested in - ALTERNATE starts streaming to assigned end point - CHECK confirms stream - CHECK updates ${stream-status} - CHECK notifies STREAM and HOST - After prerec plays: - HOST: This talk has an extended demo/Q&A. You can go to ${alternate-url} to watch it, and we'll post a recording afterwards. - HOST sends ${alternate-url} to IRC: Alternate stream for ${title}: ${alternate-url} - ALTERNATE notifies #emacsconf-org when the stream is done. - CHECK updates ${stream-status} to note that the alternate stream is finished. FFMPEG process for sending the desktop and audio to the $CONFALT mountpoint on Linux with X11 and Alsa: 1. Set the CONFALT environment variable to icecast://user:password@live0.emacsconf.org:8000/alt.webm 2. Install pavucontrol if you don't have it already. 3. Start the following command (: while true; do ffmpeg -loglevel 0 -ar 48000 -f alsa -channels 2 -sample_rate 48000 -i default -re -video_size 1280x720 -framerate 25 -f x11grab -i :0.0 -cluster_size_limit 2M -cluster_time_limit 5100 -content_type video/webm -c:v libvpx -b:v 1M -crf 30 -g 125 -deadline good -threads 4 -f webm $CONFALT; done 4. Use pavucontrol to set the recording source for the ffmpeg command to be the audio monitor, so you get system output as well. - OR: - [? splitting audio] (look for “Set up sinks for sound” under 2021/) - [? same audio] - Set up audio monitor as the input for FFMPEG - MPV goes to MPV sink, browser goes to recording sink, FFMPEG takes in recording monitor ### Pad malfunction or mess-up - PAD resets the pad using - [? still not recovered] - PAD reimports the pad from backup ### CRDT malfunctions - HOST notifies CHECK and tries reconnecting - [? still doesn't work] - Switch to backup Etherpad ### Conduct guidelines issue - HOST addresses it (on-camera if needed) with a reminder and/or a kick or a ban ### CHECK is unavailable - HOST does check-ins - HOST refers to conf.org for Q&A preference etc. - STREAM checks conf.org for prerec filenames etc. - Dropped goals: - Publishing recordings ASAP - Updating schedule/wiki on the fly ### HOST is unavailable - STREAM joins the BBB room and streams directly from there (or streams the prerecs). - STREAM will do the hosting. ### Technical issues during a live presentation - HOST tries to contact the speaker - [? back on track] - [? can be squeezed into remaining time]: Continue - [? need extra time]: CHECK fiddles with buffer of following talks in conf.org and updates schedule - [? need too much extra time (ex: 10min)]: HOST acknowledges technical issues and says we may be able to follow up after the conference - [? can't resume]: HOST acknowledges technical issues and says we may be able to follow up after the conference ### Big technical issues with streaming - HOST notifies #emacsconf and #emacsconf-org and adds a note at the top of the ${pad}. - HOST updates the 2021.md wiki page - CHECK publishes prerecordings - media.emacsconf.org - wiki - Toobnix - Peertube - STREAM e-mails the mailing list ### live0 can't handle the load or is close to network transfer limit - OR: - Redirect some viewers via asking in #emacsconf: - watch via main-480p - watch via Toobnix (if we can get that working) - Consider dropping the restream to Toobnix (lower audience?) or to Youtube - Add additional node to Linode account for shared transfer pool (TODO: doublecheck) ### People have a hard time seeing dark-mode presentations (or light-mode) mpv –vf=negate $url # Task archive :ARCHIVE: # Communications ## DONE Ask emacsconf-org-private for feedback on early submissions The EmacsConf 2022 CFP was extended to Sept 30 with notifications to go out on Oct 15. We've got plenty of submissions and with any luck, you've been reviewing them as they come in (assuming you have access to emacsconf-submit@). As a courtesy to people who got their stuff together in a timely manner and to give them extra time to prepare a prerecorded talk (which might also translate into extra time for us to process and caption the talks), I'd like to send acceptances and tentative time allotments by Sept 30. I plan to offer a max of 20 minutes with a note that additional time may be available for Q&A depending on how many additional submissions we get. Could everyone who wants a say in the program please add comments to $url by ****Sept 26**** so that we can send out early acceptances? In general, we try to say yes to everything, so here's your chance to raise any red flags or suggest ways to make things even better. Thanks! Sacha ## DONE Early speaker notification :sachac: We can accept early or send people a note saying notification of acceptance will be on Oct 15, because of the extended CFP. Right before this e-mail: - Publish the wiki pages Objectives for this e-mail: - Notify people of acceptance - Tell them the number of minutes to plan for\* (might get more) - Tell them about the target date - Get them to reply - Ask for public contact information or any changes to the wiki page (defun emacsconf-draft-acceptance-for-email-group (group &optional template) "GROUP is (email . (talk talk))." (interactive (list (save-window-excursion (let* ((emacsconf-talk-info-functions (append emacsconf-talk-info-functions '(emacsconf-get-talk-comments-from-subtree))) (info (emacsconf-filter-talks (emacsconf-get-talk-info))) (grouped (seq-group-by (lambda (o) (plist-get o :email)) info)) (slug (emacsconf-get-slug-from-string (emacsconf-complete-talk))) (email (plist-get (seq-find (lambda (o) (string= (plist-get o :slug) slug)) info) :email))) (assoc email grouped))))) (let* ((template (or template (emacsconf-mail-merge-get-template "acceptance"))) (talks (cdr group)) (first (car talks)) (reply-by-date (date-to-time "2022-10-08")) (prerec-target (date-to-time "2022-11-04")) (attrs `(:speakers-short ,(plist-get first :speakers-short) :plural ,(if (= (length talks) 1) "" "s") :email ,(plist-get first :email) :year ,(or (plist-get first :year) emacsconf-year) :reply-date ,(format-time-string "%b %-e (%a)" reply-by-date) :titles ,(mapconcat (lambda (o) (format "\"%s\" (%s)" (plist-get o :title) (plist-get o :slug))) talks " and ") :prerec-target ,(format-time-string "%b %-e (%a)" prerec-target) :page-urls ,(mapconcat (lambda (o) (concat "- " (plist-get o :url))) talks "\n") :irc ,(if (plist-get first :irc) (concat (plist-get first :irc) "? ") "") :acceptance-tasks ,(concat "* TODO Reply to acceptance e-mail in order to confirm e-mail communication :emacsconf: DEADLINE: " (format-time-string "<%Y-%m-%d %a>" reply-by-date) "\n Please include any extra information you want (ex: public e-mail, IRC nick) on\n" (mapconcat (lambda (o) (concat " " (plist-get o :url))) talks "\n") "\n" (mapconcat (lambda (o) (format "* TODO Record %s-minute talk for \"%s\" (%s) :emacsconf: DEADLINE: %s\n https://emacsconf.org/%s/prepare/" (plist-get o :time) (plist-get o :title) (plist-get o :slug) (format-time-string "<%Y-%m-%d %a>" prerec-target) (plist-get o :year))) talks "\n")) :talk-details-and-comments ,(mapconcat (lambda (o) (format "%s minutes: %s\n%s\n\n%s" (plist-get o :time) (plist-get o :title) (plist-get o :url) (string-fill (emacsconf-replace-plist-in-string (append o (list :prerec-target (format-time-string "%b %-e" prerec-target))) (plist-get o :acceptance-comment)) 72))) talks "\n---------------------------------------------------------------------\n")))) (compose-mail (car group) (emacsconf-replace-plist-in-string attrs (plist-get template :subject)) `(("Reply-To" . ,(emacsconf-replace-plist-in-string attrs (plist-get template :reply-to))) ("Mail-Followup-To" . ,(emacsconf-replace-plist-in-string attrs (plist-get template :mail-followup-to))) ("Cc" . ,(plist-get template :cc)))) (message-sort-headers) (message-goto-body) (save-excursion (insert (emacsconf-replace-plist-in-string attrs (plist-get template :body))) (goto-char (point-min)) (emacsconf-mail-merge-wrap)))) (defun emacsconf-draft-all-acceptances () (interactive) (let* ((emacsconf-talk-info-functions (append emacsconf-talk-info-functions '(emacsconf-get-talk-comments-from-subtree))) (info (seq-filter (lambda (o) (string= (plist-get o :status) "TO_ACCEPT")) (emacsconf-filter-talks (emacsconf-get-talk-info)))) (grouped (seq-group-by (lambda (o) (plist-get o :email)) info)) (template (emacsconf-mail-merge-get-template "acceptance"))) (mapc (lambda (group) (emacsconf-draft-acceptance-for-email-group group template)) grouped))) ### Speaker acceptance Hi, ${speakers-short}! Summary: ,${acceptance-tasks} We've accepted your EmacsConf proposal${plural} for ${titles}! Thanks for volunteering to share what you're learning about. I know it takes a fair bit of work to prepare a presentation, so I appreciate that you're taking the time to show what's possible with Emacs and encourage people to learn more.${wrap} --- ${talk-details-and-comments} --- You'll have some time after your talk${plural} for Q&A, so the allocated time can be just for your pre-recorded talk${plural}. Of course, if you like, you can make it shorter. We've posted preparation tips at . We'll send you instructions on how to upload files once we get that set up. Could you please plan to ****put your pre-rec${plural} together by ${prerec-target}**** (or even earlier if you want)? We're going to try to caption as many talks as possible again this year, and extra time helps a lot. People found the captions really helpful while watching the stream, and sending your talk in early will make it more likely that we'll be able to get your captions edited and reviewed before the conference. ****Please reply to this e-mail by ${reply-date}**** (doublechecking that emacsconf-submit@gnu.org is in the To: or Cc:) so that we can confirm that we've got the right email address for you and that messages can get properly delivered. Also, would you like us to put ${email} as the public contact information for you, or would you like us to add something else to the talk page${plural}?${wrap} ${page-urls} If you have any questions, please e-mail us at emacsconf-submit@gnu.org or pass by the #emacsconf-org IRC channel on irc.libera.chat (Web-based: ). Thank you so much! Sacha Chua ## Future ### Acceptance This is a copy of the previous #### Code (defun emacsconf-draft-acceptance () (interactive) (let* ((sched (org-timestamp-from-string (org-entry-get (point) "SCHEDULED"))) (attrs (append (emacsconf-get-talk-info-for-subtree) :other-notes (if (org-entry-get (point) "ORG_NOTE") (concat "--- notes ---\n" (org-entry-get (point) "ORG_NOTE") "\n-----\n\n") ""))) (avail (plist-get attrs :avail))) (plist-put attrs :availability (cond ((null avail) "I don't think you specified availability when submitting. Would this time be okay with you?") ((string-match "!avail" avail) "We know this isn't when you've indicated when you'd be available, but will this time be okay for presenting the talk? It's okay to follow up with questions after the event. If you happen to be available, we'd love to have you join us.") ((string-match "live" avail) "We've scheduled a few minutes for live questions and answers via web conference. Will you be available around this time? If there are more questions, you can also continue over Etherpad/IRC.") ((string-match "IRC" avail) "Will you be able to join around this time to handle questions over IRC or the pad? If not, we can forward questions to you.") ((string-match "pad" avail) "Will you be able to join around this time to handle questions over the pad? If not, we can forward questions to you.") (t avail))) (plist-put attrs :time-explanation (if (<= (string-to-number (plist-get attrs :time)) (string-to-number (plist-get attrs :min-time))) "Thank you for suggesting an awesome talk of that length!" "This is less time than you requested, but we've had to make some tough choices to fit all these interesting talks into the schedule. Would it be possible for you to squeeze your talk into that time?")) (save-excursion (goto-char (org-find-entry-with-id "acceptance")) (plist-put attrs :subject (conf-replace-plist-in-string attrs (org-entry-get (point) "ITEM"))) (org-end-of-meta-data) (plist-put attrs :body (buffer-substring-no-properties (point) (org-end-of-subtree)))) (compose-mail (plist-get attrs :email) (plist-get attrs :subject) '(("Reply-To" . "emacsconf-submit@gnu.org") ("Mail-Followup-To" . "emacsconf-submit@gnu.org")) nil) (message-goto-body) (save-excursion (conf-replace-plist-in-string attrs (plist-get attrs :body))))) #### Template Dear ${name}, We would love to have your talk "${title}" as part of EmacsConf ${year}, and we've allocated ${time} minutes for it. ${time-explanation} Your talk is tentatively scheduled for ${scheduled}. The times may move around a bit as we update the schedule, so we'll check in with you if things change a lot. ${availability} ${other-notes}Please plan to prerecord your ${time}-minute talk(s) by Sunday ${prere-date} at the latest. If you can, please send it in as early as possible. Submitting your video early lets us ask volunteers to help caption the video, making your talk more accessible and searchable. You can check out for tips on preparing and recording your talk. If you have questions or concerns, please let us know. Thanks, Sacha Chua EmacsConf organization team P.S. Please keep emacsconf-submit@gnu.org in To or Cc when replying. ### Acknowledge pre-rec submission (defun emacsconf-acknowledge-submission () (interactive) (let ((files (directory-files "captions" t (regexp-quote (org-entry-get (point) "VIDEO_SLUG")))) (page (format "https://emacsconf.org/%s/talks/%s" conf-year (org-entry-get (point) "SLUG"))) (slug (org-entry-get (point) "VIDEO_SLUG"))) (emacsconf-mail-speaker "Thanks for sending us your prerecorded video for EmacsConf ${year}!" (concat "Hi! Just a quick note to let you know that I've downloaded your submission for \"" (org-entry-get (point) "ITEM") "\".\n" (format "\nNow we have the following file%s starting with %s:\n%s" (if (= (length files) 1) "" "s") slug (mapconcat (lambda (f) (format "- %s (%s, md5: %s)\n" (replace-regexp-in-string slug "" (file-name-nondirectory f)) (file-size-human-readable (file-attribute-size (file-attributes f))) (string-trim (shell-command-to-string (concat "md5sum " (shell-quote-argument f) " | cut -f 1 -d ' '"))))) files "")) (format "A quick check shows that it's about %d minutes long.\n" (ceiling (/ (compile-media-get-file-duration-ms (seq-find (lambda (o) (member (file-name-extension o) subed-video-extensions)) files)) 60000.0))) "\nWe'll be working on captioning it over the next few weeks. We'll e-mail again a little closer to the conference with schedule updates and other useful information. If you want to upload a new version, you can upload it the same way you did the previous one.\n\n" "Please feel free to e-mail us at emacsconf-submit@gnu.org if you need help updating the talk wiki page at " page " or if you have other questions.\n\n" "Thank you so much for all the work you put into preparing a talk for EmacsConf ${year}, and thank you for submitting the prerecorded video before the conference!\n\nSacha")))) ### Captions for approval Hi ${speakers-short}! Because you sent in your video early, we were able to caption it so that more people can find and enjoy your talk. ${captioner} volunteered to caption your talk video, and here it is. I've attached the caption text file in case you want to review it, suggest any corrections, or use the text in a blog post or elsewhere. You can look at the attached file or watch your video with closed captions at ${url} . Thanks again for your contribution! Sacha ### Speakers we haven't confirmed e-mail communications with Hi, ${name}! I think we haven't heard from you since we accepted your EmacsConf ${year} proposal for "${title}". EmacsConf coming up soon, so I wanted to check in with you to see how you're doing. Could you please e-mail us to let us know if you're still working on your prerecorded video, if you're planning to present live, or if you can't make it this year? No worries if other priorities have come up and you don't have the time for a presentation. If you've been working on a presentation, fantastic! When you're ready, you can upload it following the instructions at (ideally before ${prerec-date} so that we have time to download it, doublecheck, etc.). If you plan to present live, please go through the self-check at . Some speakers have encountered technical issues with BigBlueButton that they didn't have with Zoom or Google Meet, so this is something we definitely want to look into earlier rather than later. If that works for you, please e-mail us back so that I can keep your timeslot. The tentative schedule for your talk is on the talk page at ${url} . **Please e-mail us your plans before ${date}.** I'm planning to shift the schedule around to give more time to confirmed speakers for Q&A and possibly live demos. If I don't hear from you by then (maybe an over-enthusiastic spam filter has been swallowing up all our mail?), I'll probably reallocate the ${time} minutes that had been set aside for your talk. We might be able to squeeze it back in afterwards or play a video from you at the end of the conference day, but it would be nice to get the schedule sorted out instead of scrambling to fill gaps on the day of the conference. Hope to hear from you by ${date}! Sacha Chua (Please use Reply to All to keep emacsconf-submit@gnu.org in the loop. Thanks!) ### Speakers who are missing prerecs (let ((template (conf-mail-merge-get-template "missing"))) (seq-map (lambda (info) (compose-mail (plist-get info :email) (conf-replace-plist-in-string info (plist-get template :subject)) `(("Reply-To" . ,(plist-get template :reply-to)) ("Mail-Followup-To" . ,(plist-get template :mail-followup-to)) ("Cc" . ,(plist-get template :cc)))) (message-goto-body) (insert (conf-replace-plist-in-string info (plist-get template :body))) (plist-get info :email)) (mapcar 'cadr (seq-group-by (lambda (o) (plist-get o :email)) (seq-filter (lambda (o) (string= (plist-get o :status) "WAITING_FOR_PREREC")) (conf-get-talk-info)))))) #### Template Hi ${speakers}, EmacsConf is in a few days and I don't think we have your prerecorded video yet, so I'm getting miiiildly stressed about the schedule. And you're probably stressing out about it too, so let's go figure out how we can make this work. Option A: If you happen to have the prerecording or can get it done by tomorrow, we can probably squeeze it in. Please upload it to ftp-upload.emacsconf.org by following the instructions in , or send us a link using your favourite file-sharing service (especially if FTP is giving you problems). Option B: If you want to present live, it might be an option. I'm a little worried about the potential for technical issues, since we've had problems with that in previous EmacsConfs. The tight schedule means there's not a lot of time to figure things out, and it can be hard to make something as focused as a prerecorded video when you're doing it live. We will definitely want to make sure that: - your self-serve tech check works: at your convenience; - you check in as early as possible (at least 1 hour before, so we know if the speaker before you needs to extend) and let us know that you want to do it live . We keep adapting the schedule as things come up, so please check on the day of the conference. If there are technical issues or your talk runs a little over time, we might have to stop streaming it on the main stream when it's time for the next talk. We may be able to continue streaming it on the alternate stream. If so, people can continue watching it there if they wish to. Option C: If you can't make it, that's okay. Life gets crazy sometimes. Please let us know and we can update the wiki. If you happen to be able to make a prerecorded video afterwards, we can add that to the wiki, playlists, and announcements. We hope you can join us next year. Since EmacsConf is **this weekend** (aaaaaaah), please let us know by tomorrow noon EST (Friday; 9AM PST, 5PM GMT, 6PM CET) so that we can keep the time allocated for you in the schedule. If we don't hear from you, we'll probably reallocate the ${time} minutes reserved for you so that other talks can have longer Q&A. If you can still make it, check in early and let us know so that we can try to work out an alternate stream for you. Hope to hear from you soon! Sacha ### Check-in instructions Goals: - Ask speaker verify their scheduled time It has already been confirmed with them, but it might have changed slightly (give-or-take 30' - HOW: They should check the time at the top of their talk page on the day of the conference - Double-check Q&A preference, encourage tech checks for live talks/Q&A - If they are available: - Direct to tech-checks via - Inform them of the check-in process - They come say hi to us 30' before their session in #emacsconf-org or #emacsconf (they can use chat.emacsconf.org ) - We get them set up in a room where they can wait until the end of the broadcast of their pretention - They’re joined by the streamer and host. #### Code Slightly more complex because of the conditionals (defun emacsconf-mail-checkin-instructions () (interactive) (seq-map (lambda (list) (let ((template (with-current-buffer (find-file-noselect emacsconf-org-file) (emacsconf-mail-merge-get-template (car list))))) (seq-map (lambda (email-list) (let* ((email (car email-list)) (talks (cdr email-list)) (combined-info (emacsconf-combine-plist talks " , ")) (for-mail (list :name (or (car (plist-get combined-info :speakers)) "???") :url (or (string-join (plist-get combined-info :url) " , ") "???") :email (car (plist-get combined-info :email)))) (body (when (plist-get for-mail :email) (emacsconf-replace-plist-in-string for-mail (plist-get template :body)))) (subject (when (plist-get for-mail :email) (emacsconf-replace-plist-in-string for-mail (plist-get template :subject))))) (when (plist-get for-mail :email) (compose-mail (plist-get for-mail :email) subject `(("Reply-To" . ,(plist-get template :reply-to)) ("Mail-Followup-To" . ,(plist-get template :mail-followup-to)) ("Cc" . ,(plist-get template :cc)))) (message-goto-body) (save-excursion (insert body))))) (cdr list)))) ;; Group by e-mail (seq-map (lambda (list) (cons (car list) (seq-group-by (lambda (o) (plist-get o :email)) (cdr list)))) ;; Group by q-and-a pref (seq-group-by (lambda (o) (pcase (plist-get o :q-and-a) ('nil "checkin-unknown") ((pred (string-match "after")) "checkin-after") ((pred (string-match "live\\|irc\\|pad")) "checkin-at-conf") (_ "checkin-unknown"))) (emacsconf-filter-talks (emacsconf-get-talk-info)))))) (defun emacsconf-cancel-mail-merge () (interactive) (mapc (lambda (buffer) (when (string-match "unsent" (buffer-name buffer)) (let ((buffer-modified-p nil)) (kill-buffer buffer)))) (buffer-list))) #### E-mail for speakers who are planning to be at the conference Hello, ${name}! We're looking forward to having you join us at EmacsConf! We'll probably keep updating the schedule even on the day of the conference. You can get a rough idea of when your talk is scheduled at ${url}. You might want to check it some time next week to get a rough sense of where it is, and then check it again on the day of your talk. Please check in at least 30 minutes before the scheduled start of your prerecorded talk so that we can deal with small scheduling changes or technical issues. You can find the check-in process at . If something comes up, please let us know as soon as you can. Here's our emergency contact information: ${emergency} Looking forward to seeing you soon! Sacha #### E-mail for speakers who are not planning to be around, but who have sent us their prerecs Hello, ${name}! Thank you so much for contributing a talk for EmacsConf ${year}! We're looking forward to collecting questions and forwarding them to you by e-mail after the conference. We'll also post the prerecording at the time that it gets streamed, so people will be able to access it at ${url} once it has gone live. If it turns out that you can make it to the conference after all, feel free to drop us a line at #emacsconf-org and we'll let people know you're around. You can find the check-in process at . Thank you again for being part of EmacsConf ${year}! Sacha ### Last email before the conference > Friends, emacsians, hackers, lend me your ears! > > This is it, the final stretch until the next EmacsConf. A couple of weeks > ago, we’ve shared our program with you; now, it is time for us to share our > schedule, i.e. when the talks will happen! > > You can find it on our wiki: > > > All the times on the program are listed in EST (UTC-5). If a talk catches > your eye, we invite you to click on its title to find out at what time it will > be broadcast in your local time. Also, if the talk is pre-recorded, it will > also be the time at which the talk will be made available on the same page. ### Thank you, next steps #### Code (defun conf-mail-thanks-after-conference () (interactive) (let* ((template (conf-mail-merge-get-template "speaker-thanks")) (info (conf-get-talk-info-for-subtree))) (compose-mail (plist-get info :email) (conf-replace-plist-in-string info (plist-get template :subject))) (message-goto-body) (save-excursion (insert (string-trim (conf-replace-plist-in-string (append (list :subtitle-note (if (file-exists-p (expand-file-name (format "%s/captions/%s--main.vtt" (plist-get info :year) (plist-get info :video-slug)) conf-directory)) "You can add the subtitles by downloading them from the talk page and uploading them to your video. " "We didn't quite manage to squeeze in captions for your talk during the conference, but we'll work on those soon.") :qa-note (if (plist-get info :qa-public) "The recording of your Q&A session is also on the talk page. " "") ) info) (plist-get template :body))))))) #### Text Hi ${speakers-short}! Thank you so much for being part of EmacsConf ${year}! Hundreds of people enjoyed it, and I'm sure even more will come across the videos in the days to follow. Your prerecorded video is available on the talk page at ${url} , and we've added the questions and comments that we've collected from IRC/BBB/Etherpad. ${qa-note} We've also uploaded your talk video to ToobNix (a PeerTube instance) at ${toobnix-url} and YouTube at ${youtube-url} . If you want to reupload the video to your own channel, feel free to do so. ${subtitle-note} If you let me know where you've uploaded it, I can switch our playlist to include your version of the video instead. That way, it might be easier for you to respond to comments on videos. If you would like to share more resources, you can add them to the talk page or e-mail them to us and we can add them for you. Thanks again for speaking at EmacsConf! Sacha ## Archive ### DONE Second announcement: CFP Dear fellow Emacsians, This is the second and final Call for Participation for EmacsConf 2022 now extended until September 30, and the conference itself planned for December 3 and 4 (Sat-Sun). Please see the CFP below for details on how to send in your proposal(s), or chat with us about them and about other ways of participating and volunteering around EmacsConf via our main IRC channel #emacsconf on the Libera.Chat network. If you're considering submitting a proposal but think the remaining time may not be enough, please reach out to me off-list as soon as possible so we could work something out. I'll close this portion of the email with a thank you to all of the folks who have submitted session proposals or expressed interest in volunteering with EmacsConf. We look forward to reading and reviewing all of your messages and proposals, and getting back to you about them and about the next steps soon. :-) Best, amin P.S. please direct any replies to this post either to myself or to the emacsconf-discuss list, so as to help avoid generating extra off-topic chatter in the other lists cc'd on this message. Thank you. ### DONE First announcement: CFP Dear fellow Emacsians, We are excitedly calling for your participation for EmacsConf 2022, planned for December 3 and 4, 2022 (Sat-Sun)! The CFP will be open until September 18. Please see below for details on how to send in your proposal(s), or chat with us about them and about other ways of participating and volunteering around EmacsConf via our main IRC channel #emacsconf on the Libera.Chat network. As an entirely volunteer-run conference we are always looking for more volunteers and organizers to help with various aspects of organizing and running the conference, including reviewing session proposals and streaming parallel tracks. To get involved, please come by our IRC channel or one of our public mailing lists (see below) and introduce yourself and tell us about your interests, or contact myself or one of the other organizers directly if you're feeling a bit shy; we hope to hear from you! :) Best, amin P.S. please direct any replies for this message either to me or to the emacsconf-discuss list, so as to help avoid generating extra off-topic chatter in the other lists Cc'd on this message. Thank you. # Supporting code ## General (defvar emacsconf-danger-allow-dangerous-stuff nil "When non-nil, trade safety for convenience.") (defvar emacsconf-danger-asked nil "When non-nil, user has already been asked for security trade-off.") (defun emacsconf-danger--ask (forms) "Ask to run dangerous FORMS. Return t if the answer is “yes”." (when (y-or-n-p (format "FORMS:\n%s\n\nThis is dangerous. Run anyway? " (prin1-to-string forms))) (unless emacsconf-danger-asked (if (y-or-n-p "Would you like to trade security for convenience for the rest of the session? ") (setq-local emacsconf-danger-allow-dangerous-stuff t) (setq-local emacsconf-danger-asked t))) t)) (defmacro emacsconf-danger--shield (error &rest forms) "Protect user from dangerous FORMS. Throw an error if ERROR is non-nil, skip otherwise." `(let ((shield (not (or emacsconf-danger-allow-dangerous-stuff (emacsconf-danger--ask ',@forms))))) (if shield ,(when error '(user-error "Dangerous action cancelled by user")) ,@forms))) (defmacro emacsconf-danger-shield (&rest forms) "Protect user from dangerous FORMS by throwing an ERROR." `(emacsconf-danger--shield t ,@forms)) (defmacro emacsconf-danger-skip (&rest forms) "Protect user from dangerous FORMS by skipping them." `(emacsconf-danger--shield nil ,@forms)) (message "General setup has been loaded") (emacsconf-danger-shield (setq-local org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil org-confirm-elisp-link-function nil)) (message "No longer asking for confirmation in this buffer") (setq-local emacsconf-danger-allow-dangerous-stuff t) (org-babel-ref-resolve "elisp-no-confirmation()") (message "Now allowing dangerous stuff. Buckle up, buckaroo!") (kill-local-variable 'emacsconf-danger-allow-dangerous-stuff) (kill-local-variable 'emacsconf-danger-asked) (kill-local-variable 'org-confirm-babel-evaluate) (kill-local-variable 'org-confirm-elisp-link-function) (message "Back to safety. Phew!") ## Publish this page (defun emacsconf-org-publish-this-page () (interactive) (org-md-export-to-markdown) (org-babel-tangle) (magit-stage-modified) (magit-commit-create (list "-m" (read-string "Commit message: "))) (call-interactively #'magit-push-current-to-pushremote)) ### Export to markdown (defun emacsconf-export-md-on-save () "Export markdown on save. Meant to be used with `after-save-hook'." (org-md-export-to-markdown) (org-babel-tangle)) (defvar emacsconf-export-md-on-save-configured t "Non-nil when the setup code-block has been executed.") (unless (bound-and-true-p emacsconf-export-md-on-save-configured) (org-babel-ref-resolve "md-export-on-save-setup()")) (add-hook 'after-save-hook #'emacsconf-export-md-on-save nil t) (when (memq #'emacsconf-export-md-on-save after-save-hook) (message "Hook is active")) (remove-hook 'after-save-hook #'emacsconf-export-md-on-save t) (unless (memq #'emacsconf-export-md-on-save after-save-hook) (message "Hook is no longer active")) ## Tangle and publish on save (defun emacsconf-export-md-on-save () "Export markdown on save. Meant to be used with `after-save-hook'." (org-md-export-to-markdown) (org-babel-tangle)) (defvar emacsconf-export-md-on-save-configured t "Non-nil when the setup code-block has been executed.") (unless (bound-and-true-p emacsconf-export-md-on-save-configured) (org-babel-ref-resolve "md-export-on-save-setup()")) (add-hook 'after-save-hook #'emacsconf-export-md-on-save nil t) (when (memq #'emacsconf-export-md-on-save after-save-hook) (message "Hook is active")) (remove-hook 'after-save-hook #'emacsconf-export-md-on-save t) (unless (memq #'emacsconf-export-md-on-save after-save-hook) (message "Hook is no longer active")) ## Review agenda (defcustom emacsconf-org-tag nil "Tag for your nick, for easier agenda filtering" :group 'emacsconf :type 'string) (defun emacsconf-show-my-agenda () (interactive) (let* ((org-agenda-files (list (buffer-file-name))) (tag-filter (if emacsconf-org-tag (concat "+" emacsconf-org-tag) "")) (org-agenda-tag-filter-preset (list (when emacsconf-org-tag (concat "+" emacsconf-org-tag)))) (org-agenda-custom-commands `(("a" "Agenda" ((agenda ,tag-filter) (tags-todo ,(concat tag-filter "-SCHEDULED={.+}-DEADLINE={.+}"))) ((org-agenda-span 14)))))) (org-agenda nil "a"))) ## Process review comments from pad see emacsconf-import-comments-from-etherpad-text # Lessons learned ## From previous years - [ ] Shorter CFP, longer recording time - [ ] Ask for talk title to be subject in submission - [X] Fresh eyes can doublecheck that all the talks are included and that availability properties have been set/followed - [X] Putting ‘availability’ towards the top of the submission template would make it harder for us to miss it during reviews, and it shouldn’t change anything for speakers. - [X] All the personalised messages we’ve sent during the scheduling campaign should probably be kept in a repo so that it’s less work for those who will be in charge of it next. - [ ] Since people kept running into ftp problems, we might want to set up a web-frontend next year to minimise problems. - [X] Might be a good idea to avoid Thanksgiving weekend, as lots of people travel then - [ ] Tech-checks haven’t been really popular this year, but there are so many ways we could make them more useful. On the [2021-11-16 Tue], 10 days prior the conf, we thought that it could be nice to use them as recording sessions for late-prerecs, and that’s only one example. - [X] Having the NO\_NEWS / WAITING\_FOR\_PREREC contrast from the start of `conf.org` might have made it easier for us to ping speakers who were late to the party this year. Rather than sending the personalised 10 days prior to the conference, we might have sent it a week after the submission of the anticipated scheduled (where we ask speakers if their allocated time is okay, based on their availability). - [ ] Move first dry run earlier (maybe one month before?) to give us more time for process tweaks - [ ] Dropping talks one week before the conf might allow us to have a near-fixed schedule to announce early. - [ ] CRM - [ ]zaeph: Implementing a variable for `automatic-emails` would make it easier to suppress user-hooks for message-mode - [ ]zaeph: Even though we’re sending emails automatically, we might want to keep trace of them in our `Sent` IMAP folder. notmuch does it with `Fcc:` in the header, so we might need a user-customisable var here as well. - [ ] less tiring lighting - [ ] split host and streamer? - [ ] Cram less with different tracks - [ ] Review pre-recs, even late submissions in their entirety to ensure no syncing issue - [ ] Tight opening-remarks, possible pre-rec. - [X] Asking pronunciation of name as soon as application with SA-cha CHEW-ah pattern would be good. Not a lot of diligence with it this year. - [ ] People need to specify their IRC handle on application (potentially forcing nick and/or first-name/last-name. - [ ] We might want to figure out an ffmpeg workflow for noise-suppressing on top of normalisation. Take inspiration from Audacity macros. - [ ] Having a more relaxed Saturday might give us time to adjust to tech-stack. - [ ] Creating BBB rooms in anticipation and/or automatically, before or during, might make for smoother check-in; right now, people keep wanting to check in via email even though we told them to use chat - [ ] Pre-recs were a little blocky wrt encoding; we might want to bump the bitrate next year - [ ] we can see if bot + pads + merging will help next year, and we can also experiment with multiple streams if there are enough people to pull it off so that speakers don't feel like they've just been dropped in a room and left to their own devices :) ## Lessons learned for next year ### CFP & Review period - Ask for public e-mail or contact information, IRC handle in CFP - Be even more stringent about the 10/20/40-min splits. A lot of speakers still default to the 20- or 40-min formats without providing us shorter formats, and that puts strain on our schedule and requires us to use a different template for the notification (which can be confusing). We need to stress that not respecting the format makes it harder not only for the organizers, but also for the speakers themselves (since they will have to rethink their presentation). Maybe we can have an e-mail template for a quick reply that says something like "Just in case we need to squeeze talks into shorter times, could you please also propose an outline for a possible 10-minute talk that could get people interested in your topic and point them to where they can find out more?" - Two people is the sweet number of reviewers to have for the proposals before sending the notifications, and there’d be diminishing returns with more. Two is enough to release the pressure on SCHED, verify the metadata (esp. speaker availability), and suggest a different ordering where appropriate. It can take a long time to comb through the proposals (roughly 10 proposals per hour), and whilst it’d be difficult to justify more in-depth reviewers, other orgas can do a shallow-pass to catch red-flags or discuss the submissions as they come in. Other organizers can always chime in on topics they particularly care about so that their encouraging comments or suggestions can be included in the acceptance e-mail. - We extended CFP-end by two weeks this year, but that made it coincide with speaker-notifs, and that’s awkward. Next time, we should only extend the CFP by one week to avoid having to scramble with the schedule until the very last day. - Some people assume that they have to suggest longer formats even if they intend their talks to be 10′ or 20′. We should change the wording on the CFP to ask them to only provide alternatives for shorter formats, not longer. - It was hard to squeeze all the org/hyperbole talk on day-1. Generally, the people who submit these kinds of talk come from all over the world, and US mornings are more accommodating than US evenings when it comes to timezones. We might consider having two org **mornings** rather than an org **day**; it would give us more flexibility with those talks. - We’re starting to reach critical mass on the org-talks. We might want to consider splitting the org-talks and the dev-talks into two distinct events to allow them to grow independently. - We should associate time-of-day with CFP-deadline; otherwise, the scheduler has to be on edge until the very end of the day. It’s worse this year because we made CFP-end coincide with speaker-notif, so this might not be as much of a problem next year. - It’s easier for us to extend beyond 5pm than to go before 9am (especially for the West coast). Extending beyond 5pm puts strain on European organizers and volunteers, though. ## Possible big projects for next year ### Prolog’ing the schedule ### Designing the EmacsConf suite (to make it easier for people other us to run their own versions)