[[!meta title="Etherpad volunteer"]]

# Responsibilities

- Write down interesting points, links, questions, and answers on the
  Etherpad during talks and Q&A sessions so that people can quickly
  get the gist even if they're jumping in late or skimming through
  things without watching the full video
- Add the Q&A BBB URL to the Etherpad when the host gives the OK for
  everyone to join

# Preparation

We will add the pad URLs to the watch page for the track. 

We will also give you a list of URLs for the live Q&A sessions in the
BBB room. Please keep these URLs secret until the host gives you the
OK to add them to the pad.

You can see the pad for the previous year at
https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/emacsconf-2021 . The discussion
section in https://emacsconf.org/2021/talks/frownies/ shows how the
pad will be archived onto the talk page. A sample pad for this year's
conference can be found at <https://pad.emacsconf.org/2022-journalism>

If you would like to suggest improvements to the pad format, please
e-mail <emacsconf-org@gnu.org> before the conference starts. Thank
you!

# Process

This year we are experimenting with per-talk pads in order to simplify
the experience for the speakers, since many speakers found it
difficult to find and focus on their section in a long pad.

Open one window with the watch page for the EmacsConf track so that
you can watch the prerecorded video and the Q&A session. Open another
for the pad for the current talk. You can get the pad URL from the
watch page, the talk page, the IRC announcements, or by navigating the
**Next talks** links on a pad.

You don't need to make a verbatim transcription. Short bullet-points
are enough. If you're not sure about a term, you can mark it with
something like ?? and someone else may be able to fill it in. If you
happen to be able to quickly add timestamps in US/Eastern time, that
may be handy.

If you would like to continue scribing the live Q&A for a session even
after the next pre-recorded talk starts, you can join the BBB session
for the live Q&A. Scribing live Q&A sessions might be more useful than
scribing the pre-recorded video portion because people will have
access to the videos and possibly transcripts, while Q&A may take a
while to extract. 

To make it easier for the hosts and speakers, we keep the BBB room
URLs secret until the hosts or speakers give the OK to open it up.
When the host or speaker invites everyone in, you can add the BBB URL
to the Etherpad to make it easier for people to join from there.

You can keep an eye on the time to see when the next live Q&A session
is starting so that you can join the next one if there are overlapping
sessions.

# In case of...

- Oopsies: Sometimes people accidentally delete chunks of the pad. It happens.
  You can use the time slider (looks like a clock, second icon in the
  top right) to go back to a previous version.

- Incidents: If someone isn't keeping
  [[guidelines for conduct|conduct]] in mind, let us know in
  `#emacsconf-org` and we'll figure out how to deal with the
  situation.

# After the conference

We'll archive the pad on the talk page after the event, so your work
will also help people follow up, find ideas and answers, and get even
more out of EmacsConf 2023. Thank you!

[[Check out other ways to volunteer|2023/volunteer]]

[[!taglink CategoryVolunteer ]]