[[!sidebar content=""]]
This file is automatically exported from [/2024/organizers-notebook/index.org](/2024/organizers-notebook/index.org). You might prefer to navigate this as an Org file instead. To do so, [clone the wiki repository](https://emacsconf.org/edit/).
You might also like the [general organizers' notebook](/organizers-notebook) and [the organizers' notebook from 2023](/2023/organizers-notebook).
# Table of Contents
- [Timeline](#timeline)
- [About this document](#about-this-doc)
- [Communications plan](#comms)
- [Good/better/best](#good-better-best)
- [Phases](#phases)
- [Draft CFP](#cfp)
- [Draft schedule](#draft-schedule)
- [Prepare shift calendar, ask people to sign up](#shifts)
- [Rerecord intros](#intros)
- [Check EmacsConf infrastructure](#orgc175c35):project:
- [BigBlueButton](#org7ebee47)
- [IRC web client](#orgebfb739)
- [IRC announcements](#org60a98ed)
- [Media](#org8c38fe6)
- [Publishing resources to the wiki](#orgd0749f1)
- [Publishing videos to the media server](#org11cdd06)
- [Playing videos, switching to windows](#org4f36836)
- [Etherpad](#orge8409fe)
- [Do a dry run](#org7d9f280)
- [Resizing](#org15ee37b)
- [Processes and notes](#org6ac6986)
- [Hosting](#org5e9b16c)
- [ERC](#org3b05f2e)
- [Decisions](#decisions)
- [BigBlueButton replacement (BBB)](#bbb)
- [Support code](#support-code)
# TODO Timeline
CFP
[2024-06-30 Sun]
CFP deadline
[2024-09-20 Fri]
82
Speaker notifications
[2024-09-27 Fri]
Publish schedule
[2024-10-25 Fri]
Video submission deadline
[2024-11-08 Fri]
49
EmacsConf
[2024-12-07 Sat]
29
We like to have at least a month to work on audio
normalization and transcription, and we want
speakers to have at least a month to work on their
videos (considering early submissions will already
have gotten started on processing).
# About this document
Tags:
- `conforg`: Requires access to private conf.org repository
# Communications plan
Objectives:
- keep everyone in the loop without them feeling like they’re overloaded
Everyone:
- [ ] Call for participation (speakers and volunteers)
- [ ] Reminder about CFP
- [ ] Last call
Speakers:
- [ ] Send all speakers backstage access and upload instructions
- [ ] Send all speakers check-in instructions
Volunteers:
- [ ] Send captioning volunteers the backstage info
- [ ] Send past captioning volunteers an invitation to participate - ask when there’s a lot of load
- [ ] Ask for help with audio processing
# Good/better/best
This table makes it easier to move the slider depending on who wants
to volunteer and how much we can get done. At some point, we’ll figure
out how to track our current status so we know what we need to
scramble to do in order to get the conference off the ground. **bold**
is our current goal. Feel free to volunteer for anything that
interests you!
Good
Better
Best
Streaming
Regular stream
+ alternate streams on PeerTube
+ alternate streams on YouTube
480p
Same on live
Separate node
Ansible setup
Audio normalization
Core org handling it
Other volunteer
Multiple volunteers
Video resolution
Usual reminders
Extra reminders
Everyone remembering to use a large font size
Intros
Standard, recorded
Reviewed by speakers
More details/context
Pad
v1.9.7
v2.x
# Phases
## DONE Draft CFP
#### Draft linked pages
- [X] cfp
- [X] submit page
- [X] year index
- [X] volunteer page
#### DONE Check with other organizers
#### DONE Post CFP in the usual places
emacsconf-discuss, reddit.com/r/emacs, Emacs News, emacs-tangents, Mastodon, X
## DONE Draft schedule
Legend:
- light blue: constraint is <= a time
- peach: constraint is >= a time
- solid line: Q&A will be through BigBlueButton web conference
- dashed line: Q&A will be IRC/Etherpad during the event or e-mail after the event
Notes:
- Updates:
- [2024-10-27 Sun] Removed [graph](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/graph "Graph mode: a major mode to create, edit and display discrete element graphs"), moved [p-search](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/p-search "p-search: a local search engine in Emacs") earlier; also [learning](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/learning "Survival of the skillest: Thriving in the learning jungle") needs to be in the morning, so I moved [pgmacs](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/pgmacs "PGmacs: browsing and editing PostgreSQL databases from Emacs") and [org-teach](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/org-teach "org-teach: a minor mode for writing course materials in Emacs") around.
- [2024-10-22 Tue] Swapped [org-teach](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/org-teach "org-teach: a minor mode for writing course materials in Emacs") and [blee](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/blee "About Blee: enveloping our own autonomy directed digital ecosystem with Emacs")
- [2024-10-21 Mon] Extended [blee](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/blee "About Blee: enveloping our own autonomy directed digital ecosystem with Emacs")
- [2024-10-17 Thu] Added [org-update](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/org-update "The Future of Org") to Saturday morning, moving [org-teach](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/org-teach "org-teach: a minor mode for writing course materials in Emacs") to Sunday afternoon
- [2024-10-15 Tue] Swapped [students](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/students "An example of a cohesive student workflow in Emacs") and [literate](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/literate "Literate programming for the 21st Century") for availability reasons
- [2024-10-13 Sun] Moved [hyperdrive](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/hyperdrive "New in hyperdrive.el: quick install, peer graph, transclusion!") to the afternoon (swapping with [flp](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/flp "The Free Life Planner: Empowering lives with Emacs-based AI")) because of changed availability
- [2024-10-12 Sat] I fixed the time constraint for [students](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/students "An example of a cohesive student workflow in Emacs") (needs to be in the afternoon), so I moved [hyperbole](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/hyperbole "Fun things with GNU Hyperbole") to the morning.
- General approach:
- I’ve mostly tried to alternate IRC/pad Q&A with live Q&A.
- 1.5 tracks keeps things faster-paced than the 2-track option.
- Sat:
- Gen track:
- [papers](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/papers "Writing academic papers in Org-Roam"), [project](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/project "Managing writing project metadata with org-mode"), [org-teach](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/org-teach "org-teach: a minor mode for writing course materials in Emacs"), [flp](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/flp "The Free Life Planner: Empowering lives with Emacs-based AI"), [color](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/color "Colour your Emacs with ease") should be pretty general
- [color](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/color "Colour your Emacs with ease") and [theme](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/theme "My journey of finding and creating the “perfect” Emacs theme") are both theme-related. [color](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/color "Colour your Emacs with ease") needs to be in the morning and [theme](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/theme "My journey of finding and creating the “perfect” Emacs theme") needs to be in the afternoon, so I put them on either side of the lunch break.
- Other afternoon talks: [water](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/water "Watering my (digital) plant with Emacs timers") and [shell](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/shell "Emacs as a shell") are by the same speaker. [casual](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/casual "Re-imagining the Emacs user experience with Casual Suite"), [hyperdrive](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/hyperdrive "New in hyperdrive.el: quick install, peer graph, transclusion!"), and [writing](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/writing "Emacs Writing Studio") will probably be good for a general audience. These speakers are only available in the afternoon, so this part of the schedule is a bit tight.
- I put [emacs30](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/emacs30 "Emacs 30 Highlights") at the end of Saturday to act sort of as a keynote. Closing remarks on Saturday are usually very light, so we could skip them.
- Dev track:
- [gypsum](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/gypsum "Gypsum: my clone of Emacs and ELisp written in Scheme"), [rust](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/rust "An experimental Emacs core in Rust"), [julia](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/julia "Exploring shared philosophies in Julia and Emacs"), [guile](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/guile "Beguiling Emacs: Guile-Emacs relaunched!"), and [mcclim](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/mcclim "Elisp and McCLIM") are about other projects
- [graph](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/graph "Graph mode: a major mode to create, edit and display discrete element graphs"), [p-search](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/p-search "p-search: a local search engine in Emacs"), [secrets](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/secrets "Committing secrets with git using sops-mode"), and [repro](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/repro "Reproducibly building Emacs: “Hey your checksum is the same as mine!”") will probably be more dev-focused
- Sun:
- Sunday morning last year had some packet loss issues at around 9:30, so we’ll start with some talks that don’t have BBB Q&A: [students](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/students "An example of a cohesive student workflow in Emacs"), [links](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/links "Unlocking linked data: replacing specialized apps with an Org-based semantic wiki"), [regex](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/regex "Emacs regex compilation and future directions for expressive pattern matching")
- [blee](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/blee "About Blee: enveloping our own autonomy directed digital ecosystem with Emacs") and [language](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/language "Immersive language learning with Emacs") are probably general-audience
- [pgmacs](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/pgmacs "PGmacs: browsing and editing PostgreSQL databases from Emacs"), [regex](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/regex "Emacs regex compilation and future directions for expressive pattern matching"), and [transducers](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/transducers "Transducers: finally, ergonomic data processing for Emacs!") are all development-oriented, but are on the general track for scheduling purposes. [transducers](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/transducers "Transducers: finally, ergonomic data processing for Emacs!") can only be on Sunday afternoon at 4pm because of availability.
- I’ve separated [hyperbole](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/hyperbole "Fun things with GNU Hyperbole") and [hywiki](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/hywiki "HyWiki: Fast, hyperlinked note-taking with no markup required") by lunch so that people who are interested in that can attend the live Q&A for both without worrying about missing things.
- [learning](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/learning "Survival of the skillest: Thriving in the learning jungle"), [sharing](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/sharing "So you want to be an Emacs-fluencer?"), [literate](https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/literate "Literate programming for the 21st Century") will probably be good for a general audience
## DONE Prepare shift calendar, ask people to sign up
AM: 9-12 PM EST, PM: 1-5 PM EST (plus a little extra for setup/transition)
Saturday Dec 7 2024
Backups:
- dev host/streamer:
- gen host/streamer:
- checkin, IRC, pad:
Interested in a shift? Please e-mail and we’ll help you figure out what you need to learn.
`(setq emacsconf-shifts
(list
,@(apply #'append
(mapcar
(lambda (day)
(let ((headers
(mapcar
(lambda (field)
(intern
(concat
":"
(downcase
(if (string-match org-link-bracket-re field)
(match-string 2 field)
field)))))
(seq-drop (car (cadr day)) 3))))
(mapcar
(lambda (row)
(apply #'append
(list 'list :id
(when (string-match "^\\([^ ]+\\) \\(AM\\|PM\\)" (car row))
(format "%s-%s-%s"
(car day)
(downcase (match-string 2 (car row)))
(downcase (match-string 1 (car row)))))
:track
(if (string-match "^Gen" (car row)) "General" "Development")
:start
(format "%sT%s:00%s"
(elt day 2)
(elt row 1)
emacsconf-timezone-offset)
:end
(format "%sT%s:00%s"
(elt day 2)
(elt row 2)
emacsconf-timezone-offset))
(seq-map-indexed
(lambda (value index)
(unless (string= value "")
(list (elt headers index) value)))
(seq-drop row 3))))
(cdr (cadr day)))
))
(list
(list "sat" sat "2024-12-07")
(list "sun" sun "2024-12-08"))))))
## Rerecord intros
### TODO Redo pkal pronunciation :emacsconf:record:
> kǎlud͡ʑert͡ʃit͡ɕ - zaeph’s guess is kah-loo-dyer-tshitch
Next, we have "Emacs 30 Highlights" by Philip Kaludercic.
You can ask questions in the web conference
by joining from the talk page,
or you can ask questions through Etherpad or IRC.
### TODO Rerecord intro for Ihor Radchenko and Bastien Guerry
zaeph will probably pronounce this so much better than I can. =)
Next, we have "The future of Org",
by Ihor Radchenko and Bastien Guerry.
They will answer questions via web conference.
You can join using the URL from the talk page
or ask questions through Etherpad or IRC.
### TODO Rerecord Eev intro with MAC-SYM-A pronunciation :record:emacsconf:
> My name in the intro is perfect, but Maxima comes from Macsyma, and it is
> pronounced mac - sym (<- as in “symbolic”) a…
Next, we have "Emacs, eev, and Maxima - now!",
by Eduardo Ochs.
You can ask questions via Etherpad or IRC.
### TODO Rerecord Vincent Conus using psitransfer version :record:emacsconf:
/ssh:orga@media.emacsconf.org:/srv/upload/emacsconf-papers/0b67be8b-10a1-48f8-9a7b-e73a4c46b9db
Next, we have "Writing academic papers in Org-Roam",
by Vincent Conus.
He will answer questions via web conference.
You can join using the URL from the talk page
or ask questions through Etherpad or IRC.
### TODO Rerecord Joseph Turner with new title :emacsconf:record:
[2024-12-02 Emacs news](https://sachachua.com/blog/2024/12/2024-12-02-emacs-news/)
New in hyperdrive.el: quick install, peer graph, transclusion!
Next, we have "New in hyperdrive.el: quick install,
peer graph, transclusion!" by Joseph Turner.
You can ask questions in the web conference
by joining from the talk page,
or you can ask questions through Etherpad or IRC.
# TODO Check EmacsConf infrastructure :project:
- [X] IRC
- [ ] Streaming assets
- [ ] Publishing to the wiki
- [ ] Web conference
- [ ] OBS
- [ ] Publishing to the media server
- [ ] Etherpad
- [ ] Streaming
- [ ] Toobnix
- [ ] YouTube
## TODO BigBlueButton
- Plan: spin up Linode temporarily: [BigBlueButton replacement](#bbb)
### Notes
#### install, sizes
[2024-11-19 Tue]
Prerequisites:
- BBB requires 4 CPU cores before it will install. bbb-conf.sh is fairly straightforward, so I guess we could spin down and then spin up again.
Steps:
1. Run the BBB installer: ~./bbb-install.sh -v jammy-300 -s bbb.emacsverse.org -e emacsconf@sachachua.com -g ~
2. `sudo apt install bbb-playback-video` and then follow the instructions at [Server Customization | BigBlueButton](https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/3.0/administration/customize/#install-additional-recording-processing-formats) .
3.
I think it needs 4 CPU cores for regular running, too.
Sizing to shared 8GB 4 core for testing
linode-cli linodes resize 67329098 --type g6-standard-4 --allow_auto_disk_resize false
takes about 2 minutes
Sizing to shared nanode, dormant
linode-cli linodes resize 67329098 --type g6-nanode-1 --allow_auto_disk_resize true
echo "notify-send 'Resizing BBB...'; linode-cli linodes resize 67329098 --type g6-nanode-1 --allow_auto_disk_resize true" | at 'now + 1 hour'
Resize disk
linode-cli linodes disks-list 67329098
linode-cli linodes disk-resize 67329098 131474261 –size 24000
/var/bigbluebutton is where recordings will go
#### backing up
[2024-11-20 Wed] ssh root@66.175.208.243 ’tar zcvf - /var/bigbluebutton /etc/bigbluebutton /root/greenlight-v3 /usr/local/bigbluebutton /usr/share/bbb-web’ > bbb-backup.tar.gz
#### DONE Set up bbb with new domain name
If changing IP:
bbb-conf –setip bbb-new.example.com
service nginx stop
certbot certonly
service nginx start
edit /etc/hosts, add domain name
Certificate is saved at: /etc/letsencrypt/live/bbb.emacsverse.org/fullchain.pem
Key is saved at: /etc/letsencrypt/live/bbb.emacsverse.org/privkey.pem
edit *etc/nginx/sites-available/bigbluebutton to add server\_name
/etc/letsencrypt/live*
grep in /etc for the old domain
- change greenlight/.env
curl failed to verify the legitimacy of the server and therefore could not
establish a secure connection to it. To learn more about this situation and
how to fix it, please visit the web page mentioned above.
.curl: (60) SSL: no alternative certificate subject name matches target host name ’bbb.emacsverse.org’
More details here:
haproxy is already listening on 443
Fine, let’s just reinstall it, harumph.
Create the users:
user\_id = User.find\_by\_email(“sacha@sachachua.com”).id
… ugh, what’s going on, why is free only reporting a little memory? ah, we’re still resizing, that’s why
### STARTED Set up moderator access codes for all the meeting rooms, and make it so people can start the meeting
- Let’s try
- [ ] Rails
- [ ] Spookfox
- [ ] Manual
RoomMeetingOption.
room.get\_setting
yeah, that’s not good, rails console keeps quitting!
docker-compose down
docker-compose up
1:M 28 Nov 2024 17:16:23.441 # WARNING Memory overcommit must be enabled! Without it, a background save or replication may fail under low memory condition. Being disabled, it can can also cause failures without low memory condition, see . To fix this issue add ’vm.overcommit\_memory = 1’ to /etc/sysctl.conf and then reboot or run the command ’sysctl vm.overcommit\_memory=1’ for this to take effect.
docker-compose down
docker-compose up -d
makes it more reliable, it seems
room = Room.find\_by\_id(’8b3f36b1-7aee-459d-b963-bddcfe03e1db’)
o = MeetingOption.find\_by\_name(’glAnyoneCanStart’)
o.default\_value = ’true’
o.save!
o = MeetingOption.find\_by\_name(’glModeratorAccessCode’)
“”
(dolist (talk (seq-filter (lambda (o)
(and (plist-get o :bbb-room)
(not (plist-get o :bbb-mod-code))))
(emacsconf-publish-prepare-for-display (emacsconf-get-talk-info))))
(spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
(format "window.location.href = \"%s\""
(replace-regexp-in-string "/join" "" (plist-get talk :bbb-room)))
t)
(sleep-for 3)
(spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
"document.querySelector('button[data-rr-ui-event-key=\"settings\"]').click()" t)
(spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
"document.querySelector('input#glAnyoneCanStart').checked = true")
(spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
"document.querySelector('input#muteOnStart').checked = true")
(spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
"document.querySelectorAll('.border-end button')[2].click()" t)
(let ((code (spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
"document.querySelector('.access-code-input input').value" t)))
(message "Setting %s to %s" (plist-get talk :slug) code)
(emacsconf-set-property-from-slug
talk "BBB_MOD_CODE"
code)
(sit-for 2)))
(dolist (talk (seq-filter (lambda (o)
(plist-get o :bbb-room))
(emacsconf-publish-prepare-for-display (emacsconf-get-talk-info))))
(spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
(format "window.location.href = \"%s\""
(replace-regexp-in-string "/join" "" (plist-get talk :bbb-room)))
t)
(sleep-for 3)
(spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
"document.querySelector('button[data-rr-ui-event-key=\"settings\"]').click()" t)
(sleep-for 3))
### DONE Figure out what’s going on with BBB!
### DONE Create meeting rooms for each speaker
Now that I’m more familiar with BigBlueButton and
Greenlight, I don’t have to [use Spookfox to
automate creating BigBlueButton rooms in Mozilla
Firefox](https://sachachua.com/blog/2023/10/using-emacs-and-spookfox-to-automate-creating-bigbluebutton-rooms-in-mozilla-firefox/). I can just create them through the Rails
console.
docker exec -it greenlight-v3 bundle exec rails c
user\_id = User.find\_by\_email(“sacha@sachachua.com”).id
docker exec -it greenlight-v3 bundle exec rails console
(mapconcat (lambda (group)
(format
"Room.create(user_id: user_id, name: \"%s - %s\")\n"
(plist-get (cadr group) :speakers)
(string-join (mapcar (lambda (talk) (plist-get talk :slug))
(cdr group)))))
(emacsconf-mail-groups (emacsconf-active-talks (emacsconf-get-talk-info)))
"")
Print out the room IDs with
Room.all.each { |x| puts x.friendly_id + " " + x.name }; nil
After about 6 seconds, the rails console quits.
502 bad gateway
aaaaaaaaaah
### DONE Check BBB audio from my phone
### DONE Create accounts for corwin
### CANCELLED Customize BBB to process at night
Change processing time
On a 2.2.x BigBlueButton server, the server will process recordings as meetings finish. You can restrict the recording processing interval to specific hours by creating the file /etc/systemd/system/bbb-record-core.timer.d/override.conf with the contents
[Timer]
OnActiveSec=
OnUnitInactiveSec=
OnCalendar=21,22,23,00,01,02,03:\*:00
Persistent=false
and do systemctl daemon-reload. This file overrides the timing of when systemd runs bbb-record-core.target. In the above example, recordings will start processing between 21:00 and 03:59.
- [Set up rooms and assign as properties](file:///home/sacha/sync/orgzly/Inbox.md)
### TODO Change background presentation
### TODO Modify landing page
/var/www/bigbluebutton-default/assets/index.html
keep backup copy as it will be overwritten when bbb-conf is called
### TODO Change default welcome message
### TODO Change html5 title
/usr/share/bigbluebutton/html5-client/private/config/settings.yml
TARGET=/usr/share/bigbluebutton/html5-client/private/config/settings.yml
yq e -i “.public.app.clientTitle = \\”EmacsConf\\“” $TARGET
### TODO Try live captions
### TODO Explore meeting layout? Default to custom, hosts will need to drag people’s webcam over if there’s a share
## IRC web client
### DONE Ask libera.chat to increase connections allowed from chat.emacsconf.org on Dec 7 and 8
## IRC announcements
### DONE Confirm manual IRC announcements
### TODO Confirm automated IRC announcements from res
## Media
### TODO Switch public media to unprotected root before the conference
1. Clear public media directory.
2. Set `media_protect_root` to false in Ansible `group_vars/all.yml`.
3. `ansible-playbook -i inventory.yml prod-playbook.yml --tags media`
You can generate the index with `emacsconf-publish-update-media`.
## TODO Publishing resources to the wiki
ansible-playbook -i inventory.yml prod-playbook.yml –tags publish
## TODO Publishing videos to the media server
## Playing videos, switching to windows
### TODO Generate test videos for everything
### TODO Document how to get that set up again
## Etherpad
### TODO Generate pads for all the talks
### TODO Generate the main index
## TODO Do a dry run
### DONE Generate all the test assets
### TODO Test connecting to VNC and streaming via OBS
## Resizing
live0: 64GB
front0: 32GB
meet: 64GB
### TODO Resize nodes before production
live0: 64GB
front0: 32GB
meet: 64GB
### TODO Resize nodes after production
live0: nanode
front0: nanode
### TODO Resize meet after production
meet: nanode
# Processes and notes
## Hosting
### TODO Finalize host for dev track
## ERC
Some convenient commands are defined in emacsconf-erc.el.
/opall
Grant operator status in the Emacsconf channels
/deopall
Remove operator status in the Emacsconf channels
/conftopic
Set the first part of the topic
# Decisions
## BigBlueButton replacement (BBB)
The server running bbb.emacsverse.org has been decommissioned, since the nonprofit that shared it with us is defunct.
- We’d like to figure out what our live Q&A setup is going to be for EmacsConf 2024 (Dec 7-8).
- Nice to have: Hosting for other Emacs meetups like Emacs APAC and OrgMeetup
- [Stats from last year](https://sachachua.com/blog/2023/12/emacsconf-backstage-figuring-out-our-maximum-number-of-simultaneous-bigbluebutton-users/): 31 meetings, 84 unique users, 62 max simultaneous users, 6 max simultaneous meetings, 27 max users in one meeting, 36 unique talking
- also includes some notes on hosting
- Nice thing about running our own server: we can make one room per speaker, pre-assign their URLs, and let people stay as long as they want in recorded Q&A sessions
Recommendation:
We spin up a shared CPU 4GB under bandali’s Linode
account (for bandwidth pooling and easier
reimbursement), do the setup/testing, scale down
as small as possible over the next few weeks,
scale up to dedicated CPU 16GB a day or two before
the conference, and keep it at that level until
the recordings are all done. I have access to that
Linode account, so I can set it up. If bandali can
configure emacsverse.org to be handled by Linode,
I can manage the DNS changes, or he can change
bbb.emacsverse.org to the IP address of the new
node.
Some options:
- Linode with 16GB RAM and 8 cores
- Advantages: can experiment with both Galene and BBB, manage things ourselves, have filesystem access
- Disadvantages: needs someone to do it
- Base pricing
- Shared CPU 4GB 80GB storage: hourly USD 0.04, monthly USD 24
- Dedicated CPU 16GB: hourly USD 0.22, daily 5.28, weekly 36.96, monthly USD 144 - meets minimum requirements and can probably support 200 simultaneous ([FAQ](https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/support/faq/))
- Shared CPU 8GB 160GB storage: hourly USD 0.07
- Shared CPU 16GB 320GB storage: hourly USD 0.14
- Last year
- Block storage: $1/10GB/month
- 125M/hour - [FAQ](https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/support/faq/#what-is-the-disk-space-usage-for-storing-one-hour-of-recordings)
- In 2023, we had 31 hours of trimmed recordings (main + answers),
- (\* 31 0.125) 3.875, oh, maybe we can get away with 10GB storage and add another chunk of 10GB midway if we need it, or extend the dedicated
- Actually, block storage probably not needed if we’re going to keep the big instance up until the recordings are done
- Ideas
- **We’re here – Option B: Run a slightly larger shared CPU instance from now until shortly before the conference, then scale up** in case BBB does not work for installation/testing with less memory; block storage probably not needed
- (\* 0.07 24 7 3) USD 35.28 for 8GB, total (+ 35.28 36.96) USD 72.24
- (\* 0.14 24 7 3) USD 70.56 for 16GB, total (+ 70.56 36.96) USD 107.52
- **Option A: Run a small instance continuously, scale up for the conference, pull the recordings off, spin the instance down** - est total USD 60+tax
- There are three weeks between now and the conference (\* 0.04 24 7 3) USD 20
- Last year, recordings were available within three days after the conference
- Let’s plan for a week at high capacity. (\* 0.22 24 7) USD 36.96
- and a month of 10GB, possibly up to 30GB. USD 3
- That’s probably small enough that it doesn’t make as much sense to try to fully spin down for a week in between now and the conference (\* 0.04 24 7) - which would save USD 6.72 but require figuring out backing up, etc.
- Ask FSF if we can borrow their BBB or Galene, maybe limit it to cycling among 6 or 7 rooms
- Waiting for feedback; Corwin has asked them
- Pay for BigBlueButton hosting; can we find one that’s compatible with our commitment to freedom?
- - Economy 120 (USD 130/month) or Economy 80 (USD 85/month), custom URL
- - 100 concurrent users: USD 125/month, custom URL
-
- 100 concurrent users: USD 79/month
- 200 concurrent users and custom URL: USD 15 setup fee + USD 149/month
- - 150 concurrent, USD 75/month
- - 250 concurrent, USD 49 setup + USD 108.80/month
-
- 150 concurrent users, 10 concurrent meetings, USD 40/month
- custom domain, 600 concurrent users, USD 149/month
- Compare with Linode pricing
- Try to squeeze it onto res.emacsconf.org
- Tricky to run on a shared server; it likes to use a lot of ports and strongly recommends running it on its own server
- Go back to using meet.jit.si?
- Free:
- Need to check speed, reliability
- Can send RTMP from the meeting itself
- [2024-11-13 Wed] I attended Ihor’s
OrgMeetup, which he hosted on meet.jit.si. I
think he had bandwidth issues at some point
and we lost his audio. I remember we ran
into that problem before, too, when we used
Jitsi for one of the Emacsconfs. Free Jitsi
hosting might not be the right fit for us.
- Paid: USD 99/month + $0.01/min for recordings + $0.01 min (optional) for RTMP streaming
- Galene?
- [2024-10-31 Thu] I checked out Galene in the last Emacs Berlin meeting. It’s promising, but I think the user interface might still need a bit of work. Simple deployment (run one Go binary, I think), but muting/unmuting doesn’t trigger enabling the microphone, and the chat was buggy to get to on my mobile device. Supposed to have support for raising hands.
# Support code
(defun my-ox-link-path (link _ info)
(let* ((raw-path (org-element-property :path link)))
(setq raw-path
(org-export-file-uri
(org-publish-file-relative-name raw-path info)))
;; Possibly append `:html-link-home' to relative file
;; name.
(let ((home (and (plist-get info :html-link-home)
(org-trim (plist-get info :html-link-home)))))
(when (and home
(plist-get info :html-link-use-abs-url)
(not (file-name-absolute-p raw-path)))
(setq raw-path (concat (file-name-as-directory home) raw-path))))
raw-path))
(defun my-org-md-link (link desc info)
(if (string= (org-element-property :type link) "file")
(let ((path (my-ox-link-path link desc info)))
(if (string= (file-name-extension path) "svg")
(with-temp-buffer
(insert-file-contents-literally path)
(buffer-string))
(org-md-link link desc info)))
(org-md-link link desc info)))
(with-eval-after-load 'ox-md
(setf
(alist-get 'link (org-export-backend-transcoders (org-export-get-backend 'md)))
'my-org-md-link))