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[[!meta title="EmacsConf 2024 Report"]]
[[!date "2024-12-28"]]
[[!meta copyright="Copyright &copy; 2024 Sacha Chua"]]


# Table of Contents

-   [Overview](#overview)
-   [Technical details](#technical-details)
-   [Process improvements](#process-improvements)
-   [Finances](#finances)
-   [Acknowledgements](#acknowledgements)
-   [Updates](#updates)


<a id="overview"></a>

# Overview

EmacsConf 2024 was held on December 7 and 8 as an online conference. We had 31 talks across two tracks (general and development), with a total of 11 hours of presentations, 8 hours of Q&A via web conference, and lots of lively discussion across IRC and Etherpad. Throughout the conference, there were up to 430 people watching via the livestream, and more than 80 people joined the live Q&A web conferences. There were also satellite events in Switzerland and Slovenia where people watched together.

Thanks to volunteers who edited captions for pre-recorded videos, we were able to broadcast all the early submissions with open captions. This not only made talks more accessible while watching the livestreams, but it also made it easier to enjoy the talks in noisy environments or to catch up on talks. People said:

We posted pre-recorded videos and transcripts on talk pages shortly after they started streaming, and the recordings of live talks and Q&A sessions are now also available. We've also archived questions and comments from IRC and Etherpad onto the talk pages. You can find the talk pages at <https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks> . The videos are also available on Toobnix (<https://toobnix.org/c/emacsconf/videos>) and YouTube (<https://www.youtube.com/@EmacsConf>).

Overall, people said:

-   "It's the first time I've been able to attend the whole conference live, and it's been great fun, I've had a blast :)"
-   "Thanks again to the organizers, and presenters for many great talks, and participants for interesting exchanges, see you all next year (fingers crossed)"
-   "EmacsConf is one of the big highlights of my year every year."


<a id="technical-details"></a>

# Technical details

EmacsConf is committed to software freedom. We used the following tools
for this year's conference:

-   [Org Mode](https://orgmode.org/), [Emacs](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/): organization and collaboration
-   [MPV](https://mpv.io): video player
-   [BigBlueButton](https://bigbluebutton.org/): web conference
-   [OBS Studio](https://obsproject.com/): streaming
-   [TigerVNC](https://tigervnc.org/): controlling the remote server
-   [Icecast](https://icecast.org/): streaming WEBM
-   [Internet Relay Chat via Libera.chat](https://libera.chat/), [The Lounge](https://thelounge.chat/), and [ERC](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/erc.html): conversation
-   [Mumble](https://www.mumble.info/): audio conferencing for coordination
-   [Etherpad](https://etherpad.org/): questions and notes
-   [Ikiwiki](https://ikiwiki.info/): website
-   [PsiTransfer](https://github.com/psi-4ward/psitransfer): uploads
-   [FFmpeg](https://ffmpeg.org): video and audio processing
-   [Audacity](https://www.audacityteam.org/): audio editing
-   [WhisperX](https://github.com/m-bain/whisperX): captioning
-   [Aeneas](https://www.readbeyond.it/aeneas/): forced alignment to get timestamps
-   [subed-mode](https://codeberg.org/sachac/subed): captioning
-   [Git](https://git-scm.com/): version control
-   [Mailman](https://list.org/): mailing lists; service provided by the Free Software Foundation
-   [Nginx](https://www.nginx.com/): web server; server provided by the Free Software Foundation
-   [Ansible](https://www.ansible.com/): system configuration

You can find out more about our infrastructure at
<https://emacsconf.org/infra> .


<a id="process-improvements"></a>

# Process improvements

This year we tried out the following experiments:

-   BigBlueButton 3.0: We set up our own server since the previous donated server was decommissioned.
    Using BBB 3.0 let us customize the on-screen layout and export recorded videos easily.
-   We added an open mic session and moved some of our closing remarks earlier. This let people share last-minute updates and also allowed us to wrap up the conference more promptly.
-   We used WhisperX for the first draft of captions for improved performance.
-   Automatic normalization with ffmpeg-normalize didn't work out, so we manually normalized the video files.
-   We needed to upgrade MPV to v0.38 in order to deal with palette smearing.
-   In addition to livestreaming to live.emacsconf.org via Icecast, we also livestreamed via YouTube. We were unable to livestream via Toobnix due to technical difficulties.
-   We experimented with upgrading the streaming server to a 64GB 32core dedicated CPU server, but this additional capacity was not needed. We downgraded back to 64GB 16core shared.
-   We updated the wiki layout to include sticky videos on the talk pages.
-   We developed more tools for copying IRC messages to the clipboard, checking and adjusting subtitle timing, and cropping media files.
-   We offered stickers and pins as tokens of appreciation.

Next year we're looking forward to building on top of even more documentation and automation. Fun!


<a id="finances"></a>

# Finances

Our hosting costs were USD 46.03 + tax for the
conference itself and for BigBlueButton testing
during the preparation. Thanks to people who
donated through the [Working Together](https://www.fsf.org/working-together/fund) program of
the Free Software Foundation, we are well-equipped
to cover those costs for this year and succeeding
years.


<a id="acknowledgements"></a>

# Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following:

-   Thank you to all the speakers, volunteers, and participants, and to all those other people in our lives who make it possible through time and support.
-   Thanks to Leo Vivier and Corwin Brust for hosting the sessions, and to FlowyCoder for checking people in.
-   Thanks to our proposal review volunteers James Howell, JC Helary, and others for helping with the early acceptance process.
-   Thanks to our captioning volunteers: Mark Lewin, Rodrigo Morales, Anush, annona, and James Howell, and some speakers who captioned their own talks.
-   Thanks to Leo Vivier for fiddling with the audio to get things nicely synced.
-   Thanks to volunteers who kept the mailing lists free from spam.
-   Thanks to Bhavin Gandhi, Christopher Howard, Joseph Turner, and screwlisp for quality-checking.
-   Thanks to shoshin for the music.
-   Thanks to Amin Bandali for help with infrastructure and communication.
-   Thanks to Ry P for the server that we're using for OBS streaming and for processing videos.
-   Thanks to the Free Software Foundation for Emacs itself, the mailing lists, the media.emacsconf.org server, and handling donations on our behalf through the FSF Working Together program. <https://www.fsf.org/working-together/fund>
-   Thanks to the many users and contributers and project teams that create all the awesome free software we use, especially: BigBlueButton, Etherpad, Icecast, OBS, TheLounge, libera.chat, ffmpeg, OpenAI Whisper, WhisperX, the aeneas forced alignment tool, PsiTransfer, subed, and many, many other tools and services we used to prepare and host this years conference
-   Thanks to everyone!


<a id="updates"></a>

# Updates

If you would like to get updates and announcements, you can sign up at
<https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacsconf-discuss> .

Please keep an eye out for interesting things that
might be fun to present at next year's EmacsConf.
We'd love to get talks at all levels of experience
and about lots of different kinds of interests.
Previous speakers wrote:

-   "I always got the feeling of being heard and
    welcome in spite of the vast distances and
    cultures separating us. This community always
    feels like it is open to new members any time.
    With regards to the conference process also, it
    was a microcosm of the bigger community and
    hence I got the same feeling. You didn't have to
    be an expert or a person who's been using emacs
    for a long time to talk about something useful
    for the community. Even the struggles of a noob
    may be useful for someone else in the
    community."
-   "I can honestly say though that I had a great
    time putting my talk together. I hope people
    will have a good time listening to it. Now that
    the work is over, I can say it was worth it. so
    I recommend it warmly"
-   "This has been an all-around fantastic
    experience, both as a first-time attendee and
    speaker. many thanks to the volunteers who make
    emacsconf possible, and the other speakers for
    their wonderful talks (many of which i'll be
    reviewing now that i'm not so busy preparing)"

If you'd like to volunteer for EmacsConf, check
out <https://emacsconf.org/volunteer/> to see if
anything resonates with you, and e-mail us at
<mailto:emacsconf-org@gnu.org>. We'd love to have
you on board.

Hope to see you next year!