path: root/2022/volunteer.md

[[!meta title="Volunteer"]]
[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2022 Sacha Chua"]]

We're starting to gear up for EmacsConf 2022, and we would love to
figure out how to work with your skills, interests, and availability.
Volunteering is a great way to meet fellow Emacs geeks, tinker around
with interesting packages and scripts, and learn a ton.

<https://emacsconf.org/2022/organizers-notebook/#overall> has an
overall prioritization matrix. If any of those options look like
something you want to learn or help with, or if you want to make
things even better than what's in the table, let us know.

Given the number of talks this year, we're going to try to see if we
can pull off two tracks. We've posted a draft schedule at
<https://emacsconf.org/2022/draft-schedule/> and have e-mailed
speakers to confirm their availability. This schedule staggers live
Q&A sessions so that the person managing the streams can jump back and
forth as needed. We'll figure out shifts once we've sorted out the
processes and training info, but if you want to call dibs on
something, feel free!

# Some ideas for help wanted / upcoming projects before the conference

- **Emacs Lisp:** Want to design the screens that will be displayed before
  and after a talk? Bonus points if you can do it in Emacs with a
  count-down timer until the start of the talk. See [organizers-notebook.org#intro](https://emacsconf.org/2022/organizers-notebook/#intro)
  
- **Infrastructure - file upload:** We would like to find a way for people
  to upload large files through a web-based interface, since a number
  of speakers had issues with FTP uploads last year.
  [organizers-notebook.org#upload](https://emacsconf.org/2022/organizers-notebook/#upload)
  has some options to explore. Do you have any recommendations or do
  you want to do some research?

- **Infrastructure - streaming:** Got any experience streaming with
  OBS or gstreamer? We're going to try to have two (or more!) streams
  this year, so it would be great to have more streamers on board.
  Definitely let us know if you have any experience using a cloud
  server to stream, or if you'd like to help figure it out (see
  [organizers-notebook.org#streaming](https://emacsconf.org/2022/organizers-notebook/#streaming)).
  It would be neat to have the streaming come from a VPS that
  different people can control.

See <https://emacsconf.org/2022/organizers-notebook/> for a lot more
about what's happening backstage and opportunities to help. Let us
know what sorts of things you're interested in and what you'd like to
learn more about. Doesn't have to be limited to this list!

# Roles

Here are some of the roles that you might be able to help with. Roles
have different responsibilities, and a person can have multiple roles.
You can help out with one or more of the things here, or you can
suggest your own ways of making EmacsConf better.

If you don't see something you want to help with here, [e-mail
emacsconf-org@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering for
EmacsConf 2022) and let us know about the skills you have and the skills you
want to develop!  The mailing list is public, so, if you’d like to volunteer
privately instead, you can use
[emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering
for EmacsConf 2022).

## Before the conference

### Captioner

Do you like working with text? Do you want early access to the
pre-recorded talks? Help make EmacsConf videos easier to understand
and search by captioning them! 

Here's what people said about how most of the EmacsConf talks were
streamed with captions during the conference itself:

- "I really appreciate the approach of doing things prerecorded and
  having captions."
- "The captions for this conference have has an impressive amount of
  work put into them."
- "++ to all that stuff. Great job on the captions, and the
  demonstrated functionality is very impressive."
- "At first, I thought the captions would be unnecessary, but over
  time, understanding the accents for various individuals has been
  challenging, so the captions helped."

Most of the captioning work will begin once speakers submit their
pre-recorded videos. If you like, you can warm up by
[captioning previous talks.](https://emacsconf.org/help_with_main_captions/)
You can use any captioning tool you want. There's even
[one for Emacs](https://github.com/sachac/subed). Check out these
[captioning tips](https://emacsconf.org/captioning/). You can start by
editing autogenerated captions, or you can write captions from scratch
if you want. You can work with timing, or you can send us plain text
and we'll get them aligned with the videos. Videos range from 10
minutes to 40 minutes and typically take 2-6x the video time to
caption once you've gotten the hang of it. Partial work is also
helpful, so feel free to contribute whatever you want, whenever you want.

To volunteer as a captioner, [e-mail
emacsconf-org@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering to
caption) (or privately:
[emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering
to caption)) and we'll help you get set up.

### BigBlueButton tech-checker

Are you familiar with video-conferencing, and especially with BigBlueButton?
Would you like to help speakers get set up for their live Q&A?  If so, you can
join the [tech-checker team](https://emacsconf.org/2022/prepare/#tech-check)
and help us reassure speakers that everything is going to be fine!

To volunteer as a BigBlueButton tech-checker, 
[let us know your availability at emacsconf-org@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering
as a BBB tech-checker) (or privately: [emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering
as a BBB tech-checker)) and we'll schedule you in.

### Infrastructure and video

Do you have an arcane cookbook filed with `ffmpeg` incantations? Is
OBS your jam? Are you comfortable with the command-line? Do you
Ansible all your servers? Do you like tweaking CSS rules to make
things look good? (You don't have to say yes to all of these things -
that would be quite a full stack!) We could use your help!

To volunteer for infrastructure and video, [e-mail
emacsconf-org@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering for
infrastructure and video) (or privately:
[emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering
for infrastructure and video)) and we'll help you get set up.

## During the conference

We'll post training material and shift schedules as the conference gets nearer.
In the meantime, here are some roles you might be able to help with.

### Check in

When speakers check into the IRC channel, you can direct them to the
right BigBlueButton room for their Q&A session and help them make sure
that their setup works perfectly. You can also give them a heads-up
when it's almost time for their live Q&A session. It's just a few
minutes here and there, and you get to chat with a lot of speakers
along the way.

To volunteer to check in people, [let us know your availability
at emacsconf-org@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering for check-in) (or privately:
[emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering
for check-in)) and we'll schedule you in.

### Internet Relay Chat monitor

Do you like the buzz of fast-flowing discussions? Do you want to make
sure that questions and interesting points don't get lost? Volunteer
to copy stuff from the EmacsConf IRC channels to the Etherpad so that
speakers and hosts can find them.

To volunteer as an Internet Relay Chat monitor, [let us know your availability
at emacsconf-org@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering as
an IRC monitor) (or privately:
[emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering
as an IRC monitor)) and we'll schedule you in.

### Pad scribe

Do you like taking notes? Volunteer to summarize interesting points
and links from the EmacsConf talks and Q&A sessions to the Etherpad so
that people can review them afterwards.

To volunteer as a pad scribe, 
[let us know your availability at emacsconf-org@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering
as a pad scribe) (or privately: [emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering
as a pad scribe)) and we'll schedule you in.

### Host

As the host, you can help speakers answer questions more easily by
reading the questions out loud from the pad or from IRC. That also
makes sure that the questions make it into the recording.

To volunteer as a host,
[let us know your availability at emacsconf-org@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering as a host) (or privately:
[emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org?subject=Volunteering as a host)) and we'll schedule you in.

# Got other ideas?

[We'd love to hear from you!](mailto:emacsconf-org@gnu.org) (or privately:
[emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org](mailto:emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org))