path: root/2023/captions/emacsconf-2023-emacsconf--emacsconforg-how-we-use-org-mode-and-tramp-to-organize-and-run-a-multitrack-conference--sacha-chua--main.vtt

WEBVTT captioned by sachac, checked by sachac

NOTE Intro

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Hi, I'm Sacha Chua. This presentation is a quick tour

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of some of the things we do to run EmacsConf.

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Since 2019, we've run it as an entirely online conference,

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and we do as much of the organization as possible

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within Emacs itself.

NOTE Reasons

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I have three reasons for making this presentation.

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The first is entirely selfish: I need to figure out

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all the stuff I built for last year's EmacsConf,

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since it was a bit of a crazy scramble.

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The second is that I want to show people

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the process of thinking about a complex project,

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looking for little things to automate in Emacs,

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and building things up from small pieces.

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Maybe you'll get some ideas

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and start building tools for yourself, too.

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The third is that you find any of these little tools interesting,

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I want to point you to blog posts and source code

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where you can find out more.

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That way, you don't need to try

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to read and understand everything quickly.

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You can find this presentation and other links

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on the talk page at emacsconf.org/2023/talks/emacsconf.

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There are a lot of different parts,

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so I'll try to use this map to help make sense of it all.

NOTE Information

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There's so much information to work with,

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so it probably doesn't surprise you that we use Org Mode a lot.

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Most of the conference coordination happens over e-mail,

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which I can quickly search with notmuch.

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Some of the information is private,

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like emergency contact numbers.

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We store the talk information in a private Org file.

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I try to put as much as possible

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into our public organizers' notebook

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so that processes and decisions are documented.

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We need a public website.

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We use Ikiwiki to make the webpages

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because we can work with plain text files

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in a Git repository.

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We also make a few static HTML pages

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for things where Ikiwiki is a little awkward.

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We post announcements to mailing lists.

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We also receive submissions in a private mailing list

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so that a number of people can review them.

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We have a backstage area

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for sharing files with volunteers and speakers.

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We share those files publicly when the talk goes live.

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And there's all the other stuff that goes into running EmacsConf,

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like shell scripts and configuration files.

NOTE Properties

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First, speakers propose a talk by sending an e-mail.

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We take the info from that e-mail and store it in Org properties

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so that we can work with it later.

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Every talk is identified with an ID,

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but since `:ID:` and `:CUSTOM_ID:` have special meanings for Org,

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I use `:SLUG:` as the keyword.

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Speakers' names go into the `:NAME:` property,

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and a short version goes into `:NAME_SHORT:`

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so that we can include that in a greeting.

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If people follow the template closely...

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...we can even automatically fill in the Org subtree for their talk.

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We can use regular expressions to recognize the text

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and extract the properties.

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Other properties need to be set by hand.

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I often mess things up when I retype them.

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To avoid typos, I have a function that sets a property

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based on the current region. I bind that to `C-c C-x p`.

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That makes it much easier to set properties

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that couldn't automatically be recognized.

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Sometimes it makes sense to dynamically generate a property

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and then edit it, like with filenames.

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We like to name all the talk files the same way,

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but sometimes special characters in talk titles or speaker names

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need a little tweaking. I'll put that in a `:FILE_PREFIX:` property

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so I can edit it.

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An Org property match can map over all the talk entries

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that don't have `:FILE_PREFIX:` defined.

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We can use that `:FILE_PREFIX:` to rename files from Emacs.

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With that property, we can then rename files using that prefix,

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some extra text, and the file extension.

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Sometimes it's easier to work with the data outside Emacs,

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like when I want to rename files with a shell script.

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If I export a subset of the data as JSON

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or JavaScript Object Notation, using `json-encode`...

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... then I can extract the data with `jq`

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and use it in shell scripts.

NOTE Timezones

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Another example of semi-structured information

00:03:55.640 --> 00:03:57.299
is speaker availability.

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We have speakers from all over the world,

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so we try to schedule live Q&A sessions when they're around.

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That means working with timezones.

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Completion makes it much easier to set the timezone property

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without worrying about typos.

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We can take advantage of the timezone list from the tzc package,

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which works with Unix timezone definitions.

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Then we can convert times using Emacs.

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Using a standard format to encode the availability

00:04:22.640 --> 00:04:24.399
makes it easier to parse.

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I can use those availability constraints to report errors

00:04:27.440 --> 00:04:29.719
when I'm experimenting with the schedule.

NOTE Scheduling

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Now that I have the availability information,

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I can think about scheduling.

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When we were planning EmacsConf 2022, the schedule was so full,

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I wanted to see if we could make it more manageable

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by splitting it up into two tracks.

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It was hard to think about times with just a table.

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I was able to turn the schedule information

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into an SVG to convince the other organizers

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to get on board with this crazy plan.

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And the nice thing about SVGs is that

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they can even be clickable on the wiki.

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Being able to quickly make SVGs of different schedules

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also helped me test scheduling ideas and think out loud.

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I could change the time between talks, the order of the talks,

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and even what tracks the talks were in.

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This was helpful when I needed to include

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some late submissions or availability changes

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and I wanted to ask speakers what they thought.

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They could see the different schedule options themselves.

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It's really nice to have Emacs Lisp support for working with SVGs.

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I also love how I can have an Emacs Lisp block

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in an Org Mode document that updates an SVG

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that I can view right there in my text editor.

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Setting the timezone lets me automatically translate times

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to the speaker's local timezone when I e-mail them.

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That's mostly a matter of using `format-time-string` with a timezone.

NOTE Templates

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There's a lot of text to work with,

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which means templates are super handy.

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There are a number of templating functions for Emacs Lisp,

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like the built-in `tempo.el` or `s-lex-format` from `s.el`.

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I ended up writing something

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that works with property lists (plists) instead,

00:05:58.020 --> 00:06:02.199
since we use plists all over the emacsconf-el library.

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All it does is replace `${variable}`

00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:05.519
with the value from a property list.

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I use this mostly because I have a hard time

00:06:07.560 --> 00:06:11.079
keeping track of which `%s` is which when I use `format`,

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and it's hard to get an overall view if I just use `concat`.

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The code looks for the properties and replaces them with the values.

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I just find it a little easier to think about sometimes.

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Getting all the information is just a matter of going over

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all the talk entries using `org-map-entries`.

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This builds the talk info by running a bunch of functions.

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Some functions get the information from the Org file.

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Other functions use the info already collected.

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This can take a while to do again and again.

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It's useful to `memoize` this function

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when I know I'll be using it a lot,

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like when I export the organizers notebook.

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Memoize caches recent values.

NOTE Wiki

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We combine this templating function

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with the talk information

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to fill in the conference wiki,

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since that's a matter of writing templated strings to files.

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The talk pages are generated once

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and then left alone for manual editing,

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while the navigation is regenerated

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every time we change the details.

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Here are some examples

00:07:05.800 --> 00:07:07.919
of how we fill in the conference wiki.

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We put in the format of the talk, how Q&A works,

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and what the status is.

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Once the talk is live, we include the video

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and the links to the files, too.

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The code is a little bit long,

00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:20.079
but the important part is that

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we fill in a plist with the values we calculate,

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and then we can use `emacsconf-replace-plist-in-string`

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to put that all together.

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The schedule is a little more complicated.

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I wrote an Ikiwiki directive

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so that the markup is more manageable,

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and the Emacs Lisp function uses that.

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The Ikiwiki directive takes all the data and turns it into HTML...

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...so we can use Emacs Lisp to iterate over

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a slightly smaller property list

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and put them into the format Ikiwiki expects.

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It's nice to be able to navigate between talks

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without going back to the schedule page each time.

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This is handled by keeping two extra copies of the list:

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one with the first talk popped off,

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and one with an extra element added to the beginning.

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Then we can use the heads of those lists

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for next/previous links.

NOTE Etherpad

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Links to the next talks are also handy

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on the collaborative Etherpad documents

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that we use for collecting questions, answers, and notes

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during each talk.

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Etherpad has an API...

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...so I can start the pads off with a template

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before the conference.

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I don't want to accidentally overwrite a pad

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that has been manually edited.

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We can save the timestamp of the last modification

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and then compare it before overwriting.

NOTE E-mail

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Templates are also very handy when it comes to e-mail.

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Sometimes we send e-mails one at a time,

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like when we let a speaker know

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that we've received their proposal.

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That's mostly a matter of plugging the talk's properties

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into the right places in the template.

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Sometimes we send e-mails to lots of speakers at the same time,

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like when we send them instructions for uploading their files.

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Instead of sending one e-mail and Bcc-ing everyone,

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or sending people multiple e-mails

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because they have multiple talks,

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I like to draft these as individual e-mails

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to each speaker (or group of speakers,

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if more than one person is associated with a talk).

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That gives me an opportunity to personalize it further.

NOTE BigBlueButton web conferences

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Many speakers answer questions live

00:09:08.120 --> 00:09:10.039
in BigBlueButton web conference rooms.

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Setting up one room per group of speakers

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makes it easy to give the speakers the details

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and associate the recorded video with the talk afterwards.

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For EmacsConf 2023,

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I used Spookfox to control Mozilla Firefox from Emacs

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so that I could automate creating the rooms

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and adding the URLs to the talk properties in my Org file.

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Then I can use mail merge to send each speaker

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the check-in instructions for their specific room.

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Some speakers will take questions by e-mail

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after the conference instead of attending live,

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so we send them shorter instructions

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just in case they want to drop by.

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[Live Q&A sessions]: After the first rush of questions,

00:09:47.800 --> 00:09:50.579
we can open it up for other people to join.

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This is handled by changing the public page

00:09:53.040 --> 00:09:55.119
from one that just refreshes in a loop

00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:58.820
to one that redirects to the actual web conference room.

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Just in case, we also

00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:02.159
generate static copies of those redirects

00:10:02.160 --> 00:10:04.299
so that we can copy them if needed.

00:10:04.300 --> 00:10:06.679
That way, I don't have to count on Emacs being able to

00:10:06.680 --> 00:10:08.120
publish them over TRAMP.

NOTE Shortcuts

00:10:08.121 --> 00:10:11.659
During the conference, I'm often jumping from talk to talk.

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Instead of going to the Org file

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and then searching for the talk,

00:10:14.520 --> 00:10:17.239
I've made a little Hydra with keyboard shortcuts.

00:10:17.240 --> 00:10:19.079
One of these shortcuts lets me

00:10:19.080 --> 00:10:20.959
jump to a talk with completion

00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:24.259
so that I can just type in part of the talk ID,

00:10:24.260 --> 00:10:26.399
title, or speaker name.

00:10:26.400 --> 00:10:28.679
I've also defined some Embark actions

00:10:28.680 --> 00:10:32.079
so that I can act on a talk right from the completion menu.

00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:35.079
For example, I might want to jump to the wiki page

00:10:35.080 --> 00:10:36.699
or e-mail the speaker.

NOTE Logbook

00:10:36.700 --> 00:10:40.099
I can also add notes to a talk while looking at an email,

00:10:40.100 --> 00:10:41.639
like when a speaker lets me know

00:10:41.640 --> 00:10:43.279
that their video will be late.

00:10:43.280 --> 00:10:45.799
Making it easy to add a note turns Emacs into

00:10:45.800 --> 00:10:49.959
a very basic contact relationship management system, or CRM.

00:10:49.960 --> 00:10:52.439
The way this works is that we have a function

00:10:52.440 --> 00:10:55.459
that lists all the email addresses associated with a talk.

00:10:55.460 --> 00:10:57.919
We can then map that over the list of talks,

00:10:57.920 --> 00:10:59.959
look up the author of the current email,

00:10:59.960 --> 00:11:03.679
prompt the user for the talk to add the note to, and add the note.

NOTE Captions

00:11:03.680 --> 00:11:04.679
On to captions.

00:11:04.680 --> 00:11:07.239
We've been doing captions for the last couple of years,

00:11:07.240 --> 00:11:10.419
and now we have a small army of volunteer captioners.

00:11:10.420 --> 00:11:12.679
They get early access to the recorded talks

00:11:12.680 --> 00:11:16.159
and fix up misrecognized words, format keyboard shortcuts

00:11:16.160 --> 00:11:19.579
to follow Emacs conventions, spell names correctly,

00:11:19.580 --> 00:11:21.839
and do all sorts of other wonderful things.

00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:24.399
One of our evil plans with EmacsConf

00:11:24.400 --> 00:11:28.359
is to get cool stuff out of people's heads into videos

00:11:28.360 --> 00:11:32.039
and also make captions so that those videos can be searched.

00:11:32.040 --> 00:11:34.999
To make that possible, we first need a backstage area

00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:36.919
where volunteers can get the files.

00:11:36.920 --> 00:11:39.839
This is just a simple password-protected directory

00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:43.739
with a static HTML page that lists the talks by status

00:11:43.740 --> 00:11:46.379
and shows the files related to each talk.

00:11:46.380 --> 00:11:49.899
As a talk moves through the process, I update its TODO state

00:11:49.900 --> 00:11:51.359
and republish this index.

00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:54.519
Talks that are ready to be captioned show up in that section,

00:11:54.520 --> 00:11:58.179
and volunteers can call dibs on the talk they're interested in.

00:11:58.180 --> 00:12:00.979
That's all done with a function that formats the information

00:12:00.980 --> 00:12:04.319
and uses TRAMP to save the file directly to the server.

00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:06.679
You can find more details on our captioning process

00:12:06.680 --> 00:12:09.039
at emacsconf.org/captioning.

00:12:09.040 --> 00:12:13.219
I like using subed to edit subtitles within Emacs.

NOTE Crontabs and playing the talks

00:12:13.220 --> 00:12:16.059
Let's talk about actually playing the talks.

00:12:16.060 --> 00:12:19.559
For EmacsConf 2022, we tried using Emacs timers

00:12:19.560 --> 00:12:20.939
to run the talks.

00:12:20.940 --> 00:12:24.079
It turns out that you can't call TRAMP from a timer

00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:26.719
when you're already using TRAMP from another timer

00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:27.799
at the same time.

00:12:27.800 --> 00:12:29.719
I thought about just tweaking the schedule

00:12:29.720 --> 00:12:31.799
so that we always start things at different times,

00:12:31.800 --> 00:12:35.119
but I figured there's probably a more elegant way to do this.

00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:37.519
This year, I'm planning to experiment with using cron

00:12:37.520 --> 00:12:39.599
to start talks on autopilot.

00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:42.479
The shell scripts will take care of playing the videos...

00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:44.839
... figuring out the appropriate Q&A...

00:12:44.840 --> 00:12:47.579
... and joining the web conference if needed.

00:12:47.580 --> 00:12:49.599
We just need to format the information...

00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:52.219
...and install it as the track's crontab.

00:12:52.220 --> 00:12:54.079
It's useful to be able to switch tracks

00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:55.879
to manual mode independently,

00:12:55.880 --> 00:12:57.899
just in case things go haywire.

00:12:57.900 --> 00:13:00.119
Then we can start everything manually.

00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:02.799
I can also manually update a talk's status,

00:13:02.800 --> 00:13:06.519
like when the host tells me that it's okay to open up the Q&A.

00:13:06.520 --> 00:13:08.719
The shell scripts we run from the crontab

00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:11.279
can also update the talk status themselves.

NOTE Transitions

00:13:11.280 --> 00:13:14.319
Then a bunch of things automatically happen based on

00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:15.599
the talk status changes.

00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:18.959
This uses `org-after-todo-state-change-hook`.

00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:20.359
We get the talk information

00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:22.519
and pass it to a list of functions.

00:13:22.520 --> 00:13:26.279
Internet Relay Chat or IRC is an easy way for people

00:13:26.280 --> 00:13:29.139
to join the conversation around EmacsConf.

00:13:29.140 --> 00:13:31.799
We announce a talk whenever it changes state.

00:13:31.800 --> 00:13:33.599
For example, when a talk starts,

00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:36.039
we post the URLs to the talk webpage

00:13:36.040 --> 00:13:39.439
and the Etherpad for questions. We change the topic as well,

00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:41.879
so anyone can see the current talk's information

00:13:41.880 --> 00:13:43.039
even if they're a little late.

00:13:43.180 --> 00:13:45.799
This is easy to do with a little bit of Emacs Lisp

00:13:45.800 --> 00:13:48.519
because (of course!) Emacs has an IRC client.

00:13:48.520 --> 00:13:49.879
In fact, it has several.

NOTE Wrapping up

00:13:49.880 --> 00:13:53.139
It seems like a lot of automation and Emacs Lisp,

00:13:53.140 --> 00:13:56.899
but really, all of this was just built up little by little.

00:13:56.900 --> 00:13:59.279
And tinkering with this is *fun*, you know?

00:13:59.280 --> 00:14:01.259
It's like always being able to ask,

00:14:01.260 --> 00:14:03.300
"Hey, wouldn't it be cool if..."

00:14:03.301 --> 00:14:05.279
and then actually being able to go and do it.

00:14:05.280 --> 00:14:07.999
Sometimes it feels like EmacsConf is an excuse

00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:10.199
for me to play with Emacs.

00:14:10.200 --> 00:14:11.999
It's pretty amazing what you can do

00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:13.799
by combining a bunch of pieces.

00:14:13.800 --> 00:14:16.719
A way to store slightly-structured information.

00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:18.879
A way to get it out again. Templates.

00:14:18.880 --> 00:14:20.679
TRAMP, for working with remote files

00:14:20.680 --> 00:14:21.919
and running remote commands.

00:14:21.920 --> 00:14:23.839
A way to talk to a web browser.

00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:25.399
A way to work with SVGs.

00:14:25.400 --> 00:14:27.759
An email client. A chat client.

00:14:27.760 --> 00:14:29.639
You can smoosh them all together

00:14:29.640 --> 00:14:32.699
in a way that you couldn't if they were all separate things.

00:14:32.700 --> 00:14:36.279
The code is in the emacsconf-el repository.

00:14:36.280 --> 00:14:39.119
It's a bit of a tangle because it's accumulating organically

00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:40.879
and I haven't really had the brainspace

00:14:40.880 --> 00:14:42.579
to step back and clean it up.

00:14:42.580 --> 00:14:45.919
But if you spotted anything interesting in this presentation,

00:14:45.920 --> 00:14:48.619
you can go check it out and see what you can scavenge.

00:14:48.620 --> 00:14:50.999
The link and this presentation are available

00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:59.119
from this talk's webpage at emacsconf.org/2023/talks/emacsconf .

00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:05.200
Let's figure out how to make Emacsconf even awesomer next year!