NixCon 2020 Online Edition
- Traditional conference-style talks + demos
- 2 days, starting on the last Friday in October
- Streamed on youtube
- Speakers submit their talk and their preferred/available time blocks
- Each speaker responsible for their own A/V setup to stream
- Organizers & speakers collaborate on timing to make it as smooth as possible
The main goal is consumer-oriented: organize talks and demos and have people show up and view them. This conference structure offers good value with broad reach, no monetary costs, and few unknowns. Minimally this plan can serve as a basic conference. IMO we should target a barebones plan first. Additional aspects or features can always be added later if resources permit.
Historically I believe that NixCon takes place starting on the last Friday in October? So about 3.5 months remain. If we are to succeed in that timeframe we need to move quickly.
Let us discuss the implementation – streaming on youtube. This aspect makes me the most nervous. With many options for streaming (or video conferencing, chat, etc), many criteria by which to choose, and strong opinions, I fear that no matter what is chosen, some portion of the community will be displeased. In my opinion, we should strive to be inclusive while also attempting to balance the practical aspects.
Streaming is the best option for traditional conference-style presentations where a speaker gives a talk. Other online conferences have been successful using this method. Structurally they are both 1-to-many. (“They” meaning streaming as a method and the traditional conference-style talk format.)
youtube +
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Effectively there is no limit on the number of viewers
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Chat is built-in (for audience feedback like a Q&A period)
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It requires no additional infrastructure
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It “works today” and has few unknowns from a risk perspective
youtube Δ
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The biggest burden is on the presenters (A/V equip + internet)
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youtube itself is not a free and open platform
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The conference would require a youtube channel to host the stream
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Using chat requires staffing moderators
Now with all that said… This plan does not include attempts to recreate in-person aspects of a conference. It has been well said here and other threads that the best part of a conference is often the chance interactions and random discussions one may experience. I agree those things are good and nice and I would like to see something happen, but for me, their scope is too large with too many unknowns. The community can and should self-organize to fill those needs.
If someone is already working on planning and organizing NixCon 2020 please let me know and I’ll help. It would make me really happy to be a part of some sort of large nix gathering this year. I am not the most active person in the nix community up to this point and may be out of line here so I apologize if I’m being a distraction. Anyways my main intent here is just to get a discussion going and see if we can put together a conference this year.