Thoughts about video streaming

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ken McD on December 14, 2009 at 5:22am

Hi Alex,
Could you please point me to this documents list?
I cannot find it.

Thanks.

Ken

Permalink Reply by Alex Kempkens on December 14, 2009 at 8:52am

To many different portals and to many information sources :-)

This is just some notes I like to drop as I had some talks with friends about it.

a) Why is a video stream automatically for free (free of charge)?
I was watching the video streams of the Joomla Developer conference and they had been quite nice. Due to the usstream.tv service they had been provided free of charge. Why?

I would argue that a discounted price (as you do not need food or drinks) would be accepted as well. People that attend a live video stream should be treated as full participants. They do get all information and can choose among the sessions as they like. I see this as an advantage as so many information are giving in the talks that you never can see in the slides. Giving this away for free makes no real sense to me.

What we might need:
Is a good billing portal that allows the people to purchase live stream tickets and those are linked to special video streams (unique passwords). Not sure if there is already a solution for this.

What we might get additionally:
I think this can improve the quality of our talks as the video stream does not need to be paid by the general sponsors but is paid by those who use it.
For all the sponsors we might be able to create even a nice video including some more details as a reference.
It might be possible to find a technic company that uses this as proof of concept and with this stays up to become a sponsor as well. (I'm thinking e.g. about Webex)

b) Can we integrate the viewers inside the conference?
It would be pretty cool if the live participants can also become members of the conference. The twitterwall used during J!Day DE 09 or JDC is nice but actually that's about it. What I would love to have is something like a huge LCD on which you can see the avatars of the participants and may be a simple chat in which they can ask. Not sure how this can be achieved.

Permalink Reply by Amy Stephen on December 14, 2009 at 10:02am

Alex -

A big part of the motivation for speakers to participate (and pay for their travel to the event and other expenses), is that their reputation as experts for the subject matter is enhanced. Having freely available streaming and video helps reinforce that expertise over time and with a broader audience. It's an important factor to strengthening the ecosystem and building up the value of attending International events.

It is also very important to keep as much learning material free of charge, as possible, since many are not able to afford to participate. One of our goals is to spread use of Joomla!. Introducing cost cuts these community members out.

Many who do not attend will watch these videos, and then eventually want to be a part and join in.

In my opinion, free of charge streaming and video is good in this case. If we decide to do the streaming at a charge, please, let's at least release video free of charge. Maybe that's a good compromise? But, I really prefer free for both.

Permalink Reply by Alex Kempkens on December 14, 2009 at 10:41am

Hi Amy,

Amy Stephen said:

A big part of the motivation for speakers to participate (and pay for their travel to the event and other expenses), is that their reputation as experts for the subject matter is enhanced. Having freely available streaming and video helps reinforce that expertise over time and with a broader audience. It's an important factor to strengthening the ecosystem and building up the value of attending International events.

I would say your argument is correct, however I'm wondering if you focused on the right person. I think we should create the conference not for the speaker but for those who pay for it as attendees. They come to get a special information, training or additional information. Speakers should be selected on the fact if they can provide these information and not on the value the conference gives them for their reputation.

It is also very important to keep as much learning material free of charge, as possible, since many are not able to afford to participate. One of our goals is to spread use of Joomla!. Introducing cost cuts these community members out.

I have not said that the material will not be free of charge in the end. But I would argue it is the business value for direct information why you pay for attending a conference. Compromising this value by free live streaming is harming the event as you loose possible fees attendees pay. And it also harms the value you generate for possible sponsors as you can not tell who is all watching the event. So yes I would agree that the information shall be available after the event, but offering live streaming during the event without a serious sponsor or the streaming viewers to pay for it will only be possible in a very poor quality and if this is really support "learning material" I'm not so sure about it.

Many who do not attend will watch these videos, and then eventually want to be a part and join in.

In my opinion, free of charge streaming and video is good in this case. If we decide to do the streaming at a charge, please, let's at least release video free of charge. Maybe that's a good compromise? But, I really prefer free for both.

I don't get this. Do you mean with "video free of charge" a copy of the stream which you can watch afterwards? If so, yes I think this is the minimum we should offer too. It will clearly depend on the fact if we can offer it at all in a good quality.

Alex

Permalink Reply by Amy Stephen on December 14, 2009 at 11:09am

Just to confirm: speakers will be selected based on popular vote from attendees, right? If we are still on that path, then that's how we will ensure the event meets attendees needs - attendees will select the majority of the topics.

If so, then speakers are 'from the people' and are no longer compensated for travel and participation. So, it is very important to make certain they are motivated to do so. That's what I mean by helping build that audience so that sharing their expertise and building their reputation starts to have economic value to them, and is worth the investment to participate.

To be honest, Alex, I don't think we'd lose attendees if streaming were freely available. I think we'd end up building momentum from home watchers who would then be more and more excited and attend future events.

But, if you make video available post event, then my biggest concerns are addressed. If you can build some revenue to help with the event costs, then, maybe that's a good idea. Perhaps we could also add scholarships for streaming for those who can't afford to attend but we want their involvement.

I'm just reluctant to shut anyone out virtually since there really isn't any additional cost to including them, but I hear your points and don't have huge problems provided the video is available after the event.

Permalink Reply by Alex Kempkens on December 14, 2009 at 11:23am

Hi Amy,

Amy Stephen said:

Just to confirm: speakers will be selected based on popular vote from attendees, right? If we are still on that path, then that's how we will ensure the event meets attendees needs - attendees will select the majority of the topics.

I would even go so far that we first collect the topics the people want to have and then look out for speakers. If you just have a selection of talks people offer then you still might miss things people like to listen too.

If so, then speakers are 'from the people' and are no longer compensated for travel and participation. So, it is very important to make certain they are motivated to do so. That's what I mean by helping build that audience so that sharing their expertise and building their reputation starts to have economic value to them, and is worth the investment to participate.

If you are not motivated to attend an event as speaker then why should you hand in a talk? I would argue the motivation for the is a precondition. I hand in speeches only to events I think they are great. My personal reputation is not important for me. My selection is on the audience I can meet. This audience is the value I gain from the event. Just my personal view.

To be honest, Alex, I don't think we'd lose attendees if streaming were freely available. I think we'd end up building momentum from home watchers who would then be more and more excited and attend future events.

Might be, but honest I don't really care about future - I care about the fact that we can finance the next event.

But, if you make video available post event, then my biggest concerns are addressed. If you can build some revenue to help with the event costs, then, maybe that's a good idea. Perhaps we could also add scholarships for streaming for those who can't afford to attend but we want their involvement.

Great.

Yes I have no problem with scholarships as I said already in the thread. The only thing I feel that is important is that those who profit from a scholarship give something back to the Joomla project. And this should happen in advanced. So I argue people qualify for a scholarship if they can present a track record of contribution to the Joomla project. How they contribute I don't care. This can be answering questions in their community, helping Chris with documentations or coding. But it should be visible and beneficial for the project.

I'm just reluctant to shut anyone out virtually since there really isn't any additional cost to including them, but I hear your points and don't have huge problems provided the video is available after the event.

I think there is quite some additional costs related to include them. If you look at the quality of the life streams from JDC you see a huge difference to what the J!Day in Spain did. And in Spain they had a 3 men TV team on site which was doing all the audio and video work for the event. This is effort and it will create costs - we should not underestimate these costs. Specially I would prefer providing good quality in life stream as well as video rather than having a bad quality but free information.

Thanks for your feedback

Alex

Permalink Reply by Amy Stephen on December 14, 2009 at 12:34pm

OK. You convinced me that charging for a higher quality streaming is okay, provided post-event video is released free of charge after the event.

I created a new topic to talk about the Session selection process since I think we might still not be seeing it the same way.I don't want to take this more off-topic. Thanks!