Timothy Fitz wrote:
I don't care much for "parallel tracks" myself, because I want to hear
basically everything. But we had more proposals of higher quality
this year than ever before, so it came down to scheduling more talks
in parallel than ever before too, or rejecting perfectly good
proposals.
Will there be recordings of any of these presentations? There are quite a few times when I want to be at all three tracks at the same time.
There are currently loose plans to have each session recorded. This will, however, require massive volunteer effort which so far nobody has offered to coordinate, so unless someone steps up to the plate with a sound plan to ensure that at least the initial capture takes place this may remain a pipe dream (there are limits to the chairman's powers that he is starting to treat as actual rather than theoretical ;-)
What's actually required?
Someone needs to start a resource, with a copy of the schedule ( and a Wiki page might do, its source can be lifted directly from the Wiki source of http://www.python.org/moin/PyConDC2005/Schedule) that allows volunteers to sign up to record specific sessions.
We also need a release form that speakers can sign to allow the recording to take place and for it to be published under a suitable Creative Commons license.
We need advice on file formats and software for Linux, Windows and Mac (plus any other platforms that may be used): experience says that apparently it's possible to make acceptable recordings with an external microphone such as a lapel mike from the front of the room, without involving the University. If someone wants to liaise about electronic feeds I'll certainly facilitate interaction with GWU as long as the cost is acceptable (zero would be best).
Finally we need someone coordinating at the conference to make sure this all happens, that the release forms are collected, and that the sound files are made available - probably on www.python.org.
This is a /community conference/, guys. I *know* the Python community can collectively take this task and eat it for breakfast, but please don't believe it will happen as a result of a few newsgroup posts saying what a nice idea it would be. Things don't happen that way, and I have the grey hairs to prove it. Please, make this happen!
regards Steve -- Steve Holden http://www.holdenweb.com/ Python Web Programming http://pydish.holdenweb.com/ Holden Web LLC +1 703 861 4237 +1 800 494 3119
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