Just wanted to say I really appreciate the effort that was put in to getting these Chicago Pycon talks archived to digital media in that high bandwidth file format we call MPEG, MOV, WMV or whatever we call it. A typical 30 minute talk yields a file of over 7 gigabytes on this hotel venue's equipment.
I know this added dimension is a huge logistical undertaking, and having experienced Vilnius on the ground (loved it) would have to say POV has a lot on its plate already, so why not contract with a professional videography company (VOV?). Not saying that's in the budget, just saying it takes a lot of equipment and labor and isn't something for just volunteers, even if you get volunteers to help. Or maybe I'm wrong. If enough people bring their own video cameras and tripods, it could all happen spontaneously? Let's just say I'm skeptical. Here's another idea though: if video is impractical, go for good audio uptake, which you need anyway if you have big rooms and want decent projection, i.e. you'll need a mic anyway, so definitely grab the audio. Then let individual speakers take their voice tracks and go back to add video themselves, using whatever open (or closed) source magic. Given geek talks so often involve diagrams, source code, flow charts, comical interjections, it's not really a distance shot of the podium, some speaker pacing back and forth, that's most informative anyway. That being said, sometimes the physical delivery *is* a big part of it, so don't let my bias in favor of "cartoons" overly interfere (I call where I live "Toon- Town" and consider cartoons a primary medium). I'm very appreciative of the Pycon2008 channel on YouTube and the opportunity it affords me to (a) develop a larger audience for my own talk (session 53) and (b) catch up on talks that I missed, many of which had content of great interest to me, but I could only get to so many in such a viciously parallel environment (someday we should try a conference with only one track -- only keynotes -- everything else Open Space ala BarCamp (self-organizing -- or not). Anyway, I'm selfishly interested in Vilnius getting media coverage, simply because I'm an avid fan of EuroPythonistas and their multifarious (nefarious?) activities. Vicarious Vilnius is better than no Vilnius. Plus even if I'm there, I like seeing the experience shared with a wider audience. We talk a lot about wanting a more diverse group of attenders, gender- wise, agewise or whatever. Well, chances are a lot of wouldbes and/or wannabes will make up their minds based on what's on YouTube or whatever, just as they do re other "tourist destinations". For this reason, it's good to have all that Flickr fallout after every event. Those savvy enough to follow in this way are among those we'd like to recruit as new Pythoneers, why not. Just today I discovered the holdenweb lookback at the 2007 Pycon in Texas, which I missed, and found myself admiring what a difference videography might make, when it comes to attracting more people to open source in general, not just Python. http://youtube.com/watch?v=MbGQfQFbPjw Also, I've been chatting with Julie at O'Reilly about a subscriber service that'd help geeks with their home office screencasting (mathcasting a subtype). Why reinvent the same wheels over and over? Think clipart. Kirby _______________________________________________ EuroPython mailing list EuroPython@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/europython
