[OSGeo-Conf] [Board] FOSS4G Boston 2017 Financial Wrapup

Drees, Bastian Bastian.Drees at tib.eu
Fri Jan 19 02:37:31 PST 2018


Hi everyone,

 

I am very excited to learn that OSGeo is going to set up a video committee. I’ll be happy to help wherever possible.

 

Thank you very much, Michael, for sharing the LOC’s experience with the video production at last year’s FOSS4G in Boston. Great that you managed to put up all the videos. Now, there are basically two possibilities of how to get those videos to the AV-Portal. 

 

1.       TIB downloads the videos from vimeo.

2.       LOC provides the videos + metadata via ftp.

 

Pros and cons in short: 

1.       Pros: easy procedure with no (or little) work for LOC. Cons: We will not have any metadata or links to related material (slides, project websites, articles, source code) and it will take a while as some basic metadata has to be added manually.

2.       Pros: good metadata and possibility of linking to related material. Cons: more difficult procedure and some work for LOC.

 

However, for the second option the great people of the Chaos Computer Club C3VOC-Team (Andi in particular) have written a small script that automatically extracts the metadata and uploads both metadata and videos to our ftp. Maybe you could easily adapt the script to your system. https://github.com/voc/publishing/tree/feature/tib-upload 

 

Just tell me what you would prefer and I will organize all that’s necessary.

 

Have a good weekend,

Bastian

 

Von: Michael Terner [mailto:mgt at appgeo.com] 
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 17. Januar 2018 22:43
An: Astrid Emde (OSGeo); Guido Stein; Ashley Tardif
Cc: OSGeo Board; conference; Mark Iliffe; Drees, Bastian
Betreff: Re: [OSGeo-Conf] [Board] FOSS4G Boston 2017 Financial Wrapup

 

+ Guido, Ashley

 

Hey Astrid:

Sorry for the delayed reply. And, congrats on earning your Board seat! Love to see the new blood on the Board making noise. ;-)

 

YES, we love your idea. And, we love the idea of a longer term partnership with someone like Chaos Computer Club. As I reported on the list in response to a post from Jeff we reached out them after Bonn as we were incredibly impressed with their work. Sadly, they were not up for making the trip across the Atlantic. But perhaps a formal partnership might make that feasible; or they could assist in choosing another like-minded partner. Indeed, technical assistance would be valuable too.

 

As you know from my post, we have strong feelings about this topic and feel like we learned some good lessons that we can share, with the biggest of them all being that Do It Yourself (DIY) is very, very hard; and we learned that what groups like Chaos Club do in making it look easy is not at all easy. So yes, the following are all part of what OSGeo can do to make this work better, and to relieve the LOC of a difficult task that largely benefits OSGeo more than it does the LOC since we're really most focused on making a great conference for those who can attend:

*	Best practices for what's needed to record and/or stream
*	Technical assistance in specifying the work; selecting a partner
*	Direct help in funding a partner/contractor as in many parts of the world, those costs are high
*	And ideally, access to an approved partner like Chaos Club 

Don't hesitate to ask us other questions as we'd be pleased to lend our perspective and lessons learned. Speaking of which, we've started posting those to the Wiki <https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2017_Lessons_Learned>  and will continue through the end of the month (nothing on videoing yet).

 

All the best and thanks for taking this on!

 

MT

 

PS: While we finally have completed processing all the "good video" (200+ sessions), which is available here <http://2017.foss4g.org/post_conference/> , we are mindful that they're posted in Vimeo, and that we still want to make sure we get them to TIB for permanent archive. Guido will be our point of contact for getting that done.

 

 

On Tue, Jan 16, 2018 at 12:08 PM, Astrid Emde (OSGeo) <astrid_emde at osgeo.org> wrote:

Hello Michael, hello Mark and Msilikale from FOSS4G 2018 and Vasile from FOSS4G 2019,

@michael thanks for your feedback on recording and the suggestion to get OSGeo involved in the video recording.

At our last board meeting in december 2017 when we set up the budget for 2018 we talked about the recording too.

See Meeting notes
* https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2017-12-23#Draft_Budget_Read_through

My action item from this meeting was to answer your mail and start setting up a technical video team to be available to LOC.

The idea is that OSGeo
* helps setting up a longterm support video team that helps FOSS4G LOCs with the big challenge of providing streaming/recording/publishing
* gives financial supports to setup a technical video committee
* also to support the video committee with their expenses for travelling or buying/shipping equipement
* works on a process that can be repeated at every conference

The committee could be similar to the c3voc (https://c3voc.de/) or work together with them and TIB (to publish the videos at TIB AV Portal (https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/TIB).

Here ist he new wiki page for this video committee. I will send a mail to OSGeo-Discuss to encourage people to get involved:
https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Video_Committee

Hope you like the idea.

@Mark and @Msilikale - would you like to try out this idea for Dar es Salaam already? Or do you already have a plan for your recordings?

FOSSGIS 2018 will be in March in Bonn and I hope we can have a meeting with the c3voc team (they do the recording) and Bastian Drees from TIB and some people from OSGeo to discuss the idea.

There is already a chapter about streaming & videos in the conference cookbook (could be updated when the new committee is setup)

https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_Handbook#Streaming_and_archiving_presentations_and_keynotes

Astrid



Am 2017-12-23 18:46, schrieb Mark Iliffe:

	Michael, Jeff,
	
	I must confess this is something at the top of my mind also - both in
	terms of ensuring we have a record of the event but also to balance
	this within our budget. I look forward to the new year and request
	that the OSGeo board discusses this, not just for 2018, but also for
	FOSS4Gs going forward.
	
	Many thanks,
	
	Mark

		On 23 Dec 2017, at 15:00, Michael Terner <mgt at appgeo.com> wrote:
		
		Jeff:
		Thanks for the recognition and your thoughts on the videoing.
		
		Indeed, Guido and I were tremendously impressed with how the Chaos
		Computer Club (CCC) handled the video'ing of FOSS4G Bonn 2016. We
		reached out to Till and his team to understand the costs they had
		incurred. After hearing from Till, we concluded that it would have
		been cost effective to pay for travel from Germany and lodging in
		Boston and have CCC provide similar video services to us. Guido
		reached out to CCC and we earnestly pursued that option.
		Unfortunately, CCC determined, and conveyed to us in a professional
		manner, that they would be unable to provide services to Boston. So
		we tried.
		
		Indeed, one of the benefits of having OSGeo involved could be the
		pursuit of a reliable and consistent approach and a pool of
		suppliers, like CCC, that might be engaged to help. Indeed, we had
		to learn everything from the ground up.
		
		Happy holidays to all!
		
		MT
		
		On Fri, Dec 22, 2017 at 10:02 PM, Jeff McKenna
		<jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com> wrote:
		Dear Michael, Ashley, Guido,
		
		Thank you for such an amazing Christmas present to the foundation!
		The whole BLOC should be immensely proud.  And such a financial
		contribution to OSGeo, truly the whole community thanks you.
		
		I am also very happy to hear of the creation of your new local OSGeo
		chapter.
		
		Regarding your proposal of OSGeo handling the video records of
		FOSS4G events, I have also been thinking of this; I agree that
		streaming, recording, and fast publishing of talks is now mandatory
		for events.  I have spoken to Volker and others about the streaming
		and sharing of FOSSGIS event talks (I have for years now been
		impressed with the group behind that for FOSSGIS).  I believe that
		group (http://c3voc.de/) handles events, sometimes for free: even if
		I am wrong on the cost, I think this is one of the possible groups
		that we could work with for FOSS4G (and get a cost quote if need
		be).  Talks for FOSSGIS are often archived and posted minutes after
		each talk.
		
		I agree that OSGeo should now step in and make sure this is handled.
		Especially with the FOSS4G-Boston financial contribution, I hope we
		can now consider to set this up for 2018, 2019 and beyond.
		
		Finally, the spirit of FOSS4G is about giving the spotlight to a
		community and group, planting a seed or just helping things grow;
		the Boston community took the spotlight and showed the whole
		geospatial world what innovation and community really is.  Thank
		you!
		
		Merry Christmas to you and your families Michael, Guido, Ashley,
		all,
		
		-jeff
		
		On 2017-12-22 11:51 AM, Michael Terner wrote:
		Earlier this week we wrapped up the finances of FOSS4G Boston and
		closed our accounts with our fantastic professional conference
		organizer (Delaney Meeting & Event Management, DMEM). And with Dar
		es Salaam's call for papers out there, and the selection of
		Bucharest for 2019 announced, we felt the time was right to share
		these results, and one important observation/suggestion. Suffice to
		say it's the holiday "giving season" we are extremely proud and
		pleased to be able to give back a substantial financial contribution
		to OSGeo. Here's what has happened:
		
		* Earlier this week the OSGeo Treasurer, Michael Smith, confirmed
		that
		a sum of *$178,132.29* was deposited from DMEM to OSGeo. This
		sum
		represented the following:
		o 100% repayment of the *$70,000* advance that OSGeo provided
		the
		Boston Team.
		o A surplus payment of *$108,132.29*
		o In addition, the Boston Team earlier provided OSGeo
		*$8,241.88*
		via an earlier cash payment and in-kind services provided in
		Boston (for a*total surplus of $116,374.17*)
		* In addition, and as per our original proposal, we have also been
		able to provide appx. $20,000 to endow a local non-profit -
		Technocation - to become a local/regional OSGeo chapter. Our
		Co-Chair, Guido Stein, will direct that non-profit.
		
		We wish Mark and Msilikale as well as Vasile similar luck and
		success this year, and next.
		
		Last, the Boston Team would like to make a suggestion for use of
		some of these funds for the Conference Dev and OSGeo Board to
		consider. Simply put,*we believe that OSGeo should fund the creation
		of, and distribution of the video record* (and/or any streaming).
		The video component of the conference was by far the most
		complicated and difficult part of our experience; and that is
		certainly part of our delay in posting the videos /which we are
		still doing/. Indeed, *this week we posted an addition 30 videos for
		a total of 182* that are now online

		<http://2017.foss4g.org/post_conference/#slides [1]>. Here is a

		
		quick summary of our experience, observations and rationale for this
		recommendation:
		
		1. Videoing a conference of this magnitude is a significant
		endeavor.
		We had 11 rooms running concurrent sessions plus the main
		plenary
		hall for keynotes. Over 230 sessions needed to be recorded.
		2. Not only do you need to record the videos, but they must be post
		processed/edited and then posted where they can be accessed. We
		grossly under-estimated how much time and attention this takes.
		3. Given the magnitude of the job, the cost is relatively high. Our
		quote for having a third party do it was close to $50,000. It
		could
		be lower in other locations, but it will still be multiple
		five-figures of expenditure.
		4. Given the cost, and the financial insecurity we had before all
		registrations and sponsors came in, we chose a lower cost "do it
		yourself" approach. This involved buying equipment, and running
		the
		equipment with volunteers. And it was time consuming and
		extremely
		stressful, and it has ultimately resulted in the delays in the
		post-processing of the videos.
		5. If we knew the financial success we were to achieve, there is
		/no
		question/ that we would have chosen to spend the $50,000. And I
		say
		this as I know - via the 2019 RFP Q&A - that Vasile is
		considering
		using our approach, and indeed he is welcome to our equipment,
		which
		will be 2 years old by the time Bucharest comes around.
		6. But here's the rub from the Chair's and LOC's point of view:
		*  From our vantage, our main job was to create an amazing
		event,
		/in Boston,/ for the people and sponsors who could attend
		(and
		ultimately paid for the event).
		* The video'ing task was very important, but very secondary to
		making the in-person experience great.
		* We would argue that the video'ing is /more important/ to
		OSGeo
		than it was to the BLOC itself. OSGeo wants to create the
		permanent record; OSGeo wants to broaden the reach to people
		who
		couldn't come to Boston. The LOC is more focused on those
		who
		/could /come; OSGeo is legitimately more interested in those
		who
		could /not /come to Boston.
		* So, it seems to make sense that OSGeo should /actually pay/
		for
		the videoing (or for some portion of the videoing).
		Something
		like a $30,000 grant to the chosen LOC and dedicated to
		funding
		videoing would make good sense. This will help relieve
		stress
		and to help ensure financial success for the LOC while
		ensuring
		there is high quality videoing occurring and the results are
		posted in a timely fashion.
		
		We would strongly urge the consideration of this proposal as we know
		that Boston's financial contribution to OSGeo helps to make this
		increasingly feasible.
		
		All of us thank you for the opportunity to show what the Boston and
		OSGeo communities could do together. We will be forever grateful for
		this experience. Happy holidays to all!
		
		Sincerely, MT & the BLOC
		
		--
		Michael Terner
		/Executive Vice President /

		Direct: _617-447-2468 [2] _
		Main: _617-447-2400 [3]_
		
		www.AppGeo.com [4] <http://www.appgeo.com/>
		
		_______________________________________________
		Board mailing list
		Board at lists.osgeo.org
		https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board [5]

	
	--
	
	Michael Terner
	
	_Executive Vice President _
	Direct: 617-447-2468
	
	Main: 617-447-2400
	
	www.AppGeo.com [4]
	
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-- 
Astrid Emde
Charter Member
Open Source Geospatial Foundation
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Astrid_Emde





 

-- 

Michael Terner

Executive Vice President 
Direct: 617-447-2468  

Main: 617-447-2400

 

  

www.AppGeo.com <http://www.appgeo.com/>  

 

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