FOSS4GUK 2020 Online - Lessons Learnt - Revision history

Wiki-Ajggeoger: ajggeoger - added thoughts, corrected typos

2020-07-14T15:30:32Z

ajggeoger - added thoughts, corrected typos

Wiki-Antonys: /* Finances */

2020-07-03T14:46:56Z

Finances

Wiki-Antonys: /* What worked */

2020-07-03T14:46:02Z

What worked

Wiki-Antonys: /* What didn't work so well */

2020-07-03T14:41:37Z

What didn't work so well

Wiki-Antonys: /* What worked */

2020-07-03T14:38:44Z

What worked

Wiki-Antonys: /* What worked */

2020-07-03T14:37:36Z

What worked

Wiki-Antonys: /* Hosts and co-hosts */

2020-07-03T14:35:33Z

Hosts and co-hosts

Stevenfeldman: /* Recording and publishing */

2020-06-23T16:26:06Z

Recording and publishing

Stevenfeldman: /* What didn't work */

2020-06-23T16:25:05Z

What didn't work

Stevenfeldman: /* Event organisation */

2020-06-23T16:24:47Z

Event organisation

@@ Line 50: / Line 50: @@
 ==== We considered ====
-* webex (we had an offer of a free account from a sponsor) - problems with audio, uncertain linux support, limit on numbers
+* webex (we had an offer of a free account from a 'sponsor') - during a test we encountered problems with audio, uncertain linux support, and a possible limit on numbers
-* hopin.to - a virtual conference application, unfortunately the demo the we attended was not successful and we did not feel comfortable taking the risk on a new service but it looks promising for the future
+* hopin.to - a virtual conference application, unfortunately the demo we attended was not successful and we did not feel comfortable taking the risk on a new service, but it looks promising for the future
 * several other services that did not seem to fit our needs
 * jitsi - our experience of using the free hosted version left us uncomfortable with jitsi as platform for a large event with 3 streams. None of us had the experience or access to hardware and bandwidth to consider running a large self-hosted version of jitsi. We were also concerned about how we could control access or restrict anyone breaching our CoC
-* several of us had experience of running large meetings on zoom and were confident that we could host the event on zoom and leverage it's capabilities.
+* several of us had experience of running large meetings on Zoom and were confident that we could host the event on zoom and leverage it's capabilities.
 ==== What we learnt ====
-* zoom worked as anticipated. We had no major technical problems and as far as we know very few participants experienced problems, zoom offers clients for Linux, Mac and Windows, iOS and Android.
+* Zoom worked as anticipated. We had no major technical problems and as far as we know very few participants experienced problems. Zoom offers clients for Linux, Mac and Windows, iOS and Android and we did find that there were some minor functional differences between the proprietary OS software and open OS app.
-* we were able to manage participants by muting everyone on entry and restricting chat within the app to messages to one of the hosts and from the hosts to the whole audience.
+* We were able to manage participants by muting everyone on entry and restricting chat within the app to messages to one of the hosts and from the hosts to the whole audience.
-* the recording worked well, a co-host was asked to remind the host to start and stop the recording for each session to keep videos at a manageable size
+* The recording worked well, a co-host was asked to remind the host to start and stop the recording for each session to keep videos at a manageable size
-* we saved all of the chat transcripts as part of our CoC policy (fortunately unnecessary)
+* We saved all of the chat transcripts as part of our CoC policy (fortunately unnecessary)
 We purchased:
@@ Line 74: / Line 74: @@
 It is unclear whether we would have been better off purchasing zoom webinar licenses rather than large meetings.
-We were aware that the zoom meetings could have been streamed to youtube but we did not see any significant benefit from doing that.
+We were aware that the Zoom meetings could have been streamed to YouTube but we did not see any significant benefit from doing that. In fact it could have pulled attendees away from the main conference.
 ==== Options for the future ====
@@ Line 80: / Line 80: @@
 We have received some retrospective suggestions for alternative tech approaches to running an online event. Hopefully others will be inspired to run further online FOSS4G events and they will experiment with these.
-Our choices were based on a need for a low effort tech approach given our small team and pressures on our time. Despite the poor publicity that zoom had received re security during the COVID crisis we found that the security features available were sufficient for our needs.
+Our choices were based on a need for a low effort tech approach given our small team and pressures on our time. Despite the poor publicity that Zoom had received re security during the COVID crisis we found that the security features available were sufficient for our needs.
 === Eventbrite ===
@@ Line 100: / Line 100: @@
 === Twitter ===
-We used twitter as our main channel for publicity prior to the event. It is important to recognise that not everyone is on twitter, future events should consider what other channels to use for communication with potential participants.
+We used Twitter as our main channel for publicity prior to the event. It is important to recognise that not everyone is on Twitter, and future events should consider what other channels to use for communication with potential participants. One or two posts were replicated on LinkedIn but there are no statistics to show how many attendees signed up because of this.
-We used twitter on the day for announcements, publicity and encouraged the participants to chat via twitter.
+We used Twitter on the day for announcements, publicity and encouraged the participants to chat via Twitter.
 == Event organisation ==
@@ Line 113: / Line 113: @@
 * For each stream of the event we had a host (one of the organising team + Nick Bearman) and co-host (volunteers).
-* The [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hlNl1EhbWa4ZjpXvsxz_V9Rid2VpIPmcnKBQ5089Jkg/edit?usp=sharing Host Guide] provided detailed guidance for hosts and co-hosts on how to run the session on zoom, detailed settings and what to do in the event of a code of conduct violation or other issue. This doc evolved as we ran a couple of trial sessions with volunteers.
+* The [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hlNl1EhbWa4ZjpXvsxz_V9Rid2VpIPmcnKBQ5089Jkg/edit?usp=sharing Host Guide] provided detailed guidance for hosts and co-hosts on how to run the session on Zoom, detailed settings and what to do in the event of a code of conduct violation or other issue. This doc evolved as we ran a couple of trial sessions with volunteers.
-* We recruited volunteers in the initial stages, though about half of those who put themselves forward dropped out or didn't respond later in the process. The main task for volunteering was co-hosting
+* We recruited volunteers in the initial stages, though about half of those who put themselves forward dropped out or didn't respond later in the process. The main task for volunteering was co-hosting.
-* Because of a shortage of volunteers, we targetted people we knew to recruit the last three or so, and we had one reserve who wasn't needed
+* Because of a shortage of volunteers, we targeted people we knew to recruit the last three or so, and we had one reserve who wasn't required.
-* We held a couple of briefing/test sessions for all volunteers on Zoom, and this also enabled us to get to know them a bit as well as test their tech
+* We held a couple of briefing/test sessions for all volunteers on Zoom, and this also enabled us to get to know them a bit as well as test their tech.
-* On the day, the co-hosts were effectively 'reserve hosts', and on a few occasions, had to step in because the host had connection or other issues
+* On the day, the co-hosts were effectively 'reserve hosts', and on a few occasions, had to step in because the host had connection or other issues.
 === Recording and publishing ===
@@ Line 129: / Line 129: @@
 === What worked ===
-* We kept to schedule throughout the day
+* We kept to schedule throughout the day.
-* The 10 minute gaps between sessions stopped the day being too frantic
+* The 10 minute gaps between sessions stopped the day being too frantic.
-* We kept the 4 streams open for the whole day and swapped hosts to give everyone a break. This avoided having to share login details and seemed to work well
+* We kept the 4 streams open for the whole day and swapped hosts to give everyone a break. This avoided having to share login details and seemed to work well.
-* Zoom proved to be adequate for our requirements, we had no trolling or security issues
+* Zoom proved to be adequate for our requirements, we had no trolling or security issues.
-* Speakers seemed happy presenting on zoom although most commented that presenting to a screen was very different to being in front of an audience.
+* Speakers seemed happy presenting on Zoom although most commented that presenting to a screen was very different to being in front of an audience.
-* Restricting the chat to participants to hosts only prevented too much distraction.
+* Restricting the chat to "participants to hosts only" prevented too much distraction.
 * Hosts received questions via chat and asked them on behalf of participants, this enabled us to get through more questions than if we had virtually "handed the mike" to the questioners. We think it also encouraged some less confident people (and those for whom English is a second language) to ask questions.
-* Co-hosts were available as backup to hosts, able to step in if needed (which it was in some cases)
+* Co-hosts were available as backup to hosts, able to step in if needed (which it was in some cases).
-* The volunteers were from a range of locations, and a number hadn't been involved in FOSS4G before - so it was a great way to introduce new people
+* The volunteers were from a range of locations, and a number hadn't been involved in FOSS4G before - so it was a great way to introduce new people.
-* We kept the website simple (in Markdown on the OSGoe:UK site) and manually updated, with no app. This made it easy to update through the lifecycle of the conference, adding links to slides and recordings
+* We kept the website simple (in Markdown on the OSGeo:UK site) and manually updated, with no app. This made it easy to update through the lifecycle of the conference, adding links to slides and recordings.
-* Hosting the recordings on a dedicated FOSS4G UK channel
+* Hosting the recordings on a dedicated FOSS4G UK channel.
 === What didn't work so well ===
 * A tiny number of people did not get the link info via the eventbrite website for reasons that we don't understand (spam filters possibly) - if they mailed us we provided the link info to them directly.
-* The coffee bar was not heavily used
+* The coffee bar was not heavily used (but the feedback about it was reasonably positive)
-* restricting the chat to participants to hosts only prevented interaction between delegates during and after the talk
+* Restricting the chat to "participants to hosts only" prevented interaction between delegates during and after the talk
 * We had a high level of no-shows. A free sign-up encourages no shows but we wanted to make the event as accessible as possible.
 * We had a low proportion of voluntary donations (<20%)
-* Some people would have preferred there to be a lunch break, that might have been an opportunity to encourage people to try out the coffee bar.
+* Some people would have preferred there to be a lunch break. This might have been an opportunity to encourage people to try out the coffee bar. But with the audiance being global we also needed to maximise the time spent online.
-* In the end we were a bit short of volunteers, and had to strongarm some friends to step in - this was a shame, as it was a great opportunity for new people to get involved. We should perhaps been more specific with the requirements (ie co-hosting), and pushed the volunteering a bit more - it seemed we were OK, but the dropout rate was about 50%
+* In the end we were a bit short of volunteers, and had to strongarm some friends to step in - this was a shame, as it was a great opportunity for new people to get involved. We should perhaps been more specific with the requirements (i.e. co-hosting), and pushed the volunteering a bit more - it seemed we were OK, but the dropout rate was about 50%
 == What would we try to do if we ran another event? ==

@@ Line 30: / Line 30: @@
 * Delegate donations:
 ** OSGeo:UK 63 individual donations - gross £1,810, net after Paypal fees £1,744 (as of 2020-06-20)
-** MapAction ?
+** MapAction c. £600
 == Feedback ==

@@ Line 138: / Line 138: @@
 * Co-hosts were available as backup to hosts, able to step in if needed (which it was in some cases)
 * The volunteers were from a range of locations, and a number hadn't been involved in FOSS4G before - so it was a great way to introduce new people
 === What didn't work so well ===

@@ Line 147: / Line 147: @@
 * We had a low proportion of voluntary donations (<20%)
 * Some people would have preferred there to be a lunch break, that might have been an opportunity to encourage people to try out the coffee bar.
 == What would we try to do if we ran another event? ==

@@ Line 137: / Line 137: @@
 * Hosts received questions via chat and asked them on behalf of participants, this enabled us to get through more questions than if we had virtually "handed the mike" to the questioners. We think it also encouraged some less confident people (and those for whom English is a second language) to ask questions.
 * Co-hosts were available as backup to hosts, able to step in if needed (which it was in some cases)
 === What didn't work so well ===

@@ Line 121: / Line 121: @@
 * We purchased a large amount of cloud storage for recordings in preference to each host recording locally. This enabled the volunteers post-processing the video to access all of the recordings in one place.
 * Our video volunteers topped and tailed each recording with an intro slide and closing slide
-* Video was uploaded to the [http://www.youtube.com/c/FOSS4GUK FOSS4GUK YouTube] on 2020-06-23 and is linked from the [https://uk.osgeo.org/foss4gukonline2020/sessions.html programme] on the website
+* Video was uploaded to the [http://www.youtube.com/c/FOSS4GUK FOSS4GUK YouTube] on 2020-06-23 and is linked from the [https://uk.osgeo.org/foss4gukonline2020/sessions.html programme] on the website where we also linked to the slides where provided.
 === What worked ===

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:25, 23 June 2020
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−	=== What didn't work ===	+	=== What didn't work so well ===

	* A tiny number of people did not get the link info via the eventbrite website for reasons that we don't understand (spam filters possibly) - if they mailed us we provided the link info to them directly.		* A tiny number of people did not get the link info via the eventbrite website for reasons that we don't understand (spam filters possibly) - if they mailed us we provided the link info to them directly.