I am not sure whether this is a good idea: could we organize monthly video meetings (where we talk about photography and open source software)? Something like a “social night (morning, afternoon, day)”? Has nobody here had this idea so far or are some already doing it?
I would imagine it like this: there is some kind of program, like several people holding short presentations (5 minutes or so, the most obvious topic would be a workflow presentation), and we discuss them. I mean not like a real conference but more casual.
I would think that we would need to limit the number of the participants since resources are not unlimited (I heard that free video conferencing software such as Jitsi does not work well if there are too many participants). And participating/discussing works better if there are not too many participants. I could try to organize that, but I kind of have the feeling that the number of participants would not be a problem (yet).
What I would want to avoid: one person talking and the others participating via chat. I think it should be as close to a real physical social night/meeting as possible.
I had this idea because there are still some months left until Libre Graphics Meeting 2021 and I would not be surprised if it was cancelled once again (because of the pandemic).
Hi Anna,
sounds like a good idea. I probably won’t be able to participate regularly due to family constraints, but I support the idea!
Regards from Bariloche,
Guillermo
Ok, thanks for the feedback. No extreme enthusiasm but I think we already have enough participants for the first meeting. 3 people answered they would participate and another 2 liked my post. I think we would also have some “surprise participants” if we publish the actual link to the Jitsi room.
So, I understand the majority of the people who reacted to this post is either in Europe or in the Americas.
Please tell us what you would like to talk about/present and what time would be the most convenient for you.
How do we find a date that is good for as many participants as possible?
As far as I am concerned:
I think I would like to show how I fixed this photo in darktable:
And, if there is time, maybe some other edit with ART.
My schedule is usually quite flexible, especially now, because of the lockdown… but I cannot participate between 11 pm and 7 am Central European Time.
I suggest that we make the first meeting in about 2 weeks, between 23 and 29 November.
If we need topics, something that’s cropped up from time to time in the forums here is effective use of Hugin; I’d be happy to run through my workflow (I’m assuming the software you’re planning on using supports screen sharing?)
If there are problems with Jitsi, I could offer my private apache openmeetings server as backup. For small groups it should work fine. Never tested for larger crowds.
I actually really like this idea and had been thinking of something along similar lines previously.
If there are a few people interested it would be fun to have a social gathering casually. There could be multiple meetings to accommodate other time zones and availability as well.
If we wanted the best participation then I would suggest a weekend. Especially as there’s about an 11 hour difference in common time zones for forum members (from UTC-8 for folks like @paperdigits to UTC+3 for easter Europe).
It’s also possible to split meetings and try to have a separate set for the Americas, and another for Europe?
Jitsi might work fine for up to a handful of attendees (or maybe more - I haven’t really tried to push it past a dozen or so people). Worth a try at the very least!
I, on the other hand, am the opposite of shy. So I’m happy to be loud and boisterous for everyone. (Of course, anyone from an LGM or SCaLE knows this already…)
I would avoid splitting at least until there is some critical mass. Maybe set a time more convenient for Europe for the first meeting (like 7pm UTC+3, 8am UTC-8), and then something more convenient for the Americas for the second meeting the month after (like 12pm UTC-8, 11pm UTC+3).
Agreed. Never tested beyond 4 or 5 participants.
If it ends up being too much bandwidth for the free Jitsi server, I would guess there are participants here with access to pay Zoom or Google Meet accounts (I have GSuite through the University), and those support more than a hundred participants without problems.
Although, as @betazoid said, something above 10-15 participants would probably make participating and discussing a bit more difficult and chaotic.
You know, as a test a sort of social hangout might be fun. No worry about format, presentation, or rules. Just open up a jitsi meeting and try it out. (At least you’ll get a feeling for quality and suitability for more people).
I’m open to trying this out maybe this weekend or in the evenings in the Americas.
On a small side note for those not aware, some of us in the admin for the site have moved onto Matrix for communications. There’s tight integrations that make it very useful (and apps for all the things) and one of them is jitsi for videocons. Always feel free to join us in the #PIXLS.US room there.
(Of course, anyone from an LGM or SCaLE knows this already…)
(At least you’ll get a feeling for quality and suitability for more people).