Record ALL meetings/virtual events

We have 3 different types of events/meetings in Backdrop:

Weekly meetings
Virtual user groups
Backdrop LIVE events

Of those, only the weekly meetings are regularly recorded.

Since the Backdrop community is a worldwide one, across many different timezones, the result is that many people miss out on meetings/events scheduled at a time not suitable for them. While efforts have been made to accommodate certain people and/or timezones when organising past meetings/events, the fact remains that someone will always miss out. While by no means malicious, I see this as a form of discrimination that we should do more to combat where possible.

In an effort to address that and provide some form of a solution, I'd like to propose that we make it standard practice to record all meetings/events by default going forward.

Note that by record I don't necessarily mean stream live, and I also don't necessarily mean make publicly available...

The benefits of recording all meetings/events include:

Allowing people who couldn't attend to watch/catch-up on what they missed
Having an accurate and automatic form of documentation of any discussions/decisions (to either replace, or assist in, manually documenting a meeting/event)
Being able to choose who can access the recordings, if not made public

Possible problems of recording all meetings/events include:

Administrative overhead of making the recording
Less participation from people during discussions

I'm not familiar with the technical side of recording meetings/events, but from what I understand, the main issues encountered in the past have related more to the live streaming and not so much the recording. Let's discuss how we can ease the administrative overhead...

As for people being hesitant to participate in discussions knowing they're being recorded, I propose not making the recordings public when this may be an issue (but this should be more the exception than the rule). Instead, we can give individual access to people as needed. This can be done either by uploading the recording to YouTube as 'unlisted' and just sharing the URL, or by making the video 'private' and then sharing it with specific people via their account. As for who should get access to these recordings, I think anyone registered for the event should be allowed access, since they would have otherwise been in the meeting anyway had the timing been more favourable. This can even become a 'selling point' for event registrations - register to attend live, or access the recordings later. People who don't register can't attend and therefore can't watch recordings. Ideally all meeting recordings would be shared publicly for the benefit of the wider community, but this proposal re. sharing recordings privately is hopefully a good compromise for if/when we don't want people worried about the recording being made public.

I hope these suggestions address the reasons why we haven't made recordings previously, and I hope we can do so in future to better benefit and include the entire Backdrop community.

We have 3 different types of events/meetings in Backdrop:... Of those, only the weekly meetings are regularly recorded.

(EDIT: The above isn't really true.)

To my knowledge, every Virtual User Group meeting has been recorded. Certainly that has been my intention as the organizer. I don't recall ever deciding to not record any of them, it is possible that we had technical difficulties at some time, but I don't remember that.

I think you can find them all there: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE6f8hiqhhJmpDymyzHFxa2aitcz1OB68

We made an effort to record some of the sessions at the first Backdrop LIVE, but it became logistically confusing and very few were actually recorded. At this Backdrop LIVE event we hoped that some facililitaors would pre-record presentations to inform and set the stage for discussions, but that didn't work out very well (with one exception).

We did a Backdrop LIVE mini-camp at Twin Cities Drupal Camp a few years ago and recorded most of the presentations there.

I think that as a whole we make a pretty good effort in this community to record and share lots of meetings/events (if not most).

In an effort to address that and provide some form of a solution, I'd like to propose that we make it standard practice to record all meetings/events by default going forward.

I think it would have been useful to record some of the discussions that happened at Backdrop LIVE. I'm in favor of a policy that leans in favor of recording and sharing events and making sure that we include opportunities for everyone to be involved.

On the other hand, I believe that there are implications when we record events and that they do change the nature of the events.

1) I do believe that there are some people that will never turn on the camera or voice their opinion if they know that they are being recorded, even if that recording is only being shared selectively. There are others that might participate, but will be remain much more guarded. Personally, I don't think my behavior is much different during a recorded meeting/topic, but I do not think I am "normal" in this regard. I welcome the input of others. I understand that some people have strong aversions to speaking publicly or being seen on camera and any use of recordings may influence their participation. But, I welcome additional feedback.

2) Our goal in Backdrop LIVE is to engage and encourage participation. I'd like to see more informal discussions facilitated by the community. But as someone who is actively trying to encourage this kind of participation, I run into a lot of resistance from folks who feel like they need more time to prepare for these discussions, even when they know that they are not recorded. I think it will be harder to get folks to facilitate an informal discussion (without prep) if they are being recorded. I believe that recording all discussions encourages folks to prepare and present and discourages participation (of at least some people). It's nice to have places that are not so focused on the prepare and present.

3) The idea that we record sessions but only make them available to certain people might address some (but not all) of the concerns raised in #(1) and #(2), but it comes at a logistical price. We're struggling a bit to meet the logistical demands of an event like Backdrop LIVE already. At the first Backdrop LIVE there were sessions we intended to record but didn't, largely because we just had too much to think about in the moment and we forgot. It's one thing to push a button and stream a meeting publicly, it's another to process a recording, store it someplace with restricted access, then determine who should have access and get them access. By itself, this may seem like a small task - but it is one more task and we lots of other small/easy tasks that we're already failing to accomplish.

I hope these suggestions address the reasons why we haven't made recordings previously, and I hope we can do so in future to better benefit and include the entire Backdrop community.

I don't think it's possible to host a single event or meeting that will meet the needs of the entire community. My own goals is to meet the needs of the entire community by hosting, configuring, and organizing different kinds of events and different kinds of communication so that everyone can find the place(s) where they feel comfortable participating.

I agree that recording sessions and meetings in general is good and positive for the community and helps more people be involved.

I agree that we could in theory record portions of Backdrop LIVE to make it more accessible. However, we have to recognize that there is a logistical cost. I would love to talk more about finding the right balance.

I am resistant to the idea that every meeting should be recorded, but I'm open to the discussion.

There has been a big discussion in Zulip this week, because we failed to record the last weekly dev meeting. @BWPanda is advocating that we require a recording every week, regardless of whether or not the meeting formally happens. Last week, the meeting never really got started and thus there is no recording.

I've reviewed the last 25 weeks of meetings (back through Jan 1, 2021) and found that only three of the weekly dev meetings do not currently have recordings. I know that for one of those three weeks, we recorded the meeting, but the video was somehow lost.

That leaves two meetings that did not happen or for which we can't account for the lack of recording.

It is more common that do not record the Outreach or UX/Design meeting, because it is more common that either no one shows up or that attendance is so small that we end up talking about other things.

I am of the impression that the volunteer facilitators that organize our meetings try pretty hard to make sure that meetings do happen and are recorded as often as possible. As one of those volunteers, I feel like we do a pretty good job of recording meetings and making them available.

I'm uncomfortable putting additional requirements or expectations on volunteers that are already under a lot of pressure.

I'm open to ideas on how to improve the process or make it easier for volunteers.

I'd also like to address the idea of recordings from Backdrop LIVE.

The whole point of this format of event is that it's a live discussion between people. There are no presentations or anything else that's prepared in a format suitable for recording. Recording a whole room of people who are unprepared isn't really fair to any of them.

For people who want an online recording of their topic, we provide a content type named "Presentation" where they can prepare a video recording (of only themselves) that's suitable for sharing, and upload it to the events website.

To the downsides of recording, in addition to "Less participation from people during discussions" let's also add "Lower overall attendance" -- it's not just about the people who are in the room not participating, it's also about people not attending at all.

In terms of having information that we don't make public, this seems even worse to me. We're a free Open Source software project, and nearly everything we do now is public. Having gated content seems to go against our values, in addition to adding administrative overhead.

In terms of additional administrative overhead, not only would we need time to manage the videos, but we would need to self-host the recordings or start using a paid service, which would come with additional costs as well. We'd also need to build out the infrastructure necessary for restricting the access. It's a lot to worry about for something that feels "icky" in the first place :)

I don't think it's possible to host a single event or meeting that will meet the needs of the entire community. My own goals is to meet the needs of the entire community by hosting, configuring, and organizing different kinds of events and different kinds of communication so that everyone can find the place(s) where they feel comfortable participating.

I think you're hitting on the real problem here! Perhaps we should add an additional event to our schedule, one that has the more traditional form of "presentations" that would generate content in a format more suitable for recording and sharing?

To the downsides of recording, in addition to "Less participation from people during discussions" let's also add "Lower overall attendance"

Do we have proof/stats that support these concerns? AFAIK we've never hosted an Live event where we've said we're going to record all sessions and then compared attendance/participation with Live events we haven't recorded...

Having gated content seems to go against our values

Isn't that what Live events are though? By not recording sessions, we're telling people "you need to attend live and 'in person' (via Zoom), otherwise you can't access the content we're sharing/presenting/discussing".

we would need to self-host the recordings or start using a paid service

We'd also need to build out the infrastructure necessary for restricting the access.

Uhhh, what's wrong with YouTube? It hosts videos for free, and you can set them to be either 'unlisted' or 'private': https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/157177 No self-hosting, no payments, no additional infrastructure needed.

Additionally, from what I heard in the discussion during BL today, there are a few new faces who have experience in recording, etc. and who seem interested in either helping out themselves or in training others in that regard...

I think you're hitting on the real problem here! Perhaps we should add an additional event to our schedule, one that has the more traditional form of "presentations" that would generate content in a format more suitable for recording and sharing?

This is an excellent point.

What is the problem that the proposal to record all meetings/events is trying to solve?

1) Do we lack sufficient recorded content for members of the community to keep informed with what is happening in the community? 2) Are we lacking in overall channels of communication that are preventing some folks from engaging with the community? 3) Or do we just believe, as this proposal seems to suggest, that all scheduled community conversations need to be recorded, so that everyone is able to view (even if they are unable to participate) in every scheduled event?

My own view (and my commitment in volunteer hours) is that it benefits our community to provide a variety of opportunities for participation and engagement. We have weekly meetings (that are recorded), we have occasional Virtual User Group meetings (that are recorded), and we have chosen to record a few key sessions at Backdrop LIVE.

Part of our goal in creating Backdrop LIVE was to create a virtual event where users can meet directly with each other to share information, share lessons learned, and connect in a personal way with the community. As someone that has been organizing events and facilitating discussions for many years, my experience is that recording events changes the nature of events and reduces active (speaking up and asking questions) participation. If we begin to record all sessions at Backdrop LIVE, I am convinced that presentations will become more structured and formal, it will (in the short run) be more difficult to recruit presenters, fewer individuals will speak up and ask questions or share personal anecdotes, and the entire event will feel less interactive. I'm expect that some folks would see these as benefits.

I also believe that the logistical requirements of planning the event will go up - recruiting facilitators and managing recordings.

I believe that there is space in our community for an annual (or periodic) event that is fully recorded OR that we could work harder to increase the frequency of our virtual user groups meetings (which are also recorded).

I think that as organizers of Backdrop LIVE, we recognize the challenges of meeting the needs and engaging with an international community on a variety of schedules and living in dramatically different time zones. To accommodate this, we've been working very hard to build a schedule that crosses time zones and provides opportunities to participate around the clock. We tried to schedule the event to offer quality content on a weekday as well as a weekend. We have provided the opportunity for facilitators to record and share a portion of their session as a presentation.

If the goal is to increase the amount of recorded events/content, there are things we can do short of suggesting that ALL events/sessions must be recorded. There are opportunities to add additional events with different formats and recording policies. But that is not what this proposal is about. This proposal is that we MUST record all events/meetings. This proposal is that we must change the format of Backdrop LIVE to accommodate recording All sessions.

Personally, I believe that there are costs and benefits of recording events as there are for not recording them. I'm committed to providing a variety of both types of events available to meet the wide ranging needs of our community.

PS - If anyone feels particularly bad about missing a specific topic at Backdrop LIVE, I would be happy to try and schedule (and record) a virtual user group on that topic. I'd even be happy to try and schedule it at time that the requester is available to participate. Please, ping me.

If we do get to a point of recording some sessions, I strongly favor that they be posted openly available to anyone and not restricted to those who registered for this or that BL event. That's philosophically consistent with Backdrop's openness, and, as a practical matter, I can say from experience of managing an event site with recorded sessions that are only accessible to those who registered, it's a PITA that places constraints on you that last forever in terms of how you keep track of who was registered, how they registered, how you're controlling access, and what those users are entitled to see.

One of the nice things about the current system of no recordings is that the stakes are low for a presenter to try something out of their comfort zone (which was me, this last round; I did my very first BL presentation). I'd have been more reluctant to try that if I'd known that my fumblings would be preserved for posterity. Ditto for when I ask dumb questions in someone else's presentation.

But I do think there's a place for recorded presentations. Maybe doing them as individual VUGs in between BLs would be a decent compromise. If one did a non-recorded BL presentation that went well and seemed of interest to a wider audience, we could schedule it as a repeat VUG with its recording being notified in advance.

I agree with recording all meetings; since we dont take minutes, this is essential to ensure the community is able to participate in decisions that may affect them.

I dont really agree with mandating recording all live events that are not meetings.

Practically it may be that the events may become even more successful with time and be a source of income for Backdrop. If we then agree on a paywall for viewing recordings (and the resources to manage that as @bugfolder points out above), then fine we can record sessions and edit them and charge to view. But then if there is no paywall and theyre free, why should I pay?

For those without access to Backdrop's email, know that there was an email that came through yesterday asking about recordings of Backdrop Live and how to access them. Jen replied saying there aren't any, but just wanted to put this here to show that I'm not the only one asking for this. There are apparently others out there too.

Any way we can get this moved to the community repo? I think this was created before that repo went live and it probably makes more sense over there unless anyone has objections.

backdrop-ops / backdrop-community

Record ALL meetings/virtual events #9