Hi,
LLVM has been present at FOSDEM with an LLVM dev room for many years.
The FOSDEM organizers have just put up a call for participation for the
next FOSDEM, on February 6th and 7th 2021. It's no surprise it's an
online-only event. See https://fosdem.org/2021/news/2020-10-26-devroom-cfp/
In the past few years, I've been the main organizer of the LLVM dev room at
FOSDEM, together with a number of other volunteers.
This year, it's looking like I will not have the time available to be the
main organizer on the day itself. Furthermore, with the conference moving
to an online event, it looks like at least 10 volunteers are needed to be
able to run the dev room, covering various roles as described below.
I've decided to not be the main organizer for the LLVM dev room at FOSDEM
myself for the 2021 edition.
That being said, I am more than happy to support a new main organizer if
someone steps up. If you're interested, please let me know.
If you're interested in any of the other volunteer support roles (described
below), please let me know too so that we can have a guess of whether
enough volunteers are available.
The deadline for proposing the dev room is really nearby: this coming
Friday. So if you're interested, please do reach out by Thursday at the
latest.
Please note that it should be expected that the dev room will run roughly
during day time Brussels time zone (CET).
Thanks,
Kristof
PS. Please see the below notes from the FOSDEM organizers on the volunteer
roles they expect are needed.
*Our basic strategy is to replicate the various elements of the
physicalevent as closely as we can in an online environment. (Well,
exceptfor the overcrowding!)The main thing to appreciate is that the
volunteer input requiredto produce a professional online event will be
significantly higher thanyou may be used to. We expect a typical devroom
to need at least 10volunteers during the event so that people can take
breaks.Devroom managers will be responsible for finding and
schedulingvolunteers to perform the various roles needed for an online
conference.Until the end of this year, the input required will be similar
to normal- selecting and scheduling talks. One thing to note here is that
use ofour systems (e.g. pentabarf) will be compulsory and this includes
callsfor papers. Systems will change and adapt and we need to be able
tocontact all speakers directly whenever necessary.The changes will be
noticeable in January, when devroom managers willneed to assign specific
volunteers to work 1:1 with individual speakersto prepare recordings of
their talks. All presentations will need to bepre-recorded and put into
our system at least a couple of weeks beforethe event. We expect live
presentations to be a rarity, but even if aspeaker intends to deliver their
session live, there must be a recordingavailable to use as a fallback if
something goes wrong and the livepresentation can't be delivered for any
reason.As regards the features for devrooms, we are thinking along
thefollowing lines:- A main stream for each devroom. Talks here will be
pre-recorded, but questions will be taken live.- A second stream for each
devroom representing hallway discussions that may follow each talk.- A
facility for people watching to submit questions.- A facility for people
watching to chat between themselves.As such, we're thinking of the
following volunteer roles:Prior to the event:- A devroom manager and a
deputy responsible for everything below. This includes finding, assigning
and scheduling all the volunteer roles required.- A programme committee to
select and schedule the talks. This is the same as a normal year.
Timeline: November/December- Reviewers to help the speakers produce their
pre-recorded content. This is a new role. Each speaker will need to be
assigned to a reviewer who will be responsible for ensuring the content is
put into our system and ready to be broadcast. Timeline: January.During
the event itself:- Stream controllers, one per stream, responsible for the
content of the outgoing stream at all times. They will switch between
inputs (live video rooms, recordings) according to the schedule and
intervene (sometimes on video) and make decisions if there are problems.-
Chat moderators. They will be responsible for monitoring the content of
the chat and dealing with any problems that arise (including banning
people if necessary). There might also be people assigned to answering
questions about the devroom content.- Session moderators. Every speaker
will be assigned a moderator who will be responsible for accompanying that
speaker's session, including all the preparation and hallway chat
afterwards, including checking the speaker's video connection is working,
monitoring the chat and submitted questions and asking them on video to
the speaker. The moderator will have the speaker's private contact de
