These are all good thoughts.
One of the advantages of online conferences over in-person conferences (other than cost factor) is the flexibility it allows for spreading it out to several weeks if we want. There is a downside that not all people will attend unlike an in-person conference when you have at least a captive audience, but if the sessions are genuinely interactive and we get interesting people presenting, then these things scale up. In terms of timing, Oct-Jan would be good weatherwise, but again, for an online conference, the weather does not really matter that much. Rather, it’s the availability of people who are free from other tech like conferences that matters. Then again, for academics say, this is a time for travel and taking it a little easy with semester breaks, so expect a mix of people.
This is a very good point. It makes me wonder if solid few days of conference time is the best approach at all? Maybe a formal, monthly, online meetup - like the Open Tech Will Save Us events the matrix crew were running - would serve us better. We could even rotate timing to suit folks in different timezones (and maybe hosting duties too?). Thoughts everyone?
Of course the two aren’t mutually exclusive. A series of monthly meetups could be a good way to build awareness and enthusiasm for an online conference, and evolve a team capable of putting on a good one.
True. But when running events I’ve found it pays to be mindful of the way the flow of the seasons, holiday periods etc affect people’s enthusiasm and attention span. For example, hold it too close to the solstice and half the planet is out enjoying the sunshine, while the other half grits their teeth in hibernation. So you’ll notice that while outdoor festivals cluster over summer in each hemisphere - because of the weather - conferences tend to cluster around the equinoxes, when the two hemispheres are at about equal enthusiasm levels.
The dates for the next FediForum have been set:
Sept 20-21, 2023.
It will be on-line, and likely again two half-days to accommodate 2/3 of the times zones on this unfortunately mostly round planet.
To see what happened last time we did FediForum, go to the session notes taken by the attendees. The basic plan is to stay with the same format, but we can certainly make adjustments if additional good ideas come up before too long that don’t fit easily into an unconference format. (Feel free to reach out.)
Of course one could go for a rotating compere model.
Set a specific date each month and then rotate who sets the parameters for the event.
There could be a collective backbone/support model to smooth out things.
One could even have some fun and get non fediverse people to curate (for example, invite Cowsay or Cory Doctorow to lead).
“Celebrity” MCs could be fun, if we can find any willing to serve 
Registration for FediForum September 2023 is now open: https://fediforum.org – I make a separate post.
OK, I’m keen to have a go at a series of 3 monthly meetups, maybe starting in about a month? What we’ll need is;
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3-4 people willing to give a short presentation, and answer some questions from attendees. I’d like to have a balance of technical, UX, and organisational presentations.
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an MC. I like the suggestion of trying to get well known tech activists and commentators to guest MC. But I’m willing to do it, if nobody else wants to do.
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a conference server, running software that allows us to limit speaking to the MC and presenters, and screenshare a slideshow. I’m thinking BBB but open to other suggestions. I can’t speak for NZOSS, but it might be possible to use our BBB server.
Still willing to help with this ? @arinbasu1 @arinbasu @tallship @hamishcampbell @indieterminacy
Anyone else?
I’ve already committed to providing the hardware for the conference - from the very beginning. There has been some question as to whether this is still going to occur towards the end of October or whether it’s going to be pushed back a bit later, and whether it’s still going under the moniker of ActivityFed.
Just keep meet posted as to any changes so I can accommodate accordingly and it’s all good with me 
There will need to be a bit of lead time for me to spin things up and allow for testing of the Greenlight/BBB, PeerTube, Etc., and any other services that I need to deploy, and then there’s the questions surrounding which facilities will be employed for long term archival VoD, etc.
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Sweetbix. Does this offer extend to this monthly meetup idea? One of the core NZOSS admins have indicated support for offering our BBB server. But I’d love to make use of native fediverse software like OwnCast, PeerTube, GreatApe etc.
My vote is for pushing that back to early next year.
I have some reservations about FediForum’s methods (using a DataFarm as the venue for the event, charging presenters etc). But I see no point in competing with FediForum for limited eyeballs. Especially given the lukewarm enthusiasm so far for the more dev-driven, no-charge, online ActivityConf conference I propose.
I see the monthly meetup as a more bite-sized project we can achieve right now, with the level of support we already have. But also as a way of building up the head of steam we’ll need for the more ambitious conference project.
Yah hit me up in our private DM or in the Fediverse City Matrix room where I’ve already addressed some of those questions.
If it’s successful and regularly scheduled there’s no reason why not but again, what are we calling it, what is the date so all services can be deployed and various organizers are able to prep, Etc., Etc.,
These are just particulars and better coordinated/completed in a more specifically relevant venue conducive to such logistics.
I’m figuring that we’re going to do it under a single domain too so you and I need to hold those discussions elsewhere to complete those prereqs now… Or even yesterday if that works better for you, lolz. The sooner the better since I can finish my jobs and you can begin to build and prep for whenever[z].
I dunt frequent this forum regularly enough otherwise and I’m super busy now having arrived back home in the land of hedonism and spearphishing at the bottom of the cliffs below my house so direct it in Fediverse City works best for me.
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Boosts welcome to help get the word out: Strypey: "I’m keen to facilitate a series of monthly, onlin…" - Mastodon - NZOSS
Love the idea of a monthly meetup to start – I’ll definitely be there.
I’d echo what others have said on the importance of having these completely free and open events to go alongside more closed ones. That’s definitely important to me, so while I don’t have the bandwidth to help with organizing right now, I’m happy to contribute to hosting costs or whatever else would help. Might also be able to do a presentation in a couple months.
ActivityConf/ ActivityFed makes sense as a name for the proposed online conference, but I’d like us to come up with something more descriptive and fun for the monthly meetup name. Any suggestions?
Here’s an example, inspired by Open Tech Will Save Us;
Federated Freedom For Humans
Seems a little clunky, I think we can do better. But you get the idea.
Calling @arinbasu @arinbasu1 @hamishcampbell @indieterminacy and anyone else who has volunteered - or wants to - to join the steering group for the ActivityConf conference envisioned for early next year, and/or the monthly meetups I hope to start in a month or two.
I have created a private matrix room for the steering group and a couple of advisors. By which I mean people well-connected in the fediverse community and willing to give us casual advise and contacts, but who can’t to commit to being full members of the steering group. Please contact me with your matrix handle so I can invite you, either on matrix itself (@strypey:matrix.iridescent.org), in the verse (@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz), or by email (strypey@disintermedia.net.nz).
As much as possible I intend to do our organising in the open, here and in the verse. But with events there are bound to be some sensitive discussions for which a private room makes sense. I’d like to have that in place right from the get-go.
Can we rethink this before moving on. Am not a part of matrix world, and I feel this is better NOT organized in private encrypted chat?
Let’s build this #4opens using #openprocess, the unthinking move to encrypted chat in #FOSS is a fail of this core historical #4opens leg we actually build from.
We don’t need to do this, and we SHOULD not do this “common sense”.
#KISS
Can we just use the tools of this forum? If we do end up using chat, let’s use a non encrypted tool with a public archive as a “native path”.
We’re definitely going to need a “backstage” area, eg for sensitive mod discussions/ CoC violation investigations. That’s why I created the private chat room. It’s also a way for me to ‘take the roll’, so to speak. To see if the steering group members who’ve volunteered so far, are ready to roll up their sleeves yet.
We could also have a ‘front of house’ public matrix room (bridged to IRC, XMPP etc), in which we could talk about non-sensitive stuff. But we already have SocialHub, the verse etc, where we can do the majority of the organising communication in full view. Surely adding a public matrix room would only duplicate that?
From my perspective I appreciate the do-ocracy model.
As such, given that there hasnt been a significant outpouring of volunteers I suggest we try an form an initial clique that gets picked away and dissipated over event iterations and with turnover of volunteers.
From the outset, may I propose that a limit of tenure for the steering committee be limited to x6 consecutive events should it be monthly or x3 should it be yearly?
Naturally, unfilled vacancies can be exceptions and people can return after stepping back.
Regarding Hamish’s position, I tend to favour different grades of public/private conversation.
Id favour the use of Matrix for E2EE discussions.
As Oscar Wilde said:
“Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth.”
Speaking of which, we as a steering group appear to all be men, if not all with English as their first language.
Any chance we can make a quick push to make the organizing end more diverse?
Then let’s organize apconf here, what tools do we have/need?
We can use a wiki page for scheduling.
We have native #AP support here, how can we use this @how ?
I will skip the encrypted chat as it’s a #4opens fail and as you say not needed for the organizing part which is what matters.
Hi Hamish,
Im going through the links you provided atm.
Always a pleasure to see Morgan Lemmer-Webber videos.
From my perspective, I need a place to shadowbox and express incomplete thoughts, without the purview of inexact opines being propagated in perpetuity across a SEO/AI doomsphere.
As a practical measure, considering the potential for individual speakers is uncouth and liable to have ramifications beyond the intent and perspectives available to me while typing.
I shall incase attempt to work towards your expectations but like yourself I have my own prerogatives.
Its perhaps not the best location to bring this up but I find the ‘gamification’ elements of modern social-media approaches to be overwhelming and I am distrustful of systems that steer via the power of quantitative data and nudges.
In addition, the areas we should be directed towards should be concerning the use of third party platforms and a suite of tooling. This has the added advantage concerning breaking down silos (which is one of my intents as a volunteer, rather than (say) demonstrating exemplary behaviour as a constituent).
I look forward to volunteering alongside you.
Given I know the other lead participants it may be helpful to have a quick F2F call to align ourselves more clearly?
As others may attest, some of my approaches are not necessarily linear but as somebody who experiments and is adept at failing I know where many ‘trade winds’ are and how to ride them (and it would be better to see whats-what without trying to unpack all and sundry prior to any task).
As such, it would be good to align ourselves forward quickly with greater clarity.