A significant percentage, nearly 1 in 5, are interested in development tutorials and information related to development. I didn't expect quite that big a percentage, to be honest, but that's great news.
A few were interested in the business aspects of things, but the majority are mostly interested in either anything and everything or else information of interest to the end user.
So I've decided that I will do a weekly show. Given the responses and some further thinking about it all, I've been working on a draft schedule that I could mold each show around:
- Intro: 2 minutes of saying "Hi" and what the topics are for the show
- "The Week in Review": 3 minutes covering quickie like release related updates, progress stats and news headlines from places such as theDot
- "The Headline": 10 minutes on a topic I find interesting in the KDE and/or FOSS environment that week.
- "Feature of the Week": 10 minute segment showcasing a specific feature in a KDE application
- "Town Hall": 15 minutes of open Q&A with people in the IRC channel
- "Developer corner": 15 minute hands-on developer tutorial, covering a specific KDE coding technique or topic. May build some topics week-to-week
It's 55 minutes of material, which would give me 5 minutes of flexibility to keep it under an hour. I'm not sure if it's too long, though, and I should keep it to 30 minutes instead. But I'm such a babbler that I could easily fill the hour. If I'm to do a weekly developer tutorial, then there's no hope of a 30 minute episode. With the above schedule, though, you essentially get 25-30 minutes of "talk show", 15 minutes of "town hall" and 15 minutes of "developer corner". So it's kind of 3 shows in one, when looked at that way. I might even record them as three separate segments, though back-to-back, so people can just watch the parts they are interested in.
Anyways, other than a few details I'm still working out on the technical end of things, I need to know when to do it. As I would like some interaction on the show, it will be important to do it at a time when people will actually be able to watch it. =)
So I've put together a simple three question survey that will help me answer that question. I promise it's the last set of questions I'll ask you to fill out as I go through the deign process for the show.
23 comments:
And you'd do this as a weekly videocast? I'm surprised you'd have the time. (Just cuz I have an inkling what your schedule can get like.. :) ) Or are you looking at "delegating"?
Don't take my comments negatively though. I'll be lining up with the others to see the show..
The poll seems to be broken - I just tried it: "Requested File Not Found." upon continue after you take the poll
This looks great. It seems like a huge extra commitment though and I'm sure the potential watchers would rather you made it shorter or under-prepared rather than exhausting yourself. One thing I'd love to hear about if what is wrong with the systray and what systray++ is.
Just one word about videocasts/podcasts.
Many people can read English easily. But for people like me who do not use English as main language, it's really harder to understand when it's spoken.
So please continue to blog :)
i'll continue to blog; this videocast would be something completely different.
as for finding the time to do it, i spend a few hours a week covering these things with people one a more one-on-one situation. i'm really looking for more ways to reach more people at once these days to limit my need to do that =)
but i have a cunning plan, you see: with a set show schedule i just need to find something fill each segment with. in the 6 days leading up to a recording, i'll have in my kjots the show outline sitting there and as things occur to me, i'll pop the ideas in there. each idea needs to only be 5-15 minutes in talking length. which is about the length of the screencasts i've done in the past.
i'll probably need to spend an hour in the morning of the recording day to collect the bits and pieces together, but that's about it, really.
it won't be a super-slick, professionally produced show or anything, but it should (hopefully) be interesting and not a drain on my time.
@wapAmoeba: hm... seems to be working for others?
Not to discourage you from the plan, but I think it is rather ambitious to make a full-hour cast every week. I think you may be underestimating the time that goes into making a cast like that that also stays interesting and viewable for the users. May I suggest that, instead of doing all parts every show, you rotate the major parts per show? That way, the length would be cut back to about 30 minutes, which seems to be a lot more manageable.
Also, I think that a full hour may be too much from a user-perspective. A cast of half an hour is just viewable in a casual way, I would guess. A full hour would require one to really sit down for it. I Guess that most people will watch it from their desktop or laptop computers, which IMHO are not the most comfortable media to watch long video's. Perhaps it would also from this perspective be wise to shorten the format for the casts. I for one would sooner watch a half-an-hour (or shorter) cast than a full hour.
Hi. I live in (South) America and here it's GMT-3. ;) Part of the country is in DST right now, so we're mostly GMT-2. :D Please don't forget us in your next polls!
With love,
Cláudio
at first, I was also kinda worried about the length, but then you said you'd probably provide the pieces (talkshow, townhall and dev) as separate vids which is a good idea imho. also, I agree with others, please don't exhaust yourself but if it rather relieves you, please go on :)
for me, the talkshow should ideally not be longer than 20min. for example I don't really need updates from the dot as I read it myself. you could also cycle certain elements in the show, as andre already suggested.
I love the idea of the user interaction part during the show, although, obviously, I think it will be quite challenging to sync most people on some time schedule. of course, you could also cycle the time here.
for non native English listeners, it could be handy if your video broadcast site supports the contribution of subtitles by users.
I saw that somewhere but unfortunately I don't remember the site.
ps: I love cunning plans ;)
How about a monthly videocast devoted exclusively to development? I have the feeling that 15 minutes on each "episode" devoted to development is not going to be enough. I would rather have it once a month, but a full edition with prepared and good content that is fully covered and not just an introduction.
http://www.osnews.com/story/20410/Qt_Ported_to_Nokia_s_Symbian_S60_Platform
Does that mean anything for KDE?
A livecast at a set time? That reminds me of the pre-Tivo era.
And even though I love KDE I have to think that I'd want to skim certain material. Why not post the videos on Youtube, assuming you can an exception to the 10 minute limit. More flexibility, wider audience.
@mbahamonde: you can always just visit it once a month and watch all four 15 minute developer corner episodes back to back =)
@darkelve: it certainly does .. more people using Qt =)
@Pete Dixon: obviously the broadcasts will be recorded and you will be able access them at your leisure. but i would like to engage with people live as well, ergo looking for a time when the most people can view it.
This sounds great! I'm most interested in the Developer corner, but I'll probably listen to the other parts as well.
What interests me least would be The Headline, as I already read the Dot etc. But that's just my opinion, I'm sure there are people who will love the "news" section. I just can't help feeling that more than 15 min technical education would be great.. ;)
Good luck with the videocasts, just don't overdo it.
I've never really liked a podcast with only one host. (Since this is relevant to my interests I'll probably like it anyways.)
So you might think about having someone cohost via skype or something. Or maybe the p-man. :)
@ian: agreed; but i want to start simple and work my way up to more sophistication ;)
Very impressive and interesting :)! It sounds very ambitious, and if you can pull it off, I would e one happy camper!
Now, since we are talking about free software here, I'm not sure that is my suggestion kosher, but.... How about submitting your vidcast to iTunes store, so people could subscribe to it through iTunes? Yes, in some ways that is "shaking hands with the devil", but iTunes is a massive distribution-method. And I admit: I use iTunes/iPod. And I spend 1 hour every day commuting, and I often use that time listening/watching to podcasts.
I'm not sure what kind of requirements (format etc.) Apple asks for, but it might be worth looking in to.
I probably wouldn't be able to watch it live, but if it got distributed up on Miro, that'd be incredibly awesome.
@aseigo: OK that makes sense. Though it sounds to be like your being pretty dang sophisticated from the get-go. :D
@wapAmoeba:
Do you use noscript? I got that error until I allowed the poll page.
this sounds really good. the idea of a live Q&A sounds great, but i think its gonna be hard to please everybody because of timezones. So aswell as having a live stream, having a downloadable version for those in other timezones would be nice. It also means if you missed you can get it again.
Are there any video sites that stream in an open video format? Because as an open source project we should be supporting open formats. _WE_ now have state of the art video codecs like snow and dirac! we should be using them not proprietry flash!
Maybe an icecast stream would work ok?
Maybe users could upload subtitles for the videos?
@pigmeesh: "but i think its gonna be hard to please everybody because of timezones."
yes, that's why i did the survey to find out when i can hit the greatest number of people.
i'll probably take email questions as well, though.
"having a downloadable version"
of course (and i said as much above =)
"video sites that stream in an open video format?"
nothing of adequate quality that i can find. =/ i'd love to stumble upon something, though.
everything i've found is either dubious quality or else not live.
"as an open source project we should be supporting open formats"
absolutely. so where are the projects doing for open streaming what we are doing for open desktops?
"Maybe an icecast stream would work ok?"
on who's bandwidth? =)
"Maybe users could upload subtitles for the videos?"
sadly the services i've seen don't seem to support such things. =/
perhaps i need to push some buttons and get movement happening in this area.
It seems that my comment about iTunes warrants some clarification :).
Of course we should embrace free and open solutions whenever possible. And of course iTunes would never ever be the ONLY distribution-method for this content. It would be an additional method.
Many of us are mixed-users. I for example use a Mac together with Linux. So users like me could get this video either from iTunes or an alternative source (whatever that might be). The good thing about iTunes is that they handle the bandwidth and other such expenses, so every download that happens through it, is one download less on the other source, thus easing the strain there. Also, the video would then be available to people who might not be acquinted with Linux. Of course the fact that it could then be put on iPods is an added bonus.
FLOSS-weekly (which Aaron participated last week) is a good example of this. It's available through iTunes (where I get it from), and it's available through their website as well, in mp3-format.
Of course, some people might be annoyed by the fact that it would be available on non-free solution like iTunes. But then again, Youtube ios not free either.
But, in the end, this is totally up to Aaron. I would be happy in any case :)
@janne yes iTunes is a good idea in that it would make this video accesible to a wider audience. Maybe who have never heard of KDE and FOSS will watch it and be inspired :) As long as a open version of video is also available somewhere.
Hopefully there will be a time when we have something like TED.com execpt devoted to OSS (and not flash based). Video is a great medium and will bring more of a face to KDE and FOSS.
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