[Noisebridge-discuss] Easy video recording of classes / workshops?

[Sai Emrys]

On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 11:47 AM, aestetix aestetix <aestetix at gmail.com> wrote:
> 1. It's very time consuming to edit/process video and put it online
> somewhere accessible. If you hadn't noticed, we have a major backlog on the
> 5MoF videos, partly because of this, and partly because everyone involved is
> super busy with other stuff.

It's very time consuming to *edit/process*, I agree. I was expecting
that this sort of recording would not be edited at all, or if edited,
only very minorly and automatically (e.g. you type in the name of the
event or the like and it inserts a slide at the front).

Putting it online need not take up a human's time.

> 2. The overhead of setting up a video camera and whatnot in a classroom
> becomes annoying.

It really is. Which is why I was thinking this might be able to use
something smaller, like a laptop w/ integrated camera. There's always
room for a laptop.

> 3. There's also the problem of storage: can we safely ensure a video
> camera/tripod/tapes/digital storage will be kept safe? We have been running
> into a couple "uh oh!" moments lately, and having a camera used for a bunch
> of different events (especially ones running at the same time) would agitate
> everyone.

No idea on this one, but don't we already store a whole lot of crazy
equipment around the DJ booth?

But I think for this to work we'd have to completely avoid anything
that requires tapes and bulky cameras.

> 4. Consent from everyone involved?

Would be implicit for the organizer at least in them activating the
system. For attendees, they'd have to either ask first, or just point
the camera more focusedly to exclude objecting people from the shot.

> Imagine if we tape recorded every one of Mitch/Miloh's
> soldiering workshops? They do really cool stuff, but it eventually becomes
> repetitive (like any intro class).

Agreed. But this seems like a weak argument. So some of our classes
are boring to watch if you look at all of 'em. So what?

> 5. Given that not every class/workshop would want it, this now creates a
> burden of expectation on the leader/teacher. What if students show up with
> false expectations of a video camera?

Make it something the leader is supposed to do (or not)? And that uses
on-site equipment that's just gotten from its storage cubby, not that
anyone should be Bringing Stuff In for.

> For the most part, I think meeting notes are enough. If I teach a security
> workshop, I'm more than happy to post notes after the fact.

I think your notes for the security workshop were totally inadequate
for someone to get the same value as they would have from attending.
They said *what* you covered, they were not the content themselves.

And I think it's totally unreasonable for anyone to expect them to be
adequate, because that'd take too much work.

Which is why I think that a very lightweight recording solution would be nice.

I think you're thinking of this like you think of e.g. the Real Video
Recordings™ of 5MoF. It's intended to be MUCH simpler than that, more
like at the level of what I could do right now by going to youtube and
live recording a video.

Actually, hm... that's possibly a viable solution.

1. Have a laptop + webcam available. (Either integrated webcam or
offboard. I could donate a webcam if that's necessary.)
2. The laptop is permanently logged into the NB Youtube account.
3. In order to record your talk/workshop/whatever all you have to do is:
* get the laptop
* plug it in and point it at you somewhere in your space
* go to http://www.youtube.com/my_webcam
* hit record and do your thing
* stop it and fill in the metadata
* put it back

That'd be pretty easy.

Only problem I see in doing that right now is
a) I don't know if NB has a laptop that's usable for this, and
b) I think NB's YT account isn't unlocked to allow >10min videos, or
whether it'd be approved if it applied for it

... so we might need some equivalent solution (i.e. instant record &
automatic asynchronous uploaindg) that isn't youtube-limited. I'm not
familiar with one, but perhaps one of y'all is.

Another workflow:
* open up a movie recorder
* record it
* save it to a Magic Folder
* save an identically named file copied from a template to the Magic
Folder, which specifies metadata
* every day or so a script uploads it wherever desired

Still would be pretty lightweight.

- Sai