This file is automatically exported from /2024/organizers-notebook/index.org. You might prefer to navigate this as an Org file instead. To do so, clone the wiki repository.
You might also like the general organizers' notebook and the organizers' notebook from 2023.
Table of Contents
- Timeline
- About this document
- Communications plan
- Good/better/best
- Phases
- Check EmacsConf infrastructure:project:
- Processes and notes
- Decisions
- Support code
TODO Timeline
CFP | ||
CFP deadline | 82 | |
Speaker notifications | ||
Publish schedule | ||
Video submission deadline | 49 | |
EmacsConf | 29 |
We like to have at least a month to work on audio normalization and transcription, and we want speakers to have at least a month to work on their videos (considering early submissions will already have gotten started on processing).
About this document
Tags:
conforg
: Requires access to private conf.org repository
Communications plan
Objectives:
- keep everyone in the loop without them feeling like they’re overloaded
Everyone:
- ☐ Call for participation (speakers and volunteers)
- ☐ Reminder about CFP
- ☐ Last call
Speakers:
- ☐ Send all speakers backstage access and upload instructions
- ☐ Send all speakers check-in instructions
Volunteers:
- ☐ Send captioning volunteers the backstage info
- ☐ Send past captioning volunteers an invitation to participate - ask when there’s a lot of load
- ☐ Ask for help with audio processing
Good/better/best
This table makes it easier to move the slider depending on who wants to volunteer and how much we can get done. At some point, we’ll figure out how to track our current status so we know what we need to scramble to do in order to get the conference off the ground. bold is our current goal. Feel free to volunteer for anything that interests you!
Good | Better | Best | |
Streaming | Regular stream | + alternate streams on PeerTube | + alternate streams on YouTube |
480p | Same on live | Separate node | Ansible setup |
Audio normalization | Core org handling it | Other volunteer | Multiple volunteers |
Video resolution | Usual reminders | Extra reminders | Everyone remembering to use a large font size |
Intros | Standard, recorded | Reviewed by speakers | More details/context |
Pad | v1.9.7 | v2.x |
Phases
DONE Draft CFP
Draft linked pages
- ☑ cfp
- ☑ submit page
- ☑ year index
- ☑ volunteer page
DONE Check with other organizers
DONE Post CFP in the usual places
emacsconf-discuss, reddit.com/r/emacs, Emacs News, emacs-tangents, Mastodon, X
DONE Draft schedule
Legend:
- light blue: constraint is <= a time
- peach: constraint is >= a time
- solid line: Q&A will be through BigBlueButton web conference
- dashed line: Q&A will be IRC/Etherpad during the event or e-mail after the event
Notes:
- Updates:
- graph, moved p-search earlier; also learning needs to be in the morning, so I moved pgmacs and org-teach around. Removed
- org-teach and blee Swapped
- blee Extended
- org-update to Saturday morning, moving org-teach to Sunday afternoon Added
- students and literate for availability reasons Swapped
- hyperdrive to the afternoon (swapping with flp) because of changed availability Moved
- students (needs to be in the afternoon), so I moved hyperbole to the morning. I fixed the time constraint for
- General approach:
- I’ve mostly tried to alternate IRC/pad Q&A with live Q&A.
- 1.5 tracks keeps things faster-paced than the 2-track option.
- Sat:
- Gen track:
- papers, project, org-teach, flp, color should be pretty general
- color and theme are both theme-related. color needs to be in the morning and theme needs to be in the afternoon, so I put them on either side of the lunch break.
- Other afternoon talks: water and shell are by the same speaker. casual, hyperdrive, and writing will probably be good for a general audience. These speakers are only available in the afternoon, so this part of the schedule is a bit tight.
- I put emacs30 at the end of Saturday to act sort of as a keynote. Closing remarks on Saturday are usually very light, so we could skip them.
- Dev track:
- Gen track:
- Sun:
- Sunday morning last year had some packet loss issues at around 9:30, so we’ll start with some talks that don’t have BBB Q&A: students, links, regex
- blee and language are probably general-audience
- pgmacs, regex, and transducers are all development-oriented, but are on the general track for scheduling purposes. transducers can only be on Sunday afternoon at 4pm because of availability.
- I’ve separated hyperbole and hywiki by lunch so that people who are interested in that can attend the live Q&A for both without worrying about missing things.
- learning, sharing, literate will probably be good for a general audience
DONE Prepare shift calendar, ask people to sign up
AM: 9-12 PM EST, PM: 1-5 PM EST (plus a little extra for setup/transition)
Saturday Dec 7 2024
Start | End | Host | Streamer | Checkin | IRC | Pad | Coord | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gen AM | 09:00 | 12:00 | zaeph | sachac | sachac | sachac | ||
Gen PM | 13:00 | 17:00 | zaeph | sachac | sachac | sachac | ||
Dev AM | 10:00 | 12:00 | corwin | sachac | sachac | sachac | ||
Dev PM | 13:00 | 17:00 | corwin | sachac | sachac | sachac |
Sunday Dec 8 2024
Start | End | Host | Streamer | Checkin | IRC | Pad | Coord | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gen AM | 09:00 | 12:00 | zaeph | sachac | corwin | sachac | ||
Gen PM | 13:00 | 17:00 | zaeph | sachac | corwin | sachac |
Backups:
- dev host/streamer:
- gen host/streamer:
- checkin, IRC, pad:
Interested in a shift? Please e-mail emacsconf-org-private@gnu.org and we’ll help you figure out what you need to learn.
`(setq emacsconf-shifts
(list
,@(apply #'append
(mapcar
(lambda (day)
(let ((headers
(mapcar
(lambda (field)
(intern
(concat
":"
(downcase
(if (string-match org-link-bracket-re field)
(match-string 2 field)
field)))))
(seq-drop (car (cadr day)) 3))))
(mapcar
(lambda (row)
(apply #'append
(list 'list :id
(when (string-match "^\\([^ ]+\\) \\(AM\\|PM\\)" (car row))
(format "%s-%s-%s"
(car day)
(downcase (match-string 2 (car row)))
(downcase (match-string 1 (car row)))))
:track
(if (string-match "^Gen" (car row)) "General" "Development")
:start
(format "%sT%s:00%s"
(elt day 2)
(elt row 1)
emacsconf-timezone-offset)
:end
(format "%sT%s:00%s"
(elt day 2)
(elt row 2)
emacsconf-timezone-offset))
(seq-map-indexed
(lambda (value index)
(unless (string= value "")
(list (elt headers index) value)))
(seq-drop row 3))))
(cdr (cadr day)))
))
(list
(list "sat" sat "2024-12-07")
(list "sun" sun "2024-12-08"))))))
Rerecord intros
TODO Redo pkal pronunciation :emacsconf:record:
kǎlud͡ʑert͡ʃit͡ɕ - zaeph’s guess is kah-loo-dyer-tshitch
Next, we have "Emacs 30 Highlights" by Philip Kaludercic.
You can ask questions in the web conference
by joining from the talk page,
or you can ask questions through Etherpad or IRC.
TODO Rerecord intro for Ihor Radchenko and Bastien Guerry
zaeph will probably pronounce this so much better than I can. =)
Next, we have "The future of Org",
by Ihor Radchenko and Bastien Guerry.
They will answer questions via web conference.
You can join using the URL from the talk page
or ask questions through Etherpad or IRC.
TODO Rerecord Eev intro with MAC-SYM-A pronunciation :record:emacsconf:
My name in the intro is perfect, but Maxima comes from Macsyma, and it is pronounced mac - sym (<- as in “symbolic”) a…
Next, we have "Emacs, eev, and Maxima - now!",
by Eduardo Ochs.
You can ask questions via Etherpad or IRC.
TODO Rerecord Vincent Conus using psitransfer version :record:emacsconf:
/ssh:orga@media.emacsconf.org:/srv/upload/emacsconf-papers/0b67be8b-10a1-48f8-9a7b-e73a4c46b9db
Next, we have "Writing academic papers in Org-Roam",
by Vincent Conus.
He will answer questions via web conference.
You can join using the URL from the talk page
or ask questions through Etherpad or IRC.
TODO Rerecord Joseph Turner with new title :emacsconf:record:
New in hyperdrive.el: quick install, peer graph, transclusion!
Next, we have "New in hyperdrive.el: quick install,
peer graph, transclusion!" by Joseph Turner.
You can ask questions in the web conference
by joining from the talk page,
or you can ask questions through Etherpad or IRC.
TODO Check EmacsConf infrastructure :project:
- ☑ IRC
- ☐ Streaming assets
- ☐ Publishing to the wiki
- ☐ Web conference
- ☐ OBS
- ☐ Publishing to the media server
- ☐ Etherpad
- ☐ Streaming
- ☐ Toobnix
- ☐ YouTube
TODO BigBlueButton
- Plan: spin up Linode temporarily: BigBlueButton replacement
Notes
install, sizes
Prerequisites:
- BBB requires 4 CPU cores before it will install. bbb-conf.sh is fairly straightforward, so I guess we could spin down and then spin up again.
Steps:
- Run the BBB installer: ~./bbb-install.sh -v jammy-300 -s bbb.emacsverse.org -e emacsconf@sachachua.com -g ~
sudo apt install bbb-playback-video
and then follow the instructions at Server Customization | BigBlueButton .- https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/3.0/administration/customize/#mute-all-users-on-startup
I think it needs 4 CPU cores for regular running, too.
Sizing to shared 8GB 4 core for testing
linode-cli linodes resize 67329098 --type g6-standard-4 --allow_auto_disk_resize false
takes about 2 minutes
Sizing to shared nanode, dormant
linode-cli linodes resize 67329098 --type g6-nanode-1 --allow_auto_disk_resize true
echo "notify-send 'Resizing BBB...'; linode-cli linodes resize 67329098 --type g6-nanode-1 --allow_auto_disk_resize true" | at 'now + 1 hour'
Resize disk linode-cli linodes disks-list 67329098 linode-cli linodes disk-resize 67329098 131474261 –size 24000
/var/bigbluebutton is where recordings will go
https://techdocs.akamai.com/linode-api/reference/post-resize-disk
https://www.linode.com/community/questions/21942/how-can-i-schedule-resizing-a-linode
backing up
ssh root@66.175.208.243 ’tar zcvf - /var/bigbluebutton /etc/bigbluebutton /root/greenlight-v3 /usr/local/bigbluebutton /usr/share/bbb-web’ > bbb-backup.tar.gz
DONE Set up bbb with new domain name
If changing IP:
bbb-conf –setip bbb-new.example.com service nginx stop certbot certonly service nginx start edit /etc/hosts, add domain name
Certificate is saved at: /etc/letsencrypt/live/bbb.emacsverse.org/fullchain.pem Key is saved at: /etc/letsencrypt/live/bbb.emacsverse.org/privkey.pem
edit etc/nginx/sites-available/bigbluebutton to add server_name /etc/letsencrypt/live
grep in /etc for the old domain
https://github.com/bigbluebutton/greenlight/issues/1794
change greenlight/.env
curl failed to verify the legitimacy of the server and therefore could not
establish a secure connection to it. To learn more about this situation and how to fix it, please visit the web page mentioned above. .curl: (60) SSL: no alternative certificate subject name matches target host name ’bbb.emacsverse.org’ More details here: https://curl.se/docs/sslcerts.html
haproxy is already listening on 443
Fine, let’s just reinstall it, harumph.
Create the users:
user_id = User.find_by_email(“sacha@sachachua.com”).id
… ugh, what’s going on, why is free only reporting a little memory? ah, we’re still resizing, that’s why
STARTED Set up moderator access codes for all the meeting rooms, and make it so people can start the meeting
- Let’s try
- ☐ Rails
- ☐ Spookfox
- ☐
Manual
https://github.com/bigbluebutton/greenlight/blob/a5da808fc33f03613aa3a4089fd418403c539b2f/spec/models/room_spec.rb#L128 RoomMeetingOption.
room.get_setting
yeah, that’s not good, rails console keeps quitting! docker-compose down docker-compose up
1:M 28 Nov 2024 17:16:23.441 # WARNING Memory overcommit must be enabled! Without it, a background save or replication may fail under low memory condition. Being disabled, it can can also cause failures without low memory condition, see https://github.com/jemalloc/jemalloc/issues/1328. To fix this issue add ’vm.overcommit_memory = 1’ to /etc/sysctl.conf and then reboot or run the command ’sysctl vm.overcommit_memory=1’ for this to take effect.
docker-compose down docker-compose up -d
makes it more reliable, it seems
room = Room.find_by_id(’8b3f36b1-7aee-459d-b963-bddcfe03e1db’)
o = MeetingOption.find_by_name(’glAnyoneCanStart’) o.default_value = ’true’ o.save!
o = MeetingOption.find_by_name(’glModeratorAccessCode’)
“https://bbb.emacsverse.org/rooms/p4o-29n-esd-ow5/join”
(dolist (talk (seq-filter (lambda (o)
(and (plist-get o :bbb-room)
(not (plist-get o :bbb-mod-code))))
(emacsconf-publish-prepare-for-display (emacsconf-get-talk-info))))
(spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
(format "window.location.href = \"%s\""
(replace-regexp-in-string "/join" "" (plist-get talk :bbb-room)))
t)
(sleep-for 3)
(spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
"document.querySelector('button[data-rr-ui-event-key=\"settings\"]').click()" t)
(spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
"document.querySelector('input#glAnyoneCanStart').checked = true")
(spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
"document.querySelector('input#muteOnStart').checked = true")
(spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
"document.querySelectorAll('.border-end button')[2].click()" t)
(let ((code (spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
"document.querySelector('.access-code-input input').value" t)))
(message "Setting %s to %s" (plist-get talk :slug) code)
(emacsconf-set-property-from-slug
talk "BBB_MOD_CODE"
code)
(sit-for 2)))
(dolist (talk (seq-filter (lambda (o)
(plist-get o :bbb-room))
(emacsconf-publish-prepare-for-display (emacsconf-get-talk-info))))
(spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
(format "window.location.href = \"%s\""
(replace-regexp-in-string "/join" "" (plist-get talk :bbb-room)))
t)
(sleep-for 3)
(spookfox-js-injection-eval-in-active-tab
"document.querySelector('button[data-rr-ui-event-key=\"settings\"]').click()" t)
(sleep-for 3))
DONE Figure out what’s going on with BBB!
DONE Create meeting rooms for each speaker
Now that I’m more familiar with BigBlueButton and Greenlight, I don’t have to use Spookfox to automate creating BigBlueButton rooms in Mozilla Firefox. I can just create them through the Rails console.
docker exec -it greenlight-v3 bundle exec rails c
user_id = User.find_by_email(“sacha@sachachua.com”).id
docker exec -it greenlight-v3 bundle exec rails console
(mapconcat (lambda (group)
(format
"Room.create(user_id: user_id, name: \"%s - %s\")\n"
(plist-get (cadr group) :speakers)
(string-join (mapcar (lambda (talk) (plist-get talk :slug))
(cdr group)))))
(emacsconf-mail-groups (emacsconf-active-talks (emacsconf-get-talk-info)))
"")
Print out the room IDs with
Room.all.each { |x| puts x.friendly_id + " " + x.name }; nil
https://github.com/bigbluebutton/greenlight/issues/1925
After about 6 seconds, the rails console quits. 502 bad gateway
aaaaaaaaaah
DONE Check BBB audio from my phone
DONE Create accounts for corwin
CANCELLED Customize BBB to process at night
https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/3.0/administration/customize/ Change processing time
On a 2.2.x BigBlueButton server, the server will process recordings as meetings finish. You can restrict the recording processing interval to specific hours by creating the file /etc/systemd/system/bbb-record-core.timer.d/override.conf with the contents
[Timer] OnActiveSec= OnUnitInactiveSec= OnCalendar=21,22,23,00,01,02,03:*:00 Persistent=false
and do systemctl daemon-reload. This file overrides the timing of when systemd runs bbb-record-core.target. In the above example, recordings will start processing between 21:00 and 03:59.
TODO Change background presentation
https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/3.0/administration/customize/#change-the-default-presentation
TODO Modify landing page
/var/www/bigbluebutton-default/assets/index.html keep backup copy as it will be overwritten when bbb-conf is called
TODO Change default welcome message
https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/3.0/administration/customize/#change-the-default-welcome-message
TODO Change html5 title
/usr/share/bigbluebutton/html5-client/private/config/settings.yml
TARGET=/usr/share/bigbluebutton/html5-client/private/config/settings.yml yq e -i “.public.app.clientTitle = \”EmacsConf\“” $TARGET
TODO Try live captions
https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/3.0/administration/customize/#enable-live-captions
TODO Explore meeting layout? Default to custom, hosts will need to drag people’s webcam over if there’s a share
IRC web client
DONE Ask libera.chat to increase connections allowed from chat.emacsconf.org on Dec 7 and 8
IRC announcements
DONE Confirm manual IRC announcements
TODO Confirm automated IRC announcements from res
Media
TODO Switch public media to unprotected root before the conference
- Clear public media directory.
- Set
media_protect_root
to false in Ansiblegroup_vars/all.yml
. ansible-playbook -i inventory.yml prod-playbook.yml --tags media
You can generate the index with emacsconf-publish-update-media
.
TODO Publishing resources to the wiki
ansible-playbook -i inventory.yml prod-playbook.yml –tags publish
TODO Publishing videos to the media server
Playing videos, switching to windows
TODO Generate test videos for everything
TODO Document how to get that set up again
Etherpad
TODO Generate pads for all the talks
TODO Generate the main index
TODO Do a dry run
DONE Generate all the test assets
TODO Test connecting to VNC and streaming via OBS
Resizing
live0: 64GB front0: 32GB meet: 64GB
TODO Resize nodes before production
live0: 64GB front0: 32GB meet: 64GB
TODO Resize nodes after production
live0: nanode front0: nanode
TODO Resize meet after production
meet: nanode
Processes and notes
Hosting
TODO Finalize host for dev track
ERC
Some convenient commands are defined in emacsconf-erc.el.
/opall | Grant operator status in the Emacsconf channels |
/deopall | Remove operator status in the Emacsconf channels |
/conftopic | Set the first part of the topic |
Decisions
BigBlueButton replacement (BBB)
The server running bbb.emacsverse.org has been decommissioned, since the nonprofit that shared it with us is defunct.
- We’d like to figure out what our live Q&A setup is going to be for EmacsConf 2024 (Dec 7-8).
- Nice to have: Hosting for other Emacs meetups like Emacs APAC and OrgMeetup
- Stats from last year: 31 meetings, 84 unique users, 62 max simultaneous users, 6 max simultaneous meetings, 27 max users in one meeting, 36 unique talking
- also includes some notes on hosting
- Nice thing about running our own server: we can make one room per speaker, pre-assign their URLs, and let people stay as long as they want in recorded Q&A sessions
Recommendation:
We spin up a shared CPU 4GB under bandali’s Linode account (for bandwidth pooling and easier reimbursement), do the setup/testing, scale down as small as possible over the next few weeks, scale up to dedicated CPU 16GB a day or two before the conference, and keep it at that level until the recordings are all done. I have access to that Linode account, so I can set it up. If bandali can configure emacsverse.org to be handled by Linode, I can manage the DNS changes, or he can change bbb.emacsverse.org to the IP address of the new node.
Some options:
Linode with 16GB RAM and 8 cores
- Advantages: can experiment with both Galene and BBB, manage things ourselves, have filesystem access
- Disadvantages: needs someone to do it
- Base pricing
- Shared CPU 4GB 80GB storage: hourly USD 0.04, monthly USD 24
- Dedicated CPU 16GB: hourly USD 0.22, daily 5.28, weekly 36.96, monthly USD 144 - meets minimum requirements and can probably support 200 simultaneous (FAQ)
- Shared CPU 8GB 160GB storage: hourly USD 0.07
- Shared CPU 16GB 320GB storage: hourly USD 0.14
- Last year
- Block storage: $1/10GB/month
- 125M/hour - FAQ
- In 2023, we had 31 hours of trimmed recordings (main + answers),
- (* 31 0.125) 3.875, oh, maybe we can get away with 10GB storage and add another chunk of 10GB midway if we need it, or extend the dedicated
- Actually, block storage probably not needed if we’re going to keep the big instance up until the recordings are done
- Ideas
- We’re here – Option B: Run a slightly larger shared CPU instance from now until shortly before the conference, then scale up in case BBB does not work for installation/testing with less memory; block storage probably not needed
- (* 0.07 24 7 3) USD 35.28 for 8GB, total (+ 35.28 36.96) USD 72.24
- (* 0.14 24 7 3) USD 70.56 for 16GB, total (+ 70.56 36.96) USD 107.52
- Option A: Run a small instance continuously, scale up for the conference, pull the recordings off, spin the instance down - est total USD 60+tax
- There are three weeks between now and the conference (* 0.04 24 7 3) USD 20
- Last year, recordings were available within three days after the conference
- Let’s plan for a week at high capacity. (* 0.22 24 7) USD 36.96
- and a month of 10GB, possibly up to 30GB. USD 3
- That’s probably small enough that it doesn’t make as much sense to try to fully spin down for a week in between now and the conference (* 0.04 24 7) - which would save USD 6.72 but require figuring out backing up, etc.
- We’re here – Option B: Run a slightly larger shared CPU instance from now until shortly before the conference, then scale up in case BBB does not work for installation/testing with less memory; block storage probably not needed
Ask FSF if we can borrow their BBB or Galene, maybe limit it to cycling among 6 or 7 rooms
- Waiting for feedback; Corwin has asked them
- Pay for BigBlueButton hosting; can we find one that’s compatible with our commitment to freedom?
- https://bigbluebutton.host/plans/#economyplans - Economy 120 (USD 130/month) or Economy 80 (USD 85/month), custom URL
- https://www.bigbluemeeting.com/#pricing - 100 concurrent users: USD 125/month, custom URL
- https://www.mynaparrot.com/affordable-bigbluebutton-hosting
- 100 concurrent users: USD 79/month
- 200 concurrent users and custom URL: USD 15 setup fee + USD 149/month
- https://www.webhostingzone.org/solutions/bigbluebutton-hosting.html - 150 concurrent, USD 75/month
- https://bbbplugin.com/en/pricing/bigbluebutton-for-api/ - 250 concurrent, USD 49 setup + USD 108.80/month
- https://biggerbluebutton.com/plans
- 150 concurrent users, 10 concurrent meetings, USD 40/month
- custom domain, 600 concurrent users, USD 149/month
- Compare with Linode pricing
- Try to squeeze it onto res.emacsconf.org
- Tricky to run on a shared server; it likes to use a lot of ports and strongly recommends running it on its own server
- Go back to using meet.jit.si?
- Free:
- Need to check speed, reliability
- Can send RTMP from the meeting itself
- I attended Ihor’s OrgMeetup, which he hosted on meet.jit.si. I think he had bandwidth issues at some point and we lost his audio. I remember we ran into that problem before, too, when we used Jitsi for one of the Emacsconfs. Free Jitsi hosting might not be the right fit for us.
- Paid: USD 99/month + $0.01/min for recordings + $0.01 min (optional) for RTMP streaming
- Free:
- Galene?
- I checked out Galene in the last Emacs Berlin meeting. It’s promising, but I think the user interface might still need a bit of work. Simple deployment (run one Go binary, I think), but muting/unmuting doesn’t trigger enabling the microphone, and the chat was buggy to get to on my mobile device. Supposed to have support for raising hands.
Support code
(defun my-ox-link-path (link _ info)
(let* ((raw-path (org-element-property :path link)))
(setq raw-path
(org-export-file-uri
(org-publish-file-relative-name raw-path info)))
;; Possibly append `:html-link-home' to relative file
;; name.
(let ((home (and (plist-get info :html-link-home)
(org-trim (plist-get info :html-link-home)))))
(when (and home
(plist-get info :html-link-use-abs-url)
(not (file-name-absolute-p raw-path)))
(setq raw-path (concat (file-name-as-directory home) raw-path))))
raw-path))
(defun my-org-md-link (link desc info)
(if (string= (org-element-property :type link) "file")
(let ((path (my-ox-link-path link desc info)))
(if (string= (file-name-extension path) "svg")
(with-temp-buffer
(insert-file-contents-literally path)
(buffer-string))
(org-md-link link desc info)))
(org-md-link link desc info)))
(with-eval-after-load 'ox-md
(setf
(alist-get 'link (org-export-backend-transcoders (org-export-get-backend 'md)))
'my-org-md-link))