[Chapter-delegates] Chapter advice on live streaming

Wed Sep 25 03:33:15 PDT 2024

[Note: I am a chapter delegate from the Australian chapter, however I am speaking in my personal capacity.]

Hi Joly,

If that's the response you got, after being told to apply for a BTN grant, that is quite disappointing. It is quite shameful that the archival of events on livestream.com is not considered important enough to provide such a small grant for.

Regards,
Christopher Hawker
________________________________
From: Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org> on behalf of Joly MacFie via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2024 4:53 PM
To: drhipo at me.com <drhipo at me.com>
Cc: ISOC Chapter Delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Chapter advice on live streaming

Hi Luis,

Thanks for the question.

Our main livestream.com Channel <https://livestream.com/internetsociety>  has 1,372 events dating back to 2015. Prior to that there was a Chapters Livestream Channel, which, sadly, got wiped after the platform closed. It was that wiping that prompted me to start archiving the streams on an ongoing basis on archive.org<https://archive.org/details/@isoc_live>, starting in 2019.  That 'collection' has 584 results.

While these figures don't absolutely correlate, as some events are archived that weren't livestreamed, and vice versa. one can take it that there are approximately 800 events on livestream.com<http://livestream.com> that are not currently archived, and will be wiped when our livestream accounts expire in December.

I did some research earlier in the year and, with the assistance of a developer in Bosnia, was able to run a successful scraping test. ISOC Comms declined to cover the cost of the scraping however, suggesting a BYN grant as possible solution. In June ISOC-NY applied for a BYN small grant of $1200 ($1000 dev, $200 hard drive) to cover the expense. This was rejected by the ISOC Foundation with the following rationale.

After thoroughly reviewing your application, we have made the decision not to provide funding for "Archiving of ISOC Livestream Channels". It is evident from reviewing your submission that there is a tangible, diverse, and impassioned effort to better understand the Internet and its impact on the community your Chapter serves. However, the total number of requests we receive exceed the amount of funding we have available and we must select projects most closely aligned to the goals of our Foundation.

Joly

On Tue, Sep 24, 2024 at 11:00 PM Luis Miguel M Martinez via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org<mailto:chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>> wrote:
Hi Joly,

Thanks for this important information, effectively looks as a well organized project covering phases like planning, managing, executing and archiving. I wonder if you have records on how many events/video you have information about ? (at least, date, place and title).

Best Regards,

Luis

Prof. Luis M Martínez Cervantes, PhD, MSc, BScEE, MIEE Professor and researcher Universidad Iberoamericana Mexico City
On 24 Sep 2024 17:46 -0600, Joly MacFie <joly at punkcast.com<mailto:joly at punkcast.com>>, wrote:

Hi Luis,

Thanks for your insight. And, indeed, when I was originally retained by the COO Todd Tolbert, one of his primary instructions along with fielding livestream support requests were to consolidate the various threads of ISOC community media activity into an easily accessible archive. The scope of work in my contracts from 2015-2018 read:

Project Title: ISOCCast – Webcasting, Video Content Capture and Coordination

Description of Tasks and Requirements:

• Coordinate with the Events team on identified ISOC events to understand location,
capabilities and needs as pertains to webcasting, video content capture, or interactive
video conferencing requirements.
• Coordinate with the departments / groups who are holding the events to understand the
goals and the needs from a webcasting, video content capture, or interactive video
conferencing point of view.
• Provide human and technology resources to accomplish the scope of work outlined.
• Manage post-production of captured content, to make sure that a great body of video is
posted for use after the event. This may entail Contractor to do video editing directly, or
manage the process with another internal or external resource.
• Curate the video content both from a posting standpoint for our communities, but also in
an internal view, tagging content appropriately that users within the organization can find
pieces they may be looking for.
• Assist internal staff and external constituents with requests for pieces of content that
ISOC may have in our own video library.
• Take a hands-on role in some situations as either a production resource or on-site
production coordinator managing other resources doing the streaming / capturing.
• Coordinate chapter webcast/live stream setup in the channel ISOC provides.

After Todd departed, I was nominally transferred to Comms, under Dan York. I actually worked without a contract for a couple of years, until Kristi Mason came on board. I don't have a contract from the latter period, They were Docusign and have disappeared into the ether, but I suspect they were limited to direct livestream support, without any of the post-production stuff.

Joly

On Tue, Sep 24, 2024 at 12:07 AM Luis Miguel M Martinez via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org<mailto:chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>> wrote:
Hi Chris, thanks for sharing the plans of the communications team in the Foundation to improve ISOC’s presence and relevance. I am happy to collaborate with any effort if required. I strongly suggest that any archiving effort should be addressed by a carefully studied program / project as the analogous (a library in a higher education institution) is rarely under the care of the comms team.
Best Regards,
Luis

Prof. Luis M Martínez Cervantes, PhD, MSc, BScEE, MIEE Professor and researcher Universidad Iberoamericana Mexico City
On 18 Sep 2024 7:07 -0600, Christopher Locke <locke at isocfoundation.org<mailto:locke at isocfoundation.org>>, wrote:

Thanks Luis for you excellent comments which I think are accurate, and hi everyone.

As Ted said on the call, I’m the new MD of the Internet Society Foundation covering Philanthropy, Communications, Fundraising and Empowerment (training & fellowships).  I joined in June so have only been here a few months, but what excites me about this role is the commitment and passion of both the staff and the community that I’ve seen so far, and the opportunity for all of us together to deliver on the mission of ISOC.  Like many of you I’ve worked with the Internet professionally in academia, industry, and philanthropy since the early 90s, and the mission is one I deeply care about, and I love having this role and the chance to be able to grow the collective impact of the ISOC community.

As Luis says, I think communications and communications support across the ISOC community need to be improved, and I’m committed to doing that.  In the action plan we’re preparing for 2025 as part of the annual planning process we are making commitments to better support the ISOC community – not just in how we communicate with you, but how we support your own needs and communications.  And yes, understanding how we preserve the archive of community content, including meetings and video, is part of that.  I’m sorry that the previous service ended without a replacement, but this was driven as much by the sunsetting of the Vimeo platform as anything else.

But my promise is that we’re listening, and I want to hear how we can support the ISOC community better.  I will join a ChAc call as soon as a slot is available, and I want to hear how we can work together better.  I’ve already spoken to Joly and will reach out to many people here who have opinions on this so I can understand what it is we need to deliver and how the Internet Society can to respond to that.  I have identified the need for a dedicated Director of Community Communications so there is someone whose sole job is to work with the fantastic Community Engagement team and understand how we support the community better through communications.  This role has been advertised for some time now on our website and we’re going through the applicants to fill this as soon as possible.

The power of a community like ISOC is, as it was when it was originally founded, in the collective impact of the organisation and its wider community.  The job of the Foundation is to support and better enable this collective impact across all our activities, together, and we look forward to working with everyone on this.

Best, Chris.

From: Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org<mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org>> on behalf of Luis Miguel M Martinez via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org<mailto:chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>>
Date: Wednesday, 18 September 2024 at 11:39
To: Ted IETF <ted.ietf at gmail.com<mailto:ted.ietf at gmail.com>>, langdonorr at gmail.com<mailto:langdonorr at gmail.com> <langdonorr at gmail.com<mailto:langdonorr at gmail.com>>, Lauren Terrell <terrell at isoc.org<mailto:terrell at isoc.org>>, ISOC Chapter Delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org<mailto:chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>>, Hank Nussbacher <hank at isoc.org.il<mailto:hank at isoc.org.il>>
Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Chapter advice on live streaming

Thanks Hank, what we are discovering is that we are having communication issues between the representative organs in the community. If there was a formal request by the ChAC there would be a formal BOT response, however it did not happened that way. The “comms team” should be working on fixing these problems rather than creating marketing campaigns or cost-cutting, which are important but not as basic organizational communications which are costly and now apparently useless.

Sorry, but at the end, the message we find is that Chapters represent the justification of ISOC existence as a charity but a costly one (relatively). The vast amount of members (122k+) we just make a minority in decisions, even if putting forward well justified petitions  and playing by the rules (stricter every time). Our BOT elected members (and of course, IETF and OMAC ones if isolated) are a minority in the Board and they are promptly remembered that they are not representing a sector but the Internet Society as a whole, as written in the legal framework. Culture, it’s signification and differences are our greatest challenge as a professional society. It is time when we need a guiding board, capable of telling anyone in the organization how to articulate towards a common mission and vision.

Best Regards,

Luis
ISOC MX

Prof. Luis M Martínez Cervantes, PhD, MSc, BScEE, MIEE Professor and researcher Universidad Iberoamericana Mexico City

On 17 Sep 2024 9:04 -0600, Hank Nussbacher via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org<mailto:chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>>, wrote:

On 13/09/2024 11:17, Ted Hardie via Chapter-delegates wrote:

Ted,

As Cheryl raised in the chat today:

"Please do note the ChAC Steering Committee did NOT receive any formal
response to our correspondence to the matters raised by the PR Chapter
and discussed  in detail by the ChAC.  The first the ChAC Steering
Committee knew of the BoT response was when we like all Chapter
Delegates read the email sent over the last weekend to the Chapter
Delegates list. We (the steering committee) still trust a Formal
Response to our Formal correspondence will be forthcoming however to be
published on out Web space for full transparency and accountability of
our mandated actions"

The fact that no response was delivered to the ChaC and rather just
dropped here on the list, caused Luis to feel that the ChaC was not
doing its work: "Thanks Ted for the extended explanation on the issue, I
am sure that Chapters’ members share my gratitude to your email while
not hearing ChAC communication recently. "

I would have thought that after the ChaC sent an email to the BoT, that
the BoT would respond back to the ChaC.  Can you explain the rationale
why the BoT response was sent to the delegate list?

Regards,
Hank Nussbacher
ChAC member - speaking only for myself

Dear colleagues,

One of the items in your recent advice to the board was a request that
the "ISOC funding for the ISOC.LIVE video production, editing, and
archiving services should be reinstated, as well as ISOC.LIVE should
be financially supported by ISOC on an ongoing basis."

The board's role here is to set the direction for the organization by
establishing strategic goals; the details of the communication plan
are a part of the staff execution of those goals.  During the budget
analysis of 2023, the communications team analyzed the effectiveness
of specific streaming approaches and found that community engagement
was driven primarily by on-demand viewing.  This matches a broader
shift common to mainstream programming.  As a result of this analysis,
the communications plan shifted away from a retainer-based contract
for live streaming to a project-based funding model for future work.

This was a staff management decision, taken with due care and
analysis. The board's role is to assess whether the overall
communications plan is effective in meeting the strategic goals; it
does not direct the staff to use specific contract types or
contractors.  If the needs of the communications plan change again to
require live streaming on a full-time basis, the board is confident
that the staff will issue the appropriate RFP and conduct the
appropriate analysis of the submissions.

The project-based funding model remains available, and chapters may,
of course, fund specific live streaming events using chapter funds or
Beyond The Net grants.  Any analysis of the effectiveness of those
live streaming events would be valuable data for any future
considerations of the engagement model.

The board thanks the ChaC for its attention to the communications
plan, and we look forward to continued discussion of how to engage the
broader community in the mission of the society.

Best regards,

Ted Hardie
for the Board

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As an Internet Society Chapter Officer you are automatically subscribed
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