SA Software Freedom Day event schedule

[QuintonB]

Software Freedom Day event in SA

An event to celebrate Software Freedom Day in South Africa has been organised by a local group of enthusiasts

The organisers have requested that the Twitter hashtag #SFDZA be used for the event.

 

[rory]

Great idea.
Hope they will be using hangouts on air to broadcast it for those not able to physically attend.

 

[timhaak]

No signal

Unfortunately there is no signal at the venue. So we won't be live streaming. Though we will be recording and putting the video up after.

Also generally hangouts tend to be quite a bad way to stream for South Africa as they require high bandwidth.

Great idea.
Hope they will be using hangouts on air to broadcast it for those not able to physically attend.

 

[Jan]

For those interested, the Twitter hashtag for the event is #SFDZA. I'll edit the OP with the info as well.

 

[timhaak]

And there will be a twitter wall

 

[jasweb]

And there will be a twitter wall

Personal opinion is twitter walls distract from the presentations since:
1) Half the people are reading what
2) The other half are tweeting

So nobody is listening to the presenters... Sad

 

[zamicro]

Unfortunately there is no signal at the venue. So we won't be live streaming. Though we will be recording and putting the video up after.

Also generally hangouts tend to be quite a bad way to stream for South Africa as they require high bandwidth.

Thanks Tim. Unfortunately I cannot make it, but am interested in a few of the topics.

 

[rory]

Unfortunately there is no signal at the venue. So we won't be live streaming. Though we will be recording and putting the video up after.

I am absolutely amazed that this building completed at a cost of R120M that accommodates information engineering does not have internet access ? (http://www.witsfoundation.co.za/mines.asp)

Also generally hangouts tend to be quite a bad way to stream for South Africa as they require high bandwidth.

Hangouts on air as far as I am aware should not use very much bandwidth. As once one has switched the "on air" part youtube handles the large load of bandwidth required for many viewers. ie one only needs a fairly entry level connection to the internet at the recording end. Also once completed there is an automatic recording on youtube for viewing later.

 

[timhaak]

Streaming

Sorry just to elaborate. There is signal at the building. Unfortunately the venue is underground and the wifi doesn't propagate down there.

We are trying to get Internet for the venue but there is no guarantee.

Secondly have you actually tried using hangouts live? Last time we tried it it consumed about 500kbits/s out. As usual up is the problem not down. Everyone who was busy trying to watch/join was constantly getting drop outs. Also your streaming to servers sitting outside off the country. Going over international links causes problems. (Don't mention local caches thats only for viewing)

For streaming there are better methods that work considerably better for South Africa. True once its on youtube then it all works great.

But at that point why not just record the video at higher quality. Edit them properly and upload. The difference of that video compared to one streamed live is night and day.

We stream a local video podcast once a week (Let's Talk Geek). So yes I have tried all of them. We now have our own servers in this country that we stream out of.

I am absolutely amazed that this building completed at a cost of R120M that accommodates information engineering does not have internet access ? (http://www.witsfoundation.co.za/mines.asp)

Hangouts on air as far as I am aware should not use very much bandwidth. As once one has switched the "on air" part youtube handles the large load of bandwidth required for many viewers. ie one only needs a fairly entry level connection to the internet at the recording end. Also once completed there is an automatic recording on youtube for viewing later.

 

[rory]

Secondly have you actually tried using hangouts live?

Have tried hangouts with a few people a number of times and in most cases has worked amazingly well. Most of the users in the hangout have had 1mb uncapped accounts. Sound is very good and video reasonable. have had hangouts several times up to 2 hrs with no drop outs. Several of the hangout team have been overseas. The on air part I have only used with a few viewers but this has also been quite stable.
To me it is a very low cost option to stream to a fairly large audience. I am sure it is not as good as recording editing and uploading for viewing later but often the live event is more interesting to watch for some reason.

 

[rory]

Also generally hangouts tend to be quite a bad way to stream for South Africa as they require high bandwidth.

Have you considered a free low tech, low spec, low bandwidth option using html5 audio/video tag and queuepoints to sync the slides. (if the speaker is using power point.) This is not live but can be produced and be available very shortly after each talk.
Final result is very low bandwidth if using sound or low resolution video.
Examples at http://www.afsbtedu.org/mauritius2012/
An example of video on day 3 talk 9
http://www.afsbtedu.org/mauritius2012/usb/day3/talk9/indexv.htm