Thanks @dhimmel for taking the time to really look into this and break down the options.
Though I appreciate the concern over the level of decentralization and open source of the two choices, I think it makes sense to do what we can to embrace both to whatever degree we can at this time, as a part of the STEEM ecosystem. I take the approach of 'try it and see what happens' as a principle of how I organize the meetups and I think a big part of the value of giving Dlive a try is just that, let's find out what we can do with it and how well it can work out. But ultimately if you are the one putting in the effort then the decision is yours to make, so having a recording for Dtube could be equally valuable. And if we can get DLive figured out without too much hassle, then there's no reason we can't have two people separately recording at the meetup with the intention of doing both - one for Dlive and for the record to go on DTube. Of course I could be overestimating the interests of others to participate in these experiments, but one can at least be hopeful... :)
Now the other thing to consider which I think perhaps may not have occurred to you as much is the potential entertainment value of doing the Dlive stream thing. So let me see if I can explain a little more clearly how I see it. One thing I appreciate so much about Steemit is that it's a global platform, and that it's a great window into what people are up to in other parts of the world, and as a part of this community. Though watching people stand around talking about Steem content creation or whatever may not seem that interesting (beyond the novelty factor), it's also a people watching opportunity. So if we were to do it, I would make sure to plan it out in such a way as to be as entertaining as possible for those people following the stream. This would likely be something along the lines of a 15-20 minute walk-through of the meetup, with me talking directly to the audience (instead of someone just point the camera at whoever is speaking). I would introduce people in the meetup to the audience, do 2-3 minute interviews or whatever, and capture parts of the discussion and just little bits to make it worth tuning in for. This would require adequate time to promote on Steemit (almost as an event within the event) to make sure we had a least a decent amount of people (hopefully at least a few dozen) watching to make it worth it. And so for that reason, I think it's probably let the Dlive stream idea go for now. But with a full month between now and the next event, I think it's worth giving it a shot, assuming we can pool the resources and do it right.
Also I just came across this video from the recent Austin meetup that I thought would be worth sharing with you https://steemit.com/dlive/@ruwan/introduction-to-dlive-and-live-streaming-by-ajaxalot Maybe we can watch independently and come back to discuss further. Before or after Tuesday...
Certainly, if someone thinks they can get DLive streaming up and running for any of the meetups than that's fantastic and they should do it.
Great idea. I think Philly has an impressive Steem community and it'd be nice to show that.
We should be careful in general to only record attendees that consent to being pictured. In the past, the meetups have been pretty indiscriminately photographed, which is against the wishes of some attendees. Not that we need people to sign consent forms or anything, just that we should be aware that some people may not want to be photographed and to respect that.
Right on. It's not super important to me who does what exactly. The main thing is to get people who come out to participate in whatever ways are appealing and interesting. Also to try and grow the community and make us a prominent hub of activity in our part of the world. (inset Dr. Evil type laughter:)
So I reached out to the guy at the Austin meetup who did the Dlive / Dtube presentation. He was cool and said get in touch if we want help. So that's a nice option if we want to use it.
I agree it makes sense to let people know we'll be video-taping parts of the event, so they have the option to be excluded if they prefer. Will make a note to announce it / maybe post a sign on the steps.
I'm curious how you plan to do the recording. Are you going to use your phone or have a separate video camera? I have a tripod if you need it. I think it can be rigged for a cel-phone too.
Also this is kind of funny - we're going to try and get @Knircky patched in remotely via skype, hangouts, facetime, etc. Maybe you'd like to help with or can advise on as well?:)
I was planning on recording with my phone. It's a Google Pixel 2, which has a pretty good camera. I have a mini tripod for cell phones with flexible legs. If you have a tall tripod that could definitely help us get a better angle.
Is this going to be a presentation based meetup / who's presenting? It'd be nice if we could screen record from whoever's laptop is presenting. This would allow me to add a picture-in-picture style recording, so you could see the presenter and the slides.
Remotely to present or just watch? If the later, I'd say someone should just videochat him on their device.
Cool, sounds good.
My sense is that it's mainly going to be discussions. We're going to look at different Steemit users and posts to dissect what works and what doesn't work so well. TBH though I'm not 100% sure whether Matt has slides he plans to use or not, so feel free to hit him up.
I may get some visuals together now that we're talking about it, but we'll see.
I just asked Matt about the screen cap and he said it should be no problem. And I didn't fully respond about Phil, he's not presenting, just wants to watch. I'll see if I can find someone else to help with it...