I know that during the upcoming reverse engineering class we will attempt to record a video of the class. The class itself is free and available to non members. I propose that when we make videos of the classes that some content, such as the video, should be placed on a site that requires a valid hive13 account. I propose this to add incentive to maintain or become a hive13 member. One benefit of being a member will be an library of past classes and materials to use as a reference.
I think it's a great idea Craig. I know some people have to travel a
lot for work or just can't make it that night b/c of family stuff. I
think having a library to access is a great next step.
We have the fileserver set up @ hive13 now, it has 1.8 TB of data storage. I think I am taking up the most space on it right now since I subscribed it to the HD Ted Talks video podcast stream, and even that is barely putting a dent in it.
We could go that route or put them up on the main hive13.org server. The benefit of the hive13.org server is you can access them anywhere with a good data connection. Putting them on the local fileserver would be easier but maybe not as beneficial.
We could use something like rsyc to make life easy. You just drop them in the ‘classes’ folder on the fileserver and every night we synchronize the two folders. Fast local copy + fast global copy = win
We definitely need to start recording meetings / classes, that will be great. But I’ve got mixed feelings about making it members only. It would be great to have it available live (ustream or similar) and archived - perhaps the live version is for anybody, archives for members? or vice versa?
I think if we had a live version that should be free as well. Or simply up to the presenter. Rsync would also be nice. I think I know how to do the federated logins now but I still want to look into doing ldap syncing. LDAP sync w/ google is one of the things on my November todo list
I agree. I am 100% in favor of recording the classes, but I have
reservations about making the videos members only. For now, if we put
the files on our local sever then they are kind of de facto members
only, and that seems ok by me. In the future I think we should switch
to charging for the classes (members get in free) and give the content
out for free at some point after. But I can see both sides of the
argument.
Speaking of recording the class... how are we actually going to do
that? I someone planning on bringing in a good camera?
What are the reasons for the reservations against making the videos members only? I would really like to hear all the reasons for and against. I think the only reason for such a plan is to encourage membership. The idea being that even if you can’t attend much you may still want to be a member to have access to the materials.
I’m planning on bringing my HD camcorder. A screencast type of software would be good as well. I imagine class recording will improve over time. This one will be a try and see what works kind of thing.
My thoughts are that currently no classes are being recorded and no recordings are being provided. Therefore by making them members only we are not denying anyone something they already have, instead we are adding a benefit for someone actually becoming a member.
By making video recordings members only then we have another way of bringing in donations. Perhaps if we added a third tier, ‘Friends of the Hive’ or something, that is a lower cost one of its benefits could be to have access to the archive of classes.
For me, the argument against making the videos members-only would be
that it goes against our goal of sharing knowledge with our community.
I think that one of the core values of the hackerspace movement is
removing restrictions on specialized knowledge so that people are free
to learn about anything they are interested in more autonomously.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_ethic
The argument in favor of making the videos members-only is driving
membership and thereby indirectly driving $ towards the group. While
increasing membership and $ are important, in my opinion they take a
back seat to the free sharing of information.
Good point. The class is open to the public for anybody so I still think we not in conflict with our core values. Providing an archive of previous classes to members does not restrict this knowledge. If we stopped using the wiki and moved everything into a private folder I would take the stance that this is harmful. But with just an archive of a public class, I don’t see how that is restrictive. Definitely not more restrictive than requiring people pay for a class. Then you are restricting by financial means. I think classes are a greater resource than archive video of classes. While making the videos private is restricting by financial means it is restricting the less valuable resource, imo. Increased membership could lead to the Hive being able to fund speakers to give classes for free and therefore allow a wider audience that could not pay for the class.
I am for public viewing of live streams (if we ever get there) and members only viewing of the archives that are older than a certain age. (maybe they are available to the public for the first month, then they go into a long-term archive area for members) As Paul mentioned, there should be a “friends of the Hive” membership of $5-$10 a month that would give people access to the all HIVE virtual resources for a nominal fee. We could also set up workstations at the space that are “public” so that visitors could browse and view all archived footage at any time while visiting the HIVE.
While I agree with Dave’s point about freely sharing information, we need to identify ways to provide value to members and increase cash flow to allow us to do more as an organization. We can’t grow and do the things we want to do without increasing our revenues. There is a cost to running an organization and improving our services. This isn’t the only way to do that so I am open to ideas…
Speaking as a lurker, and non-member, my unsolicited vote is to make the videos as public and free as possible.
Think again about your core mission as a hackerspace, and your non-profit goals, as Dave said.
Also, what first came to my mind was MIT's OpenCourseware video and how they have dramatically altered the world of traditional college course content. Over time, Hive13 could become the de facto source for online video learning about all things hacking.
Individuals can create their own discussion groups. They can even hide them from the directory if they want
Public/Private viewing/editing etc can be changed and altered. Right now we are basically going with the default but we have an area to upload videos, docs, etc. if we choose to go that route.
oh boo! There is a spot where I can list up to 100 uploaders. I was hoping I could leave it blank to let everybody do it. Let me try adding all@hive13.org to see what happens…Nope.
I added a few people manually including yourself. See if that works. It maybe a request to upload only service for now but all can view.
Also note I haven’t tested either service So we can find odd things with each. Please report any problems you find.
