[SGVLUG] What do people think about video taping SGVLUG meetings?

[Emerson, Tom]

> -----Original Message-----
> Behalf Of matti
> --- Michael Proctor-Smith <mproctor13 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > [...I see at] the socalwug
> > meetings and they have always taped there meeting and made them
> > available on the internet, and have been very popular. That has lead
> > me to ask myself why doesn't sgvlug do that.
> > 
[...]
> 
> things to consider
> 
[snipped some cons]

> c) We want MORE people to goto the meetings,
> not less. Live video taping encourages people to
> stay at home and watch....

This is a double-edged sword -- as you imply, it may discourage in-person participation, but the way Frank handles this is that he also sets up an IRC chat and monitors it for questions during the presentation (it is streamed live during the presentation), so the net effect is that it increases the population of the audience /during/ the presentation.  (it also makes good advertising for the group itself)

If you want to encourage folks to attend in person, bribery usually does the trick (door prizes/raffles)
 
> > I in my spare time work for a public access tv station so have
> > access to pretty nice cameras. 

Aha -- this may be a hint as to the real reason: since these are "nice" cameras that are property of the public access station, it follows that it would require someone (entrusted) to the cameras to operate them, so Mike would naturally have to step down as moderator ;)

Seriously, though, I have in the past arranged to tape a presenter or two, but the big hurdle ends up being "getting it out" to those that might be interested (after all, taping is the fun part...)  As I pointed out above, Frank streams this live, so that covers the initial demand for the video.  I don't know if or how he archives the presentations, so that might be something to consider.  (though as Mike pointed out, video.google might just do the trick)