VCC = Virtual Chaos Communication

Idea: simulate a chaos event (or also other, similar events) in cyberspace, as far as possible.

Won't be the complete experience, but we could try how far we'll get.

Note: for now, we collect IDEAS here (see also issues for more details), code might be elsewhere.

Experiences we get at such an event and how they could map

there is some rough topic

• can be quite wide scope, as seen at CCC congress
• can be narrower scope, think of a Python Conference
• matter of planning / announcement (see "news room")

all participants publically meet at some big space at the same time.

• no space problem in the digital domain :)

• same time is a matter of planning / announcement.

• participants need to recognizably "be there". name / nick / photo?

  people obviously can't meet you if you're completely anonymous.

there is a map so you know where you can go.

• a digital map could just link to misc virtual rooms
• not limited to a fixed 2d/3d arrangement like a floor(s) map
• simple start: a list that can be filtered by tags or search expressions

there is a timetable "fahrplan" for events / talks / meetings / demos

• this is already digital
• simple start: a list sorted by time that can be filtered by tags / search expr.

official talks / demos / meetings

• live streaming with A/V, or just live audio + slides
• some channel for questions / discussion (chat, audio, A/V?)
• meeting: similar, just more interaction
• there could be also a linked "forum" for later

lightning talks

• same as above, time limit 5 or 10 mins

open space / self organized sessions

• same as above, but somehow kept or marked differently

limited spacetime

• each participant has only a limited amount of things they can watch or participate in.
• to not confuse people with too many offerings, i guess not only time (overall and per event) should be limited, but also space (amount of parallel offerings)

meeting friends

• you can't hug your friends and have meals with them, but:
• you still can meet them: if they are "there", they have time and comm channels are open (otherwise they would not be "there"). audio, video, text, ...
• there can be public places to hang out (think of assemblies)
  • being there means one is open to publicly talk with some people about topic
  • 2 people start, more people can join listening or talking
  • how good does that work/scale with remote audio/video?
• if there is a need for private talk, a group of people could lock their conversation, so no more people can join and hear/contribute. (not sure this is needed, could be also just made outside of VCC)
• nice thing: your virtual person can be at multiple spaces at the same time. you can still only talk to a limited amount of people though.

DECT phones

• == some comm channel not bound to some specific space/room
• easy, just chat to someone
• should have "off" switch

artistic

• there could be rooms with nerdy music
• there could be rooms with visual arts

self.doc?

• some thing i always missed at such events is better "docs".
• you see a lot of nerds with computers, but often you don't see what they are working on (even if it is not at all intended to be secret or private).
• of course you can't talk to some thousand people and ask everybody, so a lot of interesting opportunities are likely lost.
• VCC could help here if people feed as much as they are comfortable with into the system. So people with common interests could better find each other.

orga

• to have a good selection of talks, we need some organizers who select a subset of whatever is submitted in the cfp.

• an experiment could be NOT to select talks, but just offer them all.

  space is not limited in cyberspace, but the time of the audience is.

info / emergency room

• one room where people can join in if they have general questions.
• help beginners / newscomers or if there are technical or social issues.

news room

• a news / blog like room for before / while / after the event

profiles

• personal
• project
• assembly

sprints / hackathons?

• have rooms for projects
• introduce people to a codebase / to a project's tools
• code together

Software / Tech we could use

Idea: not trying to reinvent the wheel, but reusing good existing free and open soft- and hardware and just wrapping / integrating them as needed.

Django / PostgreSQL (all backend / database stuff, django admin, forms, search)

CSS / JS (browser based UI, good UX)

(parser for) markdown / reST markup for formatted content

BigBlueButton (teaching kind of stuff)

Mumble (telephony)

Jitsi (video conference)

WebRTC (if BBB is not enough, directly use this?)